Cole McWard calls his Islanders debut ‘a confidence-builder’
Defenseman Cole McWard was called up and made his Islanders debut on the right side of the third pair opposite Scott Mayfield, who played his off side in Saturday’s 4-3 overtime win against the Maple Leafs.
McWard, who went undrafted out of Ohio State, played six NHL games with the Canucks across the 2022-24 seasons and acquitted himself well in his first as an Islander.
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“It was awesome,” McWard said, having skated 14:50 in total. “Obviously you want to be involved in the game and be out there and have a regular shift. Just keep your legs warm and keep your mind warm. I think they did a good job trusting me and getting me out there enough.
“Also putting me in comfortable situations so I don’t get stuck out there at the wrong time. It was definitely a confidence-builder to hear my number called a few times early on. Keep building on that.”
McWard, 24, who described himself as a puck-moving defenseman, had his fiancée, Julianna, in the crowd as well as a friend who had originally been planning a trip to Bridgeport to watch him play.
He became the third Islanders defenseman to be called up in place of Alexander Romanov, following Marshall Warren and Travis Mitchell.
“I like his poise with the puck,” coach Patrick Roy said. “I feel like he keeps it simple and it was two righties together. Sometimes it’s a little tough but I thought he did a really nice job as a first game.”
Marc Gatcomb reentered the lineup in place of the injured Bo Horvat, playing on the fourth line.
Roy switched up his second and third lines before the first period had ended, settling on putting Jean-Gabriel Pageau between Simon Holmstrom and Jonathan Drouin, with Cal Ritchie centering Max Shabanov and Maxim Tsyplakov.
“Pager was playing well and so was Simon,” Roy said. “I thought Simon was outstanding tonight. He was skating well, he was strong on his battles. I thought that line was playing really well against Tavares. In the third I put them against Matthews. They were on their game.”
Ilya Sorokin (lower body) was activated off injured reserve and served as David Rittich’s backup on Saturday.
He said the injury — a reaggravation of something he’d dealt with a couple years ago — had taken longer than expected to recover from.
“Body feels good,” Sorokin said. “Just should get back conditioning, a couple days.”
Horvat skated on his own before the Islanders held an optional morning skate.
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