The cycle that’s played out over the season’s first six games with Simon Holmstrom isn’t new.
Holmstrom spent all of training camp and opening night on the Islanders’ top line, the Islanders betting that after a second straight 40-point year, the 25-year-old would be able to take the leap into a full-time top-six player. He got out of the gates slowly, dropped to the third line and then, on Tuesday night, the fourth line.
That game, a 3-2 win over the Canucks, was his best of the season so far as the Swedish winger finally looked like himself.
The details of the cycle change — usually, Holmstrom can find his game on the third line next to Jean-Gabriel Pageau — but the broad arc doesn’t. Holmstrom’s output is excellent when he’s in the Islanders’ bottom six, and he’s much less consistent in the top six.
