Islanders Beat Senators 5-3 ELMONT, NY -- It's been a busy day on the New York Islanders [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-york-islanders/game-day/new-york-islanders-adam-pelech-matt-martin] side of things. After placing Adam Pelech (upper body) on LTIR and Matt Martin (upper body) on IR, the Islanders claimed defenseman Mike Reilly [https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/r/reillmi01.html] off waivers from the Florida Panthers. The 30-year-old left-handed defenseman has no goals in two games with the Panthers this season, serving as their seventh defenseman. "The timing of the injuries last night and him being on waivers and being a veteran who's played some 350 games gives us some experience," Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello said. "He's a puck-moving left shot, and we have some experience with him because we played against him in playoffs when he was with Boston. And so he'll be here tomorrow." As for why the Islanders didn't just recall a second defenseman from Bridgeport, Lamoriello had this to say: "The reason that we did this, it's not that we have a lack of confidence in the defenseman in Bridgeport. It's just that we bring in a more experienced person. We're going to have a couple of young players in the lineup with our defense tonight. And it is a relatively young defense right now, which we're proud of as far as today and tomorrow. So the major reason was the experience -- 350 games compared to 10, 15, and 20 -- is quite a difference." With the Islanders placing Pelech on LTIR, they are allowed to go over the salary cap by $5.75 million, which gave them enough money to claim Reilly and his $1 million cap hit. Reilly has played 341 career NHL games with five different franchises, scoring 12 goals with 86 assists. The Islanders have Samuel Bolduc up, a left-handed defenseman, so Reilly will fill the hole that Sebastian Aho leaves behind. Grant Hutton was recalled for Saturday night's game.
