Jonathan Drouin shifts to center as Islanders give…
WASHINGTON — The torpid effort by the Islanders on Saturday night time prompted a drastic change in their ahead strains for Monday’s 4-1 loss against the Capitals.
Not only was Mathew Barzal shifted back to the wing and reunited with Bo Horvat for just the fourth time this season, but the second line featured Jonathan Drouin beginning at center for the first time all 12 months.
Islanders left wing Jonathan Drouin skates with the puck in entrance of Capitals center Aliaksei Protas during the second period on Monday in Washington. AP
Drouin skated between Emil Heineman and Simon Holmstrom, another mixture the Islanders had never deployed together.
The only ahead line that stayed untouched was the fourth line of Kyle MacLean, Casey Cizikas and Marc Gatcomb.
Anthony Duclair moved down to the third line with Anders Lee and Jean-Gabriel Pageau, while Ondrej Palat skated with Barzal and Horvat.
“I was pretty happy the way things went with the Horvat line [and] Drouin line,” Roy said after the sport. “Even the Pageau and Cizikas [lines]. I thought we did a lot of good things, but unfortunately maybe not enough offensively to score more than one goal.”
The Islanders have been preserving the thought of Drouin taking part in in the center in their back pockets for a while, having sometimes skated with him there when others missed practices.
Drouin has also incessantly taken faceoffs, and took a 50.9 p.c charge at the dots into Monday, when he went 4-for-11 on faceoffs.
Trying Heineman and Holmstrom, two Swedes who are close off the ice, together, may also help to spark Heineman, who has hit a bit of a wall recently.
“I like playing center,” Drouin, who has sometimes performed the place in both the NHL and in juniors, said pregame. “You’re more free a little bit up the ice, you’re not stuck on the wall as a winger watching your defensemen. More free, a little more instinct.”
The revamped power-play items, with Matthew Schaefer, Barzal, Horvat, Holmstrom and Palat together on the top unit, produced an 0-for-2 night time.
David Rittich stopped 20 of 23 pictures in nets on the entrance end of the back-to-back, with Ilya Sorokin scheduled to play Tuesday against the Penguins at UBS Arena.
Islanders goaltender David Rittich clears the puck against Capitals left wing Anthony Beauvillier (left) during the second period. AP
Roy said goalie coach Sergei Naumovs made the choice.
“That was a tough one because Ilya was so good here in Washington at the beginning of the season,” Roy said. “Probably one of his better games. They’re both good teams, Washington and Pittsburgh. Sometimes you just go with what the goalie coach’s feeling is.”
Scott Mayfield fought Tom Wilson 1:47 into the third after Wilson hit Holmstrom close to center ice.
Though the hit was legal, Mayfield called it “a little awkward, kind of high.”
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