Alexander Romanov Exits Loss Against Rangers With Apparent Injury

The New York Islanders dropped a tighter-than-the-scoreboard-says game against the New York Rangers 5-2 on Tuesday night inside Madison Square Garden.

While the loss itself was bad enough, the immediate concern became focused elsewhere.

Defenseman Alexander Romanov left the game early in the third period with an apparent injury.

Postgame, Islanders' Head Coach Peter DeBoer revealed that Romanov is still getting evaluated.

The team will give an update tomorrow.

Romanov was playing in just his third game since suffering a major shoulder injury last season. That injury in November 2025 saw Romanov miss the rest of the season, in what proved to be a major loss for New York's blue line.

The Islanders do have defensive depth, with both Scott Mayfield and Matthew Kessel serving as healthy scratches the start the year.

The issue there is obvious: Both of those players shoot right. It would force DeBoer to shake up his entire defensive corps, as it's highly unlikely he'd want an all-righty pair in addition to his all-lefty top pairing of Matthew Schaefer and Adam Pelech.

The reconfigured D could look something like this:

Schaefer-Pulock

Pelech-DeAngelo

Stanley-Mayfield

The Islanders are home for their next three games, with their next road game taking place next Thursday, October 15, in Ottawa. That should allow the Islanders some potential extra practice time to work out any lineup kinks defensively.