EAST MEADOW, NY -- After sustaining a lower-body injury in the New York Islanders' 3-2 shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday, there were concerns about Kashawn Aitcheson's availability for the rest of training camp.
Head coach Patrick Roy did say postgame that he was fine and that he was day-to-day.
Islanders Prospect Kashawn Aitcheson Avoids Major Injury After Hard Hit vs. Flyers
<b>ELMONT, NY --</b> <a href="http://thn.com/isles">New York Islanders</a>' 17th overall pick in this past draft, <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-york-islanders/latest-news/exclusive-islanders-first-rounder-kashawn-aitcheson-talks-physical-edge-leadership-development">Kashawn Aitcheson</a>, left Sunday's preseason game against the Flyers in the third period after being on the receiving end of a center-ice check by Noah Juulsen.
We had good news on Tuesday morning, as Aitcheson was part of the game group that will take on the New Jersey Devils at 7:00 PM ET.
Unlike the other junior players -- Tomas Poletin, Luca Romano, and Burke Hood -- the Islanders elected not to send Aitcheson back to the OHL's Barrie Colts when they made their first round of cuts on Monday.
Aitcheson has had a very strong training camp and played solid in his 18:03 minutes on Sunday night before the injury. He skated the puck up the ice often. He got shots through, recording four, and made some strong defensive plays.
"Schaef talked about the crowd there. It was pretty cool, going through warm-ups and seeing everyone on the glass and everything like that," Aitcheson said on his first career preseason game. "And, yeah, it was just super fun."
When it came to the injury, Aitcheson said it was a knee-on-knee.
"I was just trying to make a play. I saw we had an odd man rush, so I just thought not to cut to the middle, because I kind of always look for that," Aitcheson said. "So, I'm just kind of trying to skate straight. Obviously, he still got a piece of me there. Credit to him, I guess."
Rob Taub (@RTaub_) on X
Here is the hit on Kashawn Aitcheson that knocked him out of the game
"It just hurt," Aitcheson said. "You just say 'ow'. And then you just go into the room, you talk to the doctors, see what they're saying. Everything looked good. So it was good."
As for what he took out of the game: "Just be myself. The level keeps getting ramped up. It just keeps getting faster, quicker, stronger. So just got to keep leveling up my game to it."
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