Islanders' Thomas Hickey may return Saturday

Thomas Hickey continued his road to a possible return Saturday night against Tampa Bay, taking another full skate Friday morning in anticipation of his first game since suffering a left leg injury in St. Louis on Oct. 24.

"He's getting where he needs to be," Jack Capuano said Friday as Hickey skated. "He's real close."

Capuano has been stressing how badly the Islanders need offense from their defensemen. Hickey had two goals in four games before suffering his injury; in the 14 games entering Friday night since Hickey went down, the Islanders got four goals from their defensemen.

Only Hickey and Johnny Boychuk have more than one goal among the Isles' defensemen this season.

Hickey's return would mean Adam Pelech, who was scratched for the sixth time in eight games since being recalled from Bridgeport on Nov. 9, would go back down to the AHL.

Either Brian Strait or Marek Zidlicky would sit out. That third pair had a couple of rough outings during the past week.

Leddy's first fightNick Leddy played his 359th NHL game Friday night. Add in 53 AHL games while with the Blackhawks, plus one season at the University of Minnesota, and still his first fight in all those years and levels of hockey was Wednesday's scrap with the Flyers' Claude Giroux.

"Yeah, never," Leddy said. "You get in a few scrapes in high school, I guess, but never a fight."

Leddy sent Flyers wing Michael Raffl hard into the boards in the first period, drawing a boarding minor and the ire of the Flyers. Giroux decided Leddy needed to answer for the hit, and he let him know that in the second.