{"id":461221,"date":"2025-01-21T20:11:53","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T01:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=461221"},"modified":"2025-01-28T21:05:36","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T02:05:36","slug":"new-york-islanders-lose-star-defenceman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/01\/21\/new-york-islanders-lose-star-defenceman\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Islanders Lose Star Defenceman"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the New York Islanders<\/a>, it has been a challenging season, facing plenty of adversity along the way. More injury news won’t help. However, this is not something new for this team as they have dealt with them all year. Defenceman Noah Dobson<\/a> becomes the eighth Islanders regular to get injured in the 2024-25 season. Dobson took an ugly spill after a collision with Cole Sillinger<\/a> at 1:04 in the third period of their 3-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a>. He limped off to the locker room and didn’t return. Per the Islanders, he is out with a lower-body injury and there is no timetable for his return.<\/p>\n

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Noah Dobson has a lower-body injury. There is no timetable as of now. #Isles<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Stefen Rosner (@stefen_rosner) January 21, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Noah Dobson Injured<\/h3>\n

The timing of this injury isn’t great with the Islanders trying to fight for a Wild Card spot. With 45 points, they are only seven points back of the playoffs. They have been playing better as of late; currently on a two game winning streak and winners of five of their last seven. Their defence has been a big reason why. In five of those games they have held their opponents to two goals or less. Dobson holds a valuable role on this team playing 24 minutes a night on the top defensive pair and first powerplay unit.\u00a0 In terms of point production, he had been having a down year compared to last with only 24 in 46 games. However, his absence will leave a massive hole in their lineup.<\/p>\n

For those that have not seen it yet, this was the sequence in which Dobson was injured.<\/p>\n

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Hard to believe he skated off on his own #Isles<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/W5uArhDf4S<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/4WOxT4WEux<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 \ud835\udc08\ud835\udc2c\ud835\udc25\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc2c \ud835\udc05\ud835\udc22\ud835\udc31 (@IslesFix) January 21, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What Does This Injury for the New York Islanders Mean?<\/h3>\n

Head Coach Patrick Roy<\/a> stated that you can’t just replace a player like Dobson. This is true. Other defencemen are going to have to step up. Coach Roy is going to have to move the defensive pairings around. Adam Pelech<\/a> and Ryan Pulock<\/a> will stick together as the new top pairing. Alexander Romanov<\/a> moved down to second pair and his new partner is Scott Mayfield<\/a>. The third pair has rookie Isaiah George<\/a> and Dennis Cholowski<\/a> filling in for the injured Dobson. Veteran Mike Reilly<\/a> could possibly be an option. However, he has been out since November after undergoing a heart procedure. He is working his way back but still hasn’t been cleared for contact. However, he has been skating on his own before practices and if able to return this season should slot back into the lineup.<\/p>\n

Outside of personnel changes, the Islanders will also have to change the way they play at even strength and on the powerplay. At even strength they will now be missing someone defensively who is put out there to defend against the best. Defensively, there’s heightened pressure on the new top pair of Pelech and Pulock to stop the opponents top line players. Offensively and on the powerplay, Dobson is an option to take the puck up the ice and can get the team in the offensive zone by himself. He had been operating as the point man and quarterback for the top powerplay unit. There will now be more responsibility on the star players like Mathew Barzal<\/a> and Bo Horvat<\/a> to get the puck in the zone and help to set up the offence.<\/p>\n

Closing Thoughts<\/h3>\n

There is nothing positive that comes from losing a player like Dobson he is one of the teams best players. He is one of the leagues best two-way defenceman, exemplified by being a Norris Trophy candidate just a season ago. He has rare skating and play making abilities and strong defensive play that have helped the Islanders all season. With him now on the shelf for the foreseeable future, the team will certainly miss his play on both ends of the ice. We will see how the team responds and who will step up given the opportunity. We are hoping for a speedy recovery one of the leagues top blueliners.<\/p>\n

Main Photo by Wendell Cruz- Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the New York Islanders, it has been a challenging season, facing plenty of adversity along the way. More injury news won’t help. However, this is not something new for this team as they have dealt with them all year. Defenceman Noah Dobson becomes the eighth Islanders regular to get injured in the 2024-25 season. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5162,"featured_media":461243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,4547,6671,17,4548],"tags":[37,38,2718],"class_list":["post-461221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-hockey","category-injuries","category-islanders","category-nhl","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-noah-dobson"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5162"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461221"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":461244,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461221\/revisions\/461244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}