Islanders’ Simon Holmstrom Gets Top-Line Opportunity With Season On The Line; Bo Horvat Praises His Two-Way Growth
Islanders forward Simon Holmstrom gets a top-line opportunity as Bo Horvat discusses his development and strong two-way play.
EAST MEADOW, NY — Pete DeBoer said it’s been like drinking through a fire hose since being named New York Islanders head coach.
The Islanders’ season is on life support, and despite having three practice days before an actual game, DeBoer has had to rely heavily on his staff for lineup combinations.
He’s already made some bold decisions, like moving Mathew Barzal back to center, citing someone with his kind of speed needs to be in the middle of the ice.
The other big move he’s made is elevating Simon Holmstrom to the top line, alongside Bo Horvat.
Holmstrom, who is in the midst of a strong campaign, hasn’t been used as a middle-six forward the entire season. Now, Anders Lee, the left winger on that line, isn’t a top-line player at this point in his career, so we are using “top line” loosely here, but it will be the first time this season that Holmstrom will start a game alongside Horvat, the team’s No. 1 center.
“We had a lot of discussion. I’ll be honest with you, I’m relying a lot on our staff who have watched these guys all year for early combinations,” DeBoer said. “I don’t know the group well enough to give a strong opinion on who should play with who. We also look at analytics. But Holmstrom has had a really good year. He’s a young guy, almost 20 goals. He deserves to play up in the lineup based on what he’s done so far.”
This season, when the two have been on the ice at 5-on-5 for just 36:27 minutes, the Islanders have outshot their opponents 20-14 and outscored them 3-1. So, some success in a small sample size.
I sat down with Horvat to discuss the growth he’s seen in Holmstrom’s game of the season ahead of today’s game: