SALT LAKE CITY — There will be multiple storylines as the Islanders pull into Denver for Sunday’s meeting with the Avalanche, the fifth game on this seven-stop road trip.
Brock Nelson will skate for the first time against the Islanders after playing 901 regular-season games and scoring 295 goals for them.
He ranks fifth in club history in both goals and games played. Islanders coach Patrick Roy will be facing a Colorado franchise for which he played eight seasons and hoisted the Stanley Cup twice.
Not to get lost amid that hoopla, though, is the return to the Rockies of Jonathan Drouin, who scored 30 goals in 122 games there before becoming the Islanders’ key outside acquisition of the offseason when he signed a two-year, $8 million free-agent contract.
“I’m excited. I had a great time in Colorado,” said Drouin, who scored the tying goal with 6:16 to go in the third period Friday night to help the Islanders claim a 3-2 overtime victory against the Mammoth at Delta Center. “Everyone was great with me, from the fans, my teammates, the staff. So I enjoyed my two years there, but I’m loving New York so far. It’s been great.”
Like the Islanders as a whole, Drouin is on quite a roll.
He scored a breakaway goal and had two assists in a 5-0 trouncing of the Rangers at the Garden.
Two nights later, he set up Mathew Barzal for the overtime game-winner against the Devils in Newark. In Vegas, he collected assists on goals by Matthew Schaefer and Barzal. And against Utah, his kick of the puck toward the net withstood video scrutiny.
“Very impressed with him,” Roy said of Drouin’s two-way contributions (three goals, 11 assists, plus-7). “His 200-feet game has been really good for us. I mean, he’s playing well defensively, but the play that he made in overtime [in New Jersey], the pass he made, I mean, that’s his skills that he has.”
The Isles are 3-0-0 in the second games of back-to-back situations. … Outshot from start to finish (29-21 was the final count), the Islanders saw a continuation of an odd trend: They are 8-1-0 when the opponent registers more shots on goals, compared to 1-5-1 when they do.
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