Pre-Scout: Islanders visit Oilers amid season-long road trip

This is the second straight time the Edmonton Oilers host a team that just lost to the Winnipeg Jets.

The New York Islanders make their annual pilgrimage to Edmonton following a 5-4 loss, as they glide across the continent on a season-long road trip.

The group upfront took the blame, despite coming back from three goals down, as the usually steady Iyla Sorokin made just 17 saves.

“It felt like the game we expected tonight,” Lee said. “I think we knew that this Winnipeg team is much better than where they are right now and can easily put a big push in.

“Defensively, we have to be better, there’s no question about it…We know that in this room. It wasn’t our best tonight. You put in (four) goals and it’s not enough to get a point. We made some mistakes on the back-end tonight as a group, and we can fix that.”

The Islander names of old, combined with new faces, are making a competitive run for playoff contention, sitting second in the Metro Division with a 25-16-5 record.

That’s already within ten wins of their total a year ago, where they finished 23rd overall in the NHL, but lucked out in the lottery.

They’ve been playing good hockey.

But one of their biggest pieces likely won’t be in the lineup. Chosen for Team Canada, Bo Horvat hasn’t played in two weeks. His anticipated return is Jan. 21, but stranger things have happened.

Alex Romanov and Kyle Palmieri have knocked out for the year already, and longtime backup Semyon Varlamov is trending to return beyond the Olympics.

Who’s popping on Long Island?

Simon Holmstrom had two goals and an assist in 4-3 overtime victory on Saturday against Minnesota. The Islanders erased deficits on three separate occasions, the second time this season they’ve done that en route to victory (also Oct. 18 in a 5-4 win against the Ottawa Senators).

He’s quietly lighting the lamp with a dozen goals. Holmstrom has been a slow developing prospect, drafted in the first round back in 2019. But last year was his coming out party with 45 points. He’s trending to produce another similar season.

Mathew Barzal has been finding ways to produce offensively. He has points in five of his last seven games, with one goal and eight points. He remains the de facto offensively driver in this lineup.

Of course, another Matthew has taken the league by storm. The prohibitive betting vavourite for the Calder Trophy, Matthew Schaefer is third on the team in goals with 13 and already hit 30 points.

While third in rookie scoring, behind Ivan Demidov and Beckett Senecke, Schaefer has been remarkably consistent and is such a pillar of their lineup already. In fact, two of the last three games his ice-time has topped 27 minutes. Impressive.

But a not so sexy name across the league is Emil Heineman, who is a sweetener in the blockbuster trade with Montreal that swapped Noah Dobson to the belle province.

Heineman’s scored 14 goals in his breakout sophomore campaign, trailing only Olympic selection Bo Horvat.

The former second round pick looks legit.

Notes…

• The power play discrepancies in this matchup tonight do not get anymore stark. The Islanders powerplay has been dreadful, sitting dead last in the NHL at ay 15.2 per cent, more than 18 per cent worse the Oilers power play.
• The penalty kill is much better, a unit that is top-10 in the league at 81.4 per cent. Keep in mind, the Oilers penalty kill is continuing to creep up the ranks as well. Edmonton is ranked 12th on the PK at 80.3 per cent.
• The Oilers will play in four games in three different timezones in six nights, this week. After central timezone battles on the road, this is just a quick pop-in back home, before going to the pacific to face the Vancouver Canucks.
• Meanwhile, for the Islanders this is their fourth game of their monster seven-game roadtrip. So far the trip has elicited three points, 1-1-1.
• The Isles are 3-2-1 in the month of January. This season, they’ve played well against the Western Conference too, suiting up with a 11-7-1 record.
• I’d be surprised if the Islanders don’t start Sorokin, who’s been great this season. His .911 save percentage, if the season ended today, would be better than the previous two seasons.