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Marc Gatcomb was pulled off the ice in Bridgeport on Tuesday morning and told he was headed to Long Island.
With a bug going around the Islanders dressing room, Jean-Gabriel Pageau had come down sick and the 25-year-old Gatcomb was in line to make his NHL debut.
He used the 90-minute ride from Bridgeport to Long Island to call up his family and as many friends as he could, learning in the car that he would indeed be playing against the Senators.
His parents and 10 or so friends were in the stands to watch him take his rookie lap.
“I’m from just north of Boston, so the ride wasn’t too bad for them,” Gatcomb said.
Gatcomb skated on the fourth line in the 2-0 loss to the Senators at UBS Arena, seeing limited minutes due to the Islanders playing from behind over the back half of the game but acquitted himself well.
He was credited with four hits in 7:27 of ice time.
“I thought he had a really good start. That line had some energy at the beginning,” coach Patrick Roy said. “I thought he did a really, really nice job. He was physical, he was good for his first game.”
Gatcomb, a product of UConn, said he was nervous for much of the day, but settled down after his first shift.
“It never gets easier but the guys do such a great job incorporating you when you come in,” he said. “They make it feel like it’s not your first game. They definitely help calm the nerves for sure. As the game went on, it just felt more comfortable.”
Marcus Hogberg started a second straight game in net for the Islanders with Ilya Sorokin still recovering from the illness he picked up before the Utah game.
Sorokin skated on Tuesday and served as the backup, with Roy saying he was feeling better, but not 100 percent.
Hogberg, who won his first NHL game since April 2021 on Saturday, made 23 saves against his former team, having played for the Senators from 2018-21.
Isaiah George returned to the lineup following a three-game absence with a suspected concussion, but the Islanders did not roll out their usual six defensemen against the Senators, as Alexander Romanov is still recovering from an upper-body injury that kept him out of Saturday’s win in Utah. Roy called Romanov day-to-day.
Dennis Cholowski remained in the lineup with Romanov out, while Grant Hutton — who played in Utah — was reassigned to Bridgeport upon the team’s return home.
Asked about Max Domi’s elbow that left him injured in the Islanders’ first game of the new year, George said he felt it was “just maybe a bit early” but did not go further in criticizing the hit.
