Islanders promote top prospect Cal Ritchie after travel snafu delays debut
NY Post
WASHINGTON — His plane made it to D.C.
The Islanders called up top prospect Cal Ritchie on Friday to make his debut with the team against the Capitals, some 24 hours after originally intended.
Ritchie had been in line to play in Thursday’s 6-2 loss to the Hurricanes as a replacement for Mat Barzal — a healthy scratch as discipline for missing the team bus — but his flight from New York to Raleigh, N.C., was canceled as a result of bad weather in the Northeast.
“It was pretty crazy,” Ritchie said before the match against Washington. “I was on the ice in Bridgeport. I was ready to pack up and leave to go to Wilkes-Barre to play on the road, and I got told to get off the ice and pack up my stuff and go to the airport.
“So, did that, and then a lot of delays. Lot of cancellations yesterday with the weather. I was disappointed yesterday, but I’m glad I was able to make it today.”
The twin absences of Ritchie and Barzal left the Islanders, who did not bring an extra forward on the trip, with no choice but to play 11 forwards and seven defensemen in Carolina, with defenseman Adam Boqvist as a fourth-line winger. The makeshift lineup did not work out well in the blowout loss.
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