Islanders' Dennis Cholowski given more responsibility on second power-play unit
Dennis Cholowski of the Islanders celebrates his third-period goal against the New Jersey Devils with teammate Grant Hutton at UBS Arena on Nov. 9. Credit: Jim McIsaac
DETROIT — There wasn’t a congratulatory call from president/general manager Lou Lamoriello or coach Patrick Roy informing Dennis Cholowski he’d made the Islanders’ opening night roster out of training camp. On the contrary, he just didn’t have either of those two telling him to stop showing up.
“I didn’t really know how to say it, but that’s pretty much what it was,” Cholowski said, laughing, before the Islanders concluded their five-game road trip against the Red Wings on Thursday night at Little Caesars Arena. “I didn’t get told otherwise.”
So Cholowski, 26, stuck around as the seventh defenseman after spending most of the last two seasons with the Islanders’ AHL affiliate in Bridgeport. But with defensemen Adam Pelech and Mike Reilly both sidelined since Nov. 1, Thursday marked Cholowski’s ninth straight game in the lineup.
It also marked his first chance to face the Red Wings, who selected Cholowski 20th overall in 2016. Cholowski played the first 104 games of his NHL career (out of 129 total) with the Red Wings before moving on to the Kraken and Capitals in 2021-22 and then joining the Islanders’ organization.
“The Red Wings were good,” Cholowski said. “I liked every second of it. I’m grateful to have the chance to come and play here again.”
Cholowski, who entered Thursday leading the Islanders’ defensemen with two goals, was paired with Scott Mayfield for a second straight game after Alexander Romanov returned from an upper-body injury in Tuesday’s 2-1 shootout loss in Calgary. Before that, Cholowski skated with Grant Hutton, his longtime teammate with Bridgeport.
It also was Cholowski’s fourth game quarterbacking the Islanders’ second power-play unit with Kyle Palmieri, Simon Holmstrom, Brock Nelson and Max Tsyplakov. He replaced defenseman Ryan Pulock.
“Ice time,” Roy said in explaining the switch. “[Pulock] played like 27, 28 minutes and we felt like it was a lot of minutes and playing against top lines.
“He’s got a good sniff when to go into the rush, and what I like about him is he finds ways to throw pucks at the net and hit the net,” Roy said of Cholowski. “And he’s been defending well enough. On the power play, he’s been moving the puck well.”
Still, the Islanders were 1-for-11 on the power play in the first four games of the road trip and in a 2-for-22 rut in their previous eight games. Defenseman Noah Dobson quarterbacks the first unit with Bo Horvat, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Oliver Wahlstrom and Anders Lee.
Roy said both his power-play units need to “put more pucks at the net.”
“If we take a shot, we need to be better on our puck recovery,’’ he said, “and from our puck recovery, we need to recreate something out of this, not giving them a chance to be set.”
But Cholowski should have the continued chance to help the power play be more consistent. Reilly is out indefinitely with a heart condition and Pelech is recovering from a jaw injury with a timeline of four to six weeks before he can return. But Lamoriello said this week that he isn’t sure if Pelech is able to eat solid foods yet.
“Wherever they need me to play,” Cholowski said. “I’ve played [on the power play] before throughout my career. Hopefully I can come in and contribute. We have guys that have really slick hands and are really good shooters. If I have a lane to shoot, I’ll look to do that as well. But with the skilled guys we have on the power play, it’s good for me to get it into their hands.”
Cholowski believes his play is “progressing” from game to game. And perhaps he’s just a little more suited to playing in the NHL.
“I’m a little bit older now,” he said. “I feel a little more experienced. Just feeling a little more comfortable.”
Notes & quotes: Romanov played in his 300th NHL regular-season game . . . Hutton and forward Hudson Fasching remained healthy scratches . . . Newly inducted Hall of Famer Pavel Datsyuk, who spent all 14 of his NHL seasons with the Red Wings from 2001-16, was honored before the game and dropped the ceremonial first puck. The Stanley Cup and the Lady Byng and Selke Trophies, all won by Datsyuk, were on display at Little Caesars Arena.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
