Islanders' Ryan Pulock out 4-6 weeks with lower-body injury

The Islanders will be without top-pair defenseman Ryan Pulock for at least a month as they try to shake a slump and christen their new UBS Arena.

Pulock will miss four-to-six weeks with a lower-body injury, the team announced on Wednesday.

"He’s a pretty good defenseman for us," coach Barry Trotz said after Tuesday night’s 6-1 loss to the Atlantic Division-leading Panthers to conclude their season-opening, 13-game road trip. "That’s an area we have to correct a little bit. So, yeah, it’s a hole. But we’re going to have to find ways to fill that hole. We’ll have to do it as a group of five guys on the ice and a goaltender and go from there."

The Islanders open their new $1.1 billion home on Saturday night against the Flames. They will practice at UBS Arena on Thursday.

The last-place Islanders (5-6-2) have lost four straight in regulation, including 4-1 on Monday night to the two-time Stanley Cup-champion Lightning. They have given up 19 goals in their four-game losing streak while scoring just six goals over their last five games. The Islanders, who did not practice on Wednesday, have allowed at least four goals in four straight games for the first time under Trotz.

Now, they must figure out how to tighten up defensively without the right-shooting Pulock, one of their best defensemen who also plays on the man advantage.

Left-handed Sebastian Aho played both games of the back-to-back, his first two games this season. But Pulock’s loss leaves the Islanders with the minimum six defensemen on the roster.

Lefty Thomas Hickey, who has played 454 games for the Islanders since 2013 but has not been a regular in the top six since Devon Toews was called up from AHL Bridgeport in December, 2018, is an obvious, immediate in-house candidate to replace Pulock.

Hickey, in the final season of a four-year, $10 million deal, has gone scoreless in six games for Bridgeport this season.

Lefty Finnish defenseman Robin Salo, 23, a second-round pick in 2017 playing his first season in North America, has two goals and six assists in 14 games for Bridgeport and provided some eye-opening moments during training camp. The Islanders likely would prefer to give Salo more time in the AHL to get comfortable with the North American game. But his eventual call-up seems realistic at some point this season.

President and general manager Lou Lamoriello could also look to acquire a defenseman, as he did in trading for ex-Devils captain Andy Greene a month after Pulock’s longtime defense partner, Adam Pelech, injured his Achilles’ tendon in January, 2020.

The Islanders did not specify when Pulock was injured but he missed Tuesday night’s game after blocking a second-period shot with his lower right leg against the Lightning. Pulock played in his 263rd straight game on Monday to pass Hall of Famer Denis Potvin and set the Islanders’ team record for longest ironman streak by a defenseman.

The Islanders did not have an update on Wednesday on right wing Josh Bailey, who was placed in COVID-19 protocol on Tuesday after testing positive. Bailey did not have symptoms, but he did not accompany the team back to Long Island following the loss to the Panthers as he remained quarantined in a Florida hotel.

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.