The surprise change at the center of Anthony Duclair’s red-hot Islanders stretch
NY Post
SEATTLE — Since junior hockey, Anthony Duclair had never changed anything about his stick. That flex, that curvature — it worked for him, so why touch it?
Except, when the calendar turned to the new year, it was no longer working the same way. Duclair had scored only once in his past 26 games, just four times in the season’s first 39 games and was made a healthy scratch in the Islanders’ first two games of 2026.
This season wasn’t as overtly miserable as last year’s for Duclair — he was healthy, and his relationship with Patrick Roy appeared fine — but he was languishing in the bottom six, showing little sign of recovering his scoring touch.
“At some point, I was tired. I was like, ‘I need to change something,’ ” Duclair said after the Islanders beat the Canucks 4-3 on Monday night. “I just grabbed [Casey Cizikas’] stick after practice.”
And?
“My shot was just unbelievable.
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