Neither Rick DiPietro nor anyone else with the Islanders is ready to say that DiPietro has played his last game of the season, but with the goalie still not permitted on the ice because of swelling in his surgically repaired right knee, the odds of him suiting up by April 11 seem remote.
But even if he winds up playing just eight games this year, DiPietro considers it a success.
“This isn’t a wasted year,” DiPietro said while the rest of the Isles prepared to play the Rangers at the Garden tonight. “I proved I could come back from a major surgery and play in the NHL and win hockey games. That was the main focus of this year. Does it [stink] that I haven’t been able to go out and play every single game, every single night, when we’re in the middle of the playoff [run]? Yeah.”
DiPietro has not played since Feb. 6 and he has been sidelined since first experiencing the swelling on March 1 after returning from the Olympic break.
Though questions of his durability persist — and no doubt will continue to do so into next year — DiPietro said he remains confident.
“I know I can play,” said DiPietro, who also played four games with Bridgeport of the AHL this season. “I already proved it to myself.”
Despite his lack of time on the ice, DiPietro said that he had no regrets about how the injury was handled this year.
“There’s nothing we could have done differently,” he said. “We’ve done everything the doctors told us to do. When you come back from a serious injury, you don’t expect everything to go as scripted. . . . But I’ll continue to do everything I can to make sure I can get back to where I was two years ago.”
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Martin Biron, who spent the past two days in Buffalo after the birth of his daughter, will return to the team today.