Tonight’s preseason game between the New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils won’t take place, per Newsday’s Andrew Gross. A partial power outage at Prudential Center in Newark prevented the game from taking place.
Per Gross, the contest has been cancelled and won’t be made up, ending New Jersey’s preseason prematurely. Their focus now turns to their season opener at home on October 15th against the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Islanders, on the other hand, have one exhibition match remaining. They have a tilt scheduled for Saturday against the New York Rangers to be played in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
It’s a tough break for New Jersey, who was expecting to give multiple players just one more audition tonight. The team still has 33 players on their training camp roster, needing to cut ten more before opening night.
Jimmy Vesey, Mark Jankowski, Frederik Gauthier, and Tyler Wotherspoon remain with the Devils on professional tryout contracts. The team will now need to make a snap evaluation on whether to offer contracts to any one of them, if at all.
The team will also need to decide what to do with young forwards Alexander Holtz and Dawson Mercer, who’ve both impressed at camp. They both stand chances of making the team, fighting with other forwards like Marian Studenic and Tyce Thompson for the final spots on the roster.
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