Feeling at Holm’
Left winger makes early impact trying to stick on Isles’ top line
The Islanders toyed with the idea of Arnaud Durandeau on the left of Bo Horvat and Mathew Barzal. Now it’s Simon Holmstrom’s turn.
The second-year Swede, who is fighting for a spot on the roster, got the nod on the top line in the Islanders’ second preseason game on Wednesday night against the Flyers and quickly made an impression, deflecting in the first goal of the match 12:38 into the first.
Barzal picked up the primary assist on the play, getting his stick on Travis Mitchell’s point shot first. But after the initial tip, Holmstrom deflected the puck off his body to beat Felix Sandstrom.
For a player trying to prove he can contribute offensively, that is a good step in the right direction.
“I think this offseason, I’ve been doing a lot of homework,” Holmstrom said following the 2-1 win, in which he also had a secondary assist. “Just practicing those [offensive] skills. I know I have it and I know I have it in me, so it’s just more to get it out there. That’s the thing.”
Finding the right left-winger to complete the top line is one of the biggest problems facing Islanders coach Lane Lambert between now and opening night, since the Horvat-Barzal pairing has such explosive offensive potential. Instead of going with established options like Anders Lee or Pierre Engvall, Lambert has opted to first try Durandeau and Holmstrom — two players firmly on the roster bubble.
“I thought he played good,” Lambert said of Holmstrom. “He’s a very dependable guy. So there’s certainly an advantage there in him being in that spot. And since he’s been in camp, I don’t know if it’s necessarily looking [for offense more], but he’s capitalizing more.”
Holmstrom, who played 50 games last year as a result of injuries, impressed the Islanders with his twoway game but never quite showed the offensive upside the team hoped to see. Skating with Barzal now is a redux of the first five games of Holmstrom’s NHL career, when Oliver Wahlstrom completed a top line with Barzal at center.
After Lambert went away from the duo, Holmstrom started just two more games on Barzal’s line the rest of the season — the second time at right wing — but again, it did not last. The duo played 76:25 together in total last season, per Natural Stat Trick, with a 44.82 expected goals percentage.
“It’s always fun [to play with Barzal],” Holmstrom said. “The timing isn’t really there yet, but I think we
definitely made some good plays out there. Just gotta keep going.”
The case for the combination working now depends heavily on Holmstrom’s offensive development.
“Good skater, good skill,” Matt Martin said of Holmstrom pregame. “I think that part of his game is something that will start to blossom as he gets more and more comfortable. But I think the reason he was successful last year is because he’s so responsible defensively.
“I think the hope — I would imagine he would hope this and the organization hopes that his offensive game that we’ve heard so much about kinda takes off from there. So he looks great. I thought
he played well all last year as well.”
What the Islanders are experimenting with in the second preseason game, of course, does not commit them to anything once things become real. Things will change over the next two weeks, and change again over the two weeks following.
But for Holmstrom, whose roster spot is not guaranteed, acing this sort of tryout only helps.
“The significance is, it’s trying to find that chemistry,” Lambert said. “You don’t know until you try and a little bit of time helps with that.”
Kyle Palmieri has yet to be seen in training camp and it is not clear whether he will be on the ice when the Islanders open the regular season on Oct. 14 against the Sabres.
“It’s hard to say,” coach Lane Lambert said of Palmieri’s status for the opener. “I don’t know that I could answer that question today. He s skating. And so he’s day-to-day right now and we’ll just wait to see what happens.”
The Islanders have called Palmieri day-to-day since the start of camp, when they said his absence was due to a knock suffered during an informal, pre-camp skate. The day-to-day designation, though, is relatively meaningless given the Islanders used it last year for injuries in which players were out for weeks at a time.
Lambert on Wednesday declined to say whether Palmieri is dealing with an upperor lower-body injury.
Palmieri missed 27 games last season with what was presumed to be concussions, as he took a hit from Morgan Reilly on Nov. 21, then another from Nick Ritchie upon his Dec. 16 return to the lineup. He has not played a full season since being traded to the Islanders, missing 13 games in 2021-22 as well.
Being without Palmieri, who scored 16 goals with 17 assists last season, would be an early blow to a team that does not have much offensive firepower to begin with. The second line of Pierre Engvall, Brock Nelson and Palmieri was the Isles’ best towards the end of last season.
There is plenty of time between now and opening night. But the lack of definitive answer is not a good sign.
➤ Alexander Romanov (shoulder surgery) was held out of the Islanders’ first two preseason games, but has been a full participant in intrasquad scrimmages during camp.
Lambert left it an open question as to whether Romanov will play on Friday at home against the Rangers, but said, “he’s getting into that area where he could be getting close.”
Romanov, for his part, seems ready and eager to get going.
“No issues, no pain,” he said Tuesday. “Everything’s good.”
➤ Isaiah George (maintenance) did not practice Wednesday. He returned to Tuesday’s game after missing a chunk of the first period following a big hit courtesy of Rangers forward Matt Rempe.
Sebastian Aho skated to Ryan Pulock’s left — where George has been for most of camp — during the scrimmage. (Adam Pelech, Pulock’s usual partner on the top pair, played in the preseason match against the Flyers).
➤ In his first game action following a knee injury that took him out of the last four months of last season, Oliver Wahlstrom skated for 17:20 against the Flyers, the lone snag being a boarding penalty, which he called a timing misjudgment on his part.
“I felt great,” Wahlstrom said. “Obviously towards the end, the lungs, you just gotta keep playing more games. But I couldn’t have put in a better nine months in my life. It prepared me really well for this preseason.”