Cal Clutterbuck exits with injury after low hit

Islanders’ Cal Clutterbuck exits with injury after low hit.

Cal Clutterbuck fell victim to a low hit from Radko Gudas along 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 remained for the rest of the game.

The fourth-line winger was making his way toward the offensive zone when Gudas came crashing into him along the boards. Clutterbuck was slow to get up 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’ll look at it again,” Trotz said on a Zoom call following the loss. “Anytime that you come low on a guy like that, that’s always a bit of an unwritten rule. But Cal could’ve gotten rid of the puck sooner, that’s for sure. We’ll have an update [Wednesday].” 

The 32-year-old Clutterbuck finished Game 4 with 8:17 of ice time on 11 shifts. He was a plus-one with a hit in the loss, which forced a Game 5 on Thursday. Clutterbuck has registered one goal so far this postseason, contributing to the Isles’ 5-2 win over the Caps in Game 2.

The Islanders are 1-for-19 on the power play during the first-round series against the Capitals.

Going 0-for-5 on the man-advantage on Tuesday, the Islanders haven’t registered a power-play goal since Nick Leddy’s game-tying tally in their Game 2 win.

“We had a couple looks, we had the zone time but we need production out of it,” Trotz said. “Their penalty killers have held us pretty well off the score sheet for the most part in this series and we’ve got to find a way to find the back of the net on the power play. But I thought our power play was better today than it was the other day.”

The Islanders mustered 12 shots with the man-advantage Tuesday. They also negated two of their five power-play opportunities by getting called for penalties of their own, forcing them to settle for four-on-four play.

“We had looks tonight,” said Mathew Barzal, who notched a first-period goal. “I think we had five or six power plays tonight and we have to find a way to put one in the back of the net. We knew coming into the series that special teams was probably going to be a deciding factor in some games. Not that it was tonight, but for them to get that second goal that was huge for them. 

“We had chances in the third and late in the second to put them away at 3-0, just couldn’t find it. We just got to make an adjustment. Their PK has done well with watching video obviously and taking away our options.”

Despite the loss, Trotz said he is likely going to wait and analyze the game tape before making any lineup decisions.

“I’m going to reassess it a little bit, we’re going to look at the tape, we’re going to look at where we are in terms of personnel,” he said.