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EDMONTON, Alberta — Two-and-a-half weeks in the midst of an 82-game season often feels like a lifetime, the narrative already having shifted one way and then another amid less than 10 games.
Case in point, rewind back there and we were asking whether Simon Holmstrom could step up to the plate and spell Anthony Duclair on the top line, which was the biggest question around the Islanders.
Not all that much time has passed, but the Islanders are now down four more regulars — including Mat Barzal, another piece of the top line — and Holmstrom has been back in the bottom six for the last five games.
And in those five games, the Swede has amassed five points after scoring zero during his four-game stint on the top line, suddenly playing with the confidence and assertiveness that was glaringly absent when alongside Barzal and Bo Horvat.
Coincidence?
“That I cannot tell,” coach Patrick Roy said Saturday night after Holmstrom contributed a goal and assist in the Islanders’ 4-3 overtime loss to the Devils. “But I notice that he’s getting more and more confident out there, so I like that. And he scored a really nice goal on that one, but obviously, he’s playing some good hockey for us. … I have a lot of confidence in him.”
The 23-year-old Holmstrom has put together such flashes before, most notably the five shorthanded goals he scored before the new year last season.
But the Islanders needed their bottom six to step up their scoring after Barzal and Duclair went down and it is Holmstrom who has been a catalyst in doing so.
In the four games he played on the top line, Holmstrom recorded three shots on goal combined.
In the five games since, he’s shot it nine times total — not a world-beating number, but a world of difference nonetheless.
That has already proven vital for the Islanders, as it was Holmstrom’s power-play goal which began the rally on Tuesday night in a shootout win over the Penguins and it was Holmstrom who kept them in the game early Saturday by scoring a first-period goal on a slick finish around Jacob Markstrom.
“Homer’s goal, it was probably our only forecheck of the first period,” Kyle Palmieri said.
That plus a later assist on Dennis Cholowski’s goal in the third period wasn’t enough to get the Islanders two points, as they later handed away a 3-1 lead to the Devils before losing in overtime.
But Holmstrom was no small part of why the Islanders got a point on a night where they were outplayed for much of the evening.
“He played well,” said Casey Cizikas, who has centered Holmstrom lately on a trio also consisting of Pierre Engvall. “He was strong on the puck. He made some really nice plays, he had a lot of good looks. You can see his confidence growing with every single game he plays here.”
Indeed, while the third line’s advanced numbers have been underwhelming, the trio has proven adept both defensively and in transporting the puck up ice.
The Islanders could not be blamed for wanting a few more chances out of them, but Holmstrom has often driven those moments when they have come.
With the current forward lines working well — the Islanders took five of six points over their last three games heading into the marathon five-game trip that begins on Tuesday night against the Oilers — there will be little temptation to mix things up or put Holmstrom back in the top six.
That might be all for the better.
Coincidence or not, he has given the Islanders more of a spark further down the lineup. And why mess with a good thing?
