Aatu Raty’s “surreal” Friday started with what he thought was a prank while sitting in the sauna before the Bridgeport Islanders’ scheduled game in Hartford…and it ended with him addressing his NHL debut and first NHL goal on Long Island.
Raty, the No. 52 overall pick in 2021 and one of the Isles’ top prospects, was scheduled to play for Bridgeport in the AHL version of the Islanders-Rangers rivalry, but an injury to Casey Cizikas changed plans.
“We didn’t have a morning skate, but I was in the sauna and I heard the guys say coach wants to see you and I thought it was a prank,” Raty said of how he found out he was heading to the big club. “But this time luckily I went there and Coach Thompson told me I’m getting called up.”
Raty had played 23 games in Bridgeport in his first full season in North America, tallying five goals and seven assists, and he was slotted in alongside WFAN family in Matty Marts and Hudson Fasching on the Isles’ fourth line.
“All day just felt surreal,” the rookie said. “This is something I’ve wanted to do since I can remember. It was just so special, especially in a game like this and having such a big crowd and getting the win.”
But no, it was real, and it got really real when, just over seven minutes into the third period, Raty deked a defender and ripped a wrister past Sergei Bobrovsky for his first NHL goal, one that gave the Isles a 3-1 lead over Florida in a game they’d eventually win 5-1.
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“Obviously I was happy with the goal getting us up 3-1. But getting back to the bench and looking up at the Jumbotron, I didn’t even realize I made a move there, I just thought I got the puck and shot it,” Raty smiled. “So I felt like I almost blacked out. It felt great.”
Head coach Lane Lambert was impressed by Raty’s NHL debut overall.
“I thought he was really good on both sides of the puck. I thought defensively he was sound, he stays on people and understands angles and things like that. I thought he was good,” Lambert said.
Raty became the first Islander to score in his NHL debut since Alan Quine in 2016, per Islanders PR, and as they were rocking the reverse retro fisherman jerseys, the Isles overall got their first win in those unis since they defeated the Hartford Whalers on April 11, 1997 – that franchise’s second-to-last game before they moved to Carolina, and a game played more than five years before Raty, whose birthday is Nov. 14, 2002, was even born.
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