The goal was for Cal Clutterbuck to bring his grit to the Islanders and make them a tougher team to play against. Now, that’s going to have to wait.
Clutterbuck sustained a deep laceration in the back of his right thigh when a skate blade cut him after he made a big hit and sent a Flames player up in the air during a preseason game in Calgary on Tuesday. He had a meeting with team doctors Thursday afternoon, the results of which will be released Friday, but a team source said the team expects Clutterbuck to miss a month, “if not more.”
The Islanders traded disgruntled prospect Nino Niederreiter to the Wild this offseason for Clutterbuck, with whom they then negotiated a new four-year, $11 million deal. The 25-year-old played six full seasons in Minnesota, where he led the league in hits three years in a row from 2008-2011. In 2010-11, he also scored 19 goals, showing a bit of scoring touch.
“It would’ve been nice to get a couple games of the exhibition in and kind of get my bearings, but again, it could’ve been worse,” Clutterbuck told The Post Thursday after the Islanders’ 5-3 preseason win over the Devils at the Prudential Center. “I’m just going to try and take it day-to-day and see what happens.”
Clutterbuck described the hit — the game was not televised — as “pretty hard, shoulder-to-shoulder.”
When he saw the blade come up and felt the pain, he immediately thought the worst.
“It hurt,” he said, “but I was a little more panicked about bleeding and stuff. The pain wasn’t unbearable, but it was pretty bad.
“I’ve had minor cuts and scraps, it actually happens more than you think, running into boards and stuff, you get kicked and little and get nicks and stuff. Nothing this serious.”
***
Second-year goalie Kevin Poulin played the whole game for the Islanders, making 20 saves on 23 shots. He is in an open competition with rookie Anders Nilsson for the job of backing up veteran Evegni Nabokov.
“I thought he played well,” Islanders coach Jack Capuano said. “I thought he was aggressive in there, and was good with our ‘D’ for communication for the breakout. So he got his game tonight, and Anders and Nabby will play a few games as we go down the stretch.”
Poulin, 23, started five games for the Islanders last season and had a 3.02 goals-against average. He made a great glove save on Andrei Loktionov midway through the first period, during which the Islanders fought off three of four short-handed situations in a game in which they allowed the Devils 18:30 of power-play time on 10 chances.
“I want to be here, I want to play in the NHL,” Poulin said. “I know I can play here. I know I can get wins throughout the season. That’s my goal.”
***
The possible open spots on defense for the Islanders were supposed to filled by some combination of Calvin de Haan, Aaron Ness and Matt Donovan. Yet with two very impressive games to start the exhibition season, 19-year-old Griffin Reinhart has thrown his name to the top of that list.
“The skill is there,” Capuano said about Reinhart, the team’s No. 4-overall pick in the 2012 draft who had to undergo surgery in April to repair a torn ligament in his left foot. “He’s coming back now and he’s playing with more confidence to prove himself. He’s done a fine job for us.”
***
The stupidity of a new rule was seen when the Islanders’ Brett Gallant and the Devils’ Krys Barch got into their second fight of the first period. Because it’s now an extra two-minute penalty for voluntarily removing your helmet before a fight — something that used to be a kind of common courtesy — the two players instead slowly skated toward each other and removed each other’s helmets with gentle and compassionate restraint.
They then proceeded to punch each other in the face repeatedly, and each played sparingly the rest of the way. That is, until they got on the ice together in the third, and decided, what the hell? Why not make it fighting hat trick with another scrap?
Gallant probably won the first two in split decisions while Barch took the finale with a big right-handed uppercut, much to the enjoyment of the sparse crowd.
The mess of a game finished with 69 penalty minutes for the Islanders and 43 for the Devils, including 10 combined fighting majors, two game misconducts and a double-minor for attempted spearing.
“No team is going to take liberties on us,” Capuano said. “That’s part of the game, with the fisticuffs.”