Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech to play for first time since Nov. 1

Not everything can be appraised.

That, essentially, was Anders Lee’s response when asked to assess Mathew Barzal, Anthony Duclair and Adam Pelech’s individual and collective impactfulness for the Islanders.

“It’s great,” Lee said following practice at Northwell Health Ice Center. “It’s a great time of the year for them to be healthy and for us to get them back. Our group, we’re a little more intact. We’ve missed them. (They are) a big part of this hockey team so having them back, getting ready, getting close to being in the lineup is a huge boost.”

So count the captain among those who were energized by Barzal, Duclair and Pelech practicing and traveling with the Islanders (12-12-7) to Chicago, whom they will meet Sunday.

Coach Patrick Roy said Pelech will play against Chicago (9-19-2), which finished its three-game trek through the region with a 4-1 loss to the Devils Saturday afternoon at the Prudential Center, while Barzal is a game-time decision. Duclair won’t play.

Duclair has not played since the Islanders’ 4-3 shootout win on Oct. 19 against Montreal with a lower-body injury. Barzal had not played due to an upper-body injury since Oct. 30. Pelech has been out since Nov. 1 with an injured jaw.

“It’s exciting,” Ryan Pulock said. “It’s exciting for our team.”

During the 35-minute, up-tempo practice, Barzal centered the first line with Lee and Duclair on his wings. Pelech skated with Pulock, his normal defense partner. Alex Romanov and Noah Dobson were reunited as the second pairing, and the twosome of Dennis Cholowski and Scott Mayfield comprised the third pair.

The reinsertions of Barzal, Duclair and Pelech had been anticipated because all three participated in Thursday’s morning skate and general manager Lou Lamoriello’s decision to place Oliver Wahlstrom and Pierre Engvall on waivers Friday.

Boston claimed Wahlstrom Saturday while Engvall cleared.

Without two-thirds of their top scoring line and one half of their shutdown defense pairing for one-quarter of the season, the Islanders compiled a 9-7-5 mark in the 21 games the team played between Nov. 1 and Dec. 12 without Barzal, Duclair and Pelch in the lineup. In doing so, the Islanders earned 23 out of a possible 42 points which allowed them to keep pace in the Eastern Conference playoff race with Tampa Bay (32 points), Philadelphia (32 points) and the Rangers (31 points).

“We’re still right in it and we were able to hold that position,” Pulock said. “Now I think getting these guys back, obviously we need to get going and put some wins together.”

Those are all positives.

So, naturally, there is somewhat of a negative.

As glad as the Islanders are to be mostly whole, they are also entering the mid-afternoon match irritated at themselves for the way they played in the final nine minutes of Thursday night’s 5-4 win over Chicago at UBS Arena.

The Islanders, who had a 5-1 lead after Maxim Tsyplakov’s sixth goal of the season at 7:58 of the third period, loosened up considerably and Chicago’s TJ Brodie (11:04) and Tyler Bertuzzi (18:50 and 19:50) scored three times to send the hosts home in a relatively unpleasant state of mind.

Beginning with the coach, who was displeased that the team left Ilya Sorokin (26 saves on 30 shots) to fend for himself.

“Times have changed, because in my day, if my team would have done that to me, I (would have broken) a stick in that room. I (would have been) very upset to see my team playing like that in front of me,” Roy said in his postgame news conference. “...That was unacceptable. We didn’t compete. We didn’t battle in front of the net in the last eight minutes.”

Both Lee and Pulock told Newsday after practice that the players were not particularly enamored with their performance at the end of the game. Which Roy was pleased to learn.

“I’m glad to hear that,” Roy said. “We need to make sure we’re ready for the start of the game.”

Notes & quotes: Top-line center Bo Horvat is day-to-day with a lower-body injury but will travel with the team to Chicago, Roy said. Reserve goaltender Semyon Varlamov (lower-body) will not make the trip …Defenseman Mike Reilly jumped onto the ice before practice, a little more than a month after having a surgical procedure to treat a heart condition. “It’s just great to see him feeling better,” Lee said. “To see him feel the way he feels now, it’s like (he is) back to himself.”