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BOSTON — Oliver Wahlstrom admitted that it was “really healthy” for him to get a fresh start with the Bruins after things appeared to be headed nowhere with the Islanders.
That was by no means Wahlstrom speaking negatively on the Islanders — a team that includes a number of friends, which drafted him and which gave him numerous chances to establish himself.
It was merely an acknowledgment of a reality that everyone could see by the time Wahlstrom was waived last month.
“Just to see different type of culture and things like that, it was really beneficial for me,” Wahlstrom, now a Bruin, said before facing the Islanders for the first time Sunday evening — a 5-4 overtime win for the Isles. “The Islanders, they were good to me. They drafted me, gave me a taste, my first five years, that was good.”
Wahlstrom, who’s been playing on the third line for the Bruins, has yet to score a point for the team he grew up rooting for as a New England kid, though he did record a number of chances over 12:58 of ice on Sunday.
He had four points in 27 games this season on the Island, before being exposed to waivers upon the cap crunch imposed by Mathew Barzal and Anthony Duclair coming off LTIR.
The Bruins picked up Wahlstrom — a free agent after this season — hoping they could do what the Islanders couldn’t and turn his precipitous talent into a consistent NHL game.
“He shoots the puck really good,” Ryan Pulock said. “That’s been one of his skills ever since I’ve played with him. He can be a big threat when he gets the puck around the net.”
Sunday marked the first time all season that Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri played on separate lines. Nelson centered Anders Lee and Barzal, while Palmieri played with Duclair and Bo Horvat.
Max Tsyplakov, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Casey Cizikas made up the third line while the fourth stayed intact.
Three of the four had expected goals ratios above 50 percent against the Bruins, with the lone exception being Horvat’s line — which just missed the cutoff at 47.13, per Natural Stat Trick, with Horvat scoring shorthanded and at three-on-three.
“I thought everybody played really well,” Horvat said. “I thought Barzy’s line was really good tonight with Leesy and Nellie. Nellie was flying up the middle, Leesy was doing his thing out front and scoring big goals, Barzy makes plays out there. Those three looked really good tonight.”
Isaiah George (suspected concussion) and Simon Holmstrom (upper body) both missed Sunday’s game against the Bruins.
