DeBoer Goes Back to Dallas

Pete DeBoer is in Dallas this week, coaching against the franchise that let him go in what was described at the time as a shock ouster. It is the kind of return trip that writes itself on the calendar the moment the schedule comes out.

DeBoer has been around long enough that awkward homecomings are practically a career footnote. He has coached in enough buildings, for enough organizations, that the league has a way of cycling him back through old addresses. Dallas is just the latest. The Stars moved on from him under circumstances that drew attention when they happened; now he walks back in behind an Islanders bench that is, at the moment, held together with some tape and good intentions.

That context matters a little. The Islanders have been short on forwards — Maccelli and Ritchie both went down with lower-body injuries last week, and the team has been leaning on a recalled Mitchell Chaffee to fill the gap. It is not the roster you'd draw up for a statement road game. Whether DeBoer gets any satisfaction from the result is a separate question from whether his team has the bodies to deliver one.

The game will come and go. The sidebar is just the sidebar.