Cal Clutterbuck fell victim to a low hit by Radko Gudas past the boards late in the second period of the Islanders’ 3-2 loss to the Capitals in Game 4 Tuesday night and went to the locker room, where he played for the rest of the match.
The fourth-line winger made his way towards the offensive zone when Gudas crashed at him on the board. Clutterbuck was slow to recover after the hit and was not on the bench for the start of the third period.
Coach Barry Trotz said he should have more of an update on Clutterbuck on Wednesday.
“I will look at it again,” Trotz said on a Zoom call after the loss. “Every time you get so bad at a man, it’s always a bit of an unwritten rule. But Cal could have lost the puck sooner, that’s for sure. We will have an update [Wednesday]. ”
The 32-year-old Clutterbuck finished Game 4 with 8:17 ice time on 11 shifts. He was a plus-one with a hit in the loss, which forced a Game 5 on Thursday. Clutterbuck have scored one goal so far this postseason, contributing to the Isles’ 5-2 victory over the Caps in Game 2.
The Islanders are 1-for-19 on the power play in the first-round series against the Capitals.
The Islanders go 0-for-5 on the man advantage on Tuesday, the Islanders have not recorded a power-play goal since Nick Leddy’s game tie in their Game 2 win.
“We had a few looks, we had the sunshine, but we have to get production out of there,” Trotz said. “Their penalty killers have kept us pretty good from the score for the most part in this series and we have to find a way to find the back of the net on the power play. But I thought our power play today was better than it was the next day. ”
The Islanders needed 12 shots on Tuesday with the man advantage. They also missed two of their five power-play chances by calling for their own penalty kicks, and they were forced to settle for four-on-four play.
“We had a look last night,” said Mathew Barzal, who scored a goal for the first period. ‘I think we had five or six power games last night and we need to find a way to put one back in the net. We knew in the series to come that special teams are likely to be a deciding factor in some games. Not that it was last night, but for her to achieve that second goal that was huge for her.
‘We had chances in the third and late in the second to put them at 3-0, just couldn’t find it. We just had to make an adjustment. Their PK has done well with watching video of course and removing our options. ”
Despite the loss, Trotz said he will likely wait and analyze the game board before making any lineup decisions.
“I’ll judge it a little bit, we’ll look at the tape, we’ll see where we are in terms of staff,” he said.
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