Visnovsky arriving, but when he joins Islanders isn't set

Lubomir Visnovsky will be on Long Island by Wednesday night, though he might not join his teammates until Thursday or even Friday.

The Islanders face the Rangers at Madison Square Garden Thursday, so Visnovsky might not be ready to run off an international flight and into the lineup.

How he'll be received by Islanders fans seems pretty certain -- there will be some boos directed his way, after the seven-month odyssey since Visnovsky was traded from the Ducks to the Islanders will now come to an end. He will be welcomed in the locker room, say a couple of Islanders.

"It was frustrating for us, but that's because we wanted him here from the start of the season," said Matt Martin, who publicly expressed some of his frustrations about Visnovsky's absence during training camp. "All the other stuff is water under the bridge now. We'll welcome him and we're all trying to win games."

"Honestly, I didn't think about it much until I heard he was definitely coming," Michael Grabner said. "I feel like it's the same thing we had with Nabby [Evgeni Nabokov, who refused to report for the last half of the 2010-11 season]. We'll welcome [Visnovsky] in and if he helps the team, no one will care what happened before."

McDonald aggravates

Colin McDonald was already a target for the Penguins after his boarding major on Ben Lovejoy last week drew a two-game suspension. McDonald, a 28-year-old former Penguins farmhand, got even more attention Tuesday night after he leveled Sidney Crosby with a clean hit.

"I think just about every one of their guys had something to say to me," McDonald said. "They were focusing on me, and I'm not a guy they should be worrying about. So that means I was doing my job."

Bailey just about ready

Jack Capuano said forward Josh Bailey (knee) could be ready to play Thursday but he wouldn't commit to anything.