Kyle MacLean showed up to practice Tuesday with a blackened right eye and stitches underneath it, a souvenir from a fight with Ty Dellandrea the night before. The bout was the fallout from a hit MacLean delivered on San Jose’s Ivar Stenberg along the near-side boards late in the second period, a hard but legal play that set off a chain reaction in the New York Islanders’ 3-2 loss to the Sharks.
The hit nearly touched off a separate fight between Mitchell Chaffee and Tyler Toffoli in its immediate aftermath, though officials managed to pull the two apart before it got going. That only delayed matters. On the next faceoff, MacLean dropped the gloves with Dellandrea, and Chaffee squared off with Barclay Goodrow.
“I just hit him and I think Dellandrea there felt he needed to stand up for his guy. He asked me. It was pretty cordial,” MacLean said. “I thought it was a good time. Plus for him, he’s standing up for his guy.”
MacLean said he wasn’t even aware of the Chaffee-Goodrow fight happening at the same time. “I didn’t even know Chaf’ was going on the other side. Only noticed that midway through my fight [when] I looked over. I think it was, obviously, a passionate game. They want to stick up for their guy.”
Both MacLean and Chaffee are considered likely candidates to be scratched once the Islanders get healthier at forward, but Tuesday’s physical display was a reminder of what each brings to the lineup.
“Listen, I think those guys have to create energy and momentum for us,” Islanders coach Pete DeBoer said. “There’s different ways to do that. It’s either with the puck and tilting the ice or if not, it’s physicality. Good on them, on getting involved in the game in a physical way.”
Injury Updates
On the health front, Mathew Barzal, Ryan Pulock and Matias Maccelli all took part in full-contact drills at Tuesday’s practice. Pulock skated alongside Adam Pelech, a possible signal that his return is nearing. Barzal centered the third line in place of the absent Jean-Gabriel Pageau, while Maccelli rotated through the fourth line.
DeBoer said all three responded well to battle drills a day earlier. “I think we incorporated both guys [Barzal and Maccelli] in some special teams today, which was kind of the next step,” he said. “They’re both battling. They’ve also been out for a long time. We want to make sure that when they do come in, it’s right. We’re not rushing it. They’ve waited this long, the last thing we need is another injury or something like that. We’ll see. We got a day off tomorrow. We’ll see how they feel and make a decision game day.”
Pageau sat out Tuesday’s practice for maintenance reasons.
Elsewhere, Sharks winger Mason Marchment was fined $5,000, the maximum allowed under the collective bargaining agreement, for roughing San Jose’s Victor Eklund.
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