Kyle Palmieri was forced to sit and watch as the Islanders’ season slipped out from underneath their feet.
As he dealt with an injury suffered right before Thanksgiving, the Islanders stayed afloat. Then, in mid-December, Palmieri returned for a game at Arizona, but was injured again on a hit up high from Nick Ritchie. The Islanders took a disastrous 5-4 loss to the Coyotes and by the time Palmieri returned for good this past Monday, his team, which was 12-8-0 when he first got hurt, had fallen to 23-21-5.
On Friday, in his third game back in the lineup, he had two primary assists and keyed the Islanders’ best line in a 2-0 win over the Red Wings to break a six-game losing streak. Afterward, Palmieri talked about how he has been in losing locker rooms before, and that he doesn’t group the Islanders in with those teams.
“The way our team leads themselves it’s something you gotta believe in,” he said. “It’s usually not as bad as you think it is. And it’s one bounce, one period, one momentum shift away. And things go the other way. That’s really all you can say. We were not sitting around waiting for it. We wanted to go out there and seize the opportunity.”
Since his return, Palmieri has brought that attitude, and a much-needed spark of energy, to the lineup. Friday marked his third and fourth assists in three games, and his line, with Brock Nelson and Anders Lee, has been by far the best on a team that is still searching for a consistent offensive spark.
“It was a long time waiting there for things to be ready to go,” Palmieri said. “Happy to be back.”
“He feels really strong on the puck,” Lee said. “I think he’s making and seeing a lot of plays. He’s been huge with [Nelson] and I. I think we’ve generate quite a bit that I think we’ve liked, and been able to walk away with a few here lately. But him on the line, great in the corners, gets pucks to the net. I think we’re gelling pretty good.”
Coach Lane Lambert has searched all season for consistent line combinations and may need to keep doing so. The Nelson line was the only one that took control against Detroit on Friday. But Palmieri makes that search easier.
“Certainly he’s a big piece of the puzzle,” Lambert said. “You can see that in the way he plays. There’s no question we missed him when he was out.”
Noah Dobson and Hudson Fasching missed their fourth and sixth consecutive games, respectively, against the Golden Knights on Saturday night as both deal with lower-body injuries.
