Brock Nelson's fast start, top-six forwards clicking good signs for Islanders
Brock Nelson of the New York Islanders celebrates his first goal of the first period against the Buffalo Sabres at UBS Arena on Saturday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Brock Nelson woke up on Sunday, his 32nd birthday, just 36 goals and 73 points shy of matching his career highs after yet another strong performance in a month that’s been dubbed Brocktober.
His goal and assist in the Islanders’ season-opening 3-2 win over the Sabres on Saturday night at UBS Arena bodes well for him and the Islanders.
Yet it is way too simplistic to separate Nelson’s stellar opening night from that of his linemates, Kyle Palmieri (goal) and Pierre Engvall (assist). Nor is it fair to ignore that, based on advanced analytics, Bo Horvat’s top line with Mathew Barzal and Simon Holmstrom was even better than Nelson’s line.
So spinning it forward, if the Islanders get consistent performances like this from their top-six forwards, they could be in good shape this season.
“All the lines, if they’re going and fighting out there, you can see it goes all over the lines,” said Engvall, whose backhand feed off the wall set up Nelson’s opening goal at 5:57 of the first period after Engvall beat Connor Clifton to a turnover. “I think [Horvat’s line] worked really hard and got a lot of chances. So it’s just going to be a matter of time before it goes in for them.”
Horvat had eight shots on net and nine chances overall. Barzal had three shots and three attempts blocked. Nelson’s line totaled seven shots on net.
“I think we supported each other very well,” said Holmstrom, who passed up what would have been a Grade-A scoring chance from the slot in the second period to try to get the puck to Barzal. “We always try to be two guys pretty close to each other and find each other. We’ve just got to score.”
Nelson’s line spent 11:04 skating together, per NaturalStatTrick.com, but had eight scoring chances against to six scoring chances for despite outscoring the Sabres 2-0. That line was even with the Sabres with three high-danger chances. Horvat’s line, on ice for 13:46, had four high-danger chances and allowed only one.
Horvat’s line also had 20 chances for and seven against while notching a Corsi for percentage of 74.07. Nelson’s line had a Corsi for percentage of 53.13.
Still, Nelson is potentially off to another Brocktober breakout.
His goal against the Sabres gave him six in season-opening games, one shy of the franchise record held by Hall of Famer Mike Bossy. He has 33 goals in 88 career games in October/Brocktober.
He had 36 goals and 39 assists for a career-high 75 points last season while playing all 82 games after setting a career high with 37 goals to go with 22 assists in 72 games in 2021-22.
“We have those two lines that are able to generate, not that the other lines aren’t as well,” said coach Lane Lambert, whose team will play its second game on Tuesday night against the visiting Coyotes.
“I thought Nellie was skating tonight. I thought Engvall was skating. The goals are created by Kyle Palmieri, he’s in front of the net.”
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.
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