Holmstrom carries Islanders into playoffs
Show up in the AHL with the hype of a firstround draft pick, and fans might not be so patient waiting for you to show up in the Show.
Simon Holmstrom got to Bridgeport from Sweden in 2019 as a New York Islanders prospect and showed, even at 18 years old, a real sense for the game on the wing, even if that didn’t always present itself on the scoresheet. Now the points are coming, too, helping the Bridgeport Islanders into the Calder Cup Playoffs.
“I can get into this type of hockey over here more and more,” said Holmstrom, still just 20 years old for another three weeks.
“Getting more comfortable with the team and everything around as well has helped a lot. Overall, just everything has improved a lot. Of course when you start winning more as a team, that has helped me.”
A 10-6-2 last quarter of the season got Bridgeport into the AHL’s expanded playoffs; the team secured the sixth and final Atlantic Division seed in its secondto-last game. It’ll meet Providence in a best-of-3 series this week to determine who’ll move on to the division semifinals.
Bridgeport’s home game at Total Mortgage Arena is Game 2 on Wednesday night at 7. Tickets are on sale. Games 1 and, if necessary, 3 are in Providence on Monday and Friday nights.
Holmstrom, the 23rd overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, and veterans Andy Andreoff and Chris Terry will likely make up Bridgeport’s top forward line, as they have for the past couple of months.
“I can’t praise him enough. I feel like he’s very underrated,” Andreoff said. “He’s still really young, so as he plays more and more professional games, he’s just going to get better.”
Holmstrom has played with Andreoff, a gritty and physical 10th-year pro who can create space for his linemates, with rare exceptions since mid-February. Terry, a future AHL Hall of Famer who turned in Bridgeport’s first 30-goal season in 13 years, joined them in mid-March with, again, rare exceptions.
In the last 17 games of the season, Holmstrom had 19 points.
“He’s more mature. He’s confident with the puck. He’s stronger on the puck and protects the puck really well,” Bridgeport coach Brent Thompson said.
“He’s still young. He’s got a ton of years ahead of him.”
Holmstrom was coming along late in his rookie year, limited to 46 out of 63 games by injury, and then the world shut down. The 2020-21 AHL season was a 24-game dinky for Bridgeport last spring. Keeping development momentum going was tough, though Holmstrom said, and he isn’t lying, that it was tough on everyone.
But he still showed that hockey sense. He has been a regular on the penalty kill, and Bridgeport gave him a try at center in this, his first full North American season.
“He’s so responsible down low,” Thompson said. “He’s a big body, he can skate, he defends really well, and he’s been working on faceoffs.
“(Playing center) is something we’re going to play with moving forward, though maybe not in this playoff series.”
The team is fairly close to full strength, though third-year forward Arnaud Durandeau is termed day-to-day with an upperbody injury after missing the last six games.