At the moment, I’m watching Philip Broberg and Filip Berglund take on Jesse Puljujarvi in Champions Hockey League play as Skelleftea (SHL) is hosting Karpat (SM-Liiga). It’s the end of the first period none of the three are really standing out. If I had to say, then, of course, Puljujarvi is probably the most impressive on Karpat. The Swedes are having a tough time knocking him off of the puck and dealing with his strength. He’s an absolute locomotive when he gets the puck and has a bit of space to drive through the neutral zone. Philip Broberg, however, brings a little bit different of a skillset. He’s had a couple of trademark end-to-end rushes so far that have shown us his skating is unparalleled on his own team, his edgework as well. But to add to that, his passing and vision. Sometimes he puts a bit of flash on those passes and makes it marginally more entertaining.
It’s a close hard-checking affair though, just as you’d expect When a Finnish club goes into a Swedish team’s barn.
Later on this evening, the Oilers will march into Nassau Coliseum in an attempt to take their record to 3-0-0, but it’s going to be one helluva challenge for them as they haven’t been able to win there since 1999 according to Lowetide. To add to that, we’ll see Mikko Koskinen starting for Edmonton. No disrespect to the big man, but his preseason left me with more question marks than exclamation marks.
Speaking of question marks, will Darnell Nurse go a third consecutive game with a sub 40% Corsi For?
The Islanders will obviously be lead by Mathew Barzal and Anders Lee, but it’s actually Anthony Beauvillier that is leading the team in scoring so far with a goal and 2 assists. Sergei Varlamov is sporting a daunting 2.03 GAA and a save percentage of .929% but which version of this goalie will we see?
Three Players to Watch for the Islanders
*Projected #Isles lineup
*Please note that it's projected
Lee-Barzal-Eberle
Bailey-Nelson-Dal Colle
Beauvillier-Brassard-Komarov
Martin-Cizikas-Clutterbuck
Pelech-Pulock
Toews-Mayfield
Leddy-Dobson
Varlamov— Andrew Gross (@AGrossNewsday) October 8, 2019
- Noah Dobson – The smooth-skating defender that was taking after Evan Bouchard is going to make his NHL debut tonight. His partner, Nick Leddy, usually is the Islanders’ answer for Connor McDavid, so I’ll be interesting to see how Barry Trotz trots Dobson out.
- Michael Dal Colle – The 2014 5th overall pick has taken a bit longer to make it to the Islanders roster. In the OHL, he was a prolific goal-scorer, but in 28 games last year and only scored three goals for New York. He’s on a pretty good line tonight, so we’ll see if he can take advantage of the opportunity.
- Sergei Varlamov – I was a bit surprised when the Islanders let Robin Lehner walk in favor of signing Varlamov. I’ve always thought that the Russian was a bit too up-and-down if you know what I mean. His numbers look good so far and in a Trotz system, they’d better. That said, when he’s on, he’s a beauty.
Three Players to Watch for the Oilers
Oilers morning line rushes at NYI:
Draisaitl-McDavid-Kassian
Jurco-RNH-Neal
Khaira-Sheahan-Archibald
Nygard-Haas-P. RussellNurse-Bear
Klefbom-Persson
Russell-Benning— Jack Michaels (@EdmontonJack) October 8, 2019
- Riley Sheahan – The former Red Wing will be playing his first official game for the Oilers and I’m very keen to see how he does. He’s quite good on the faceoffs and from what I gathered from preseason, he’s a big body that fares well in the trenches. I guess Josh Archibald won’t be good to go tonight and that’s a bit disappointing. No word on who’ll play right-wing on Sheahan’s line. One of Patrick Russell or Colby Cave I’d imagine.
- Mikko Koskinen – Watch. The Islanders will be shooting high-glove all night long because the entire league knows Koskinen can be beat there. He’s very good with low shots and cross-ice chances I feel. So it’ll be up to him to show everyone that he’s solved the glove-hand problem. It’ll also be on his teammates to prevent the Islanders from getting those shooting chances too.
- Tomas Jurco – Was quiet versus LA until that beautiful setup for Darnell Nurse’s goal. If he’s getting some more TOI with a couple of players like RNH and James Neal, he’s got to produce. Be that points on the scoresheet or shots and scoring chances, there must be something to show for the coach’s display of faith in the player.
The one thing that gives me a bit of hope for an Oilers win is that the Islanders have only scored five goals in their first two games. That said, this will be Edmonton’s first real go against a team that is good at keeping the scores low and outchecking their opponents. How Tippett’s boys react to a team like that will be very interesting as I feel they’ve been pretty lucky to get their four points so far.
