ST. LOUIS — There he was on Monday night, skating around Mikko Rantanen and Oliver Kylington, getting Alexandar Georgiev to commit to one side, then pulling the puck to the other and making this look sort of easy.
There he was not even two minutes after that, coming on at the end of a penalty kill and taking the puck off Cale Makar before another sterling finish.
Just like that, a tenuous one-goal lead became a comfortable three-goal lead.
Happy Brocktober, everybody.
“Seriously, that goal he scored, the first one he scored, it’s gonna be a highlight,” Patrick Roy said of Brock Nelson after the Islanders defeated the Avalanche 6-2. “Everybody’s gonna see it.”
As well they should.
This was the Islanders’ understated star letting his play talk, netting his first two goals of a season in which he will try to keep going a three-year run of scoring 30 goals after the age of 30.
If Nelson is on pace to do so when rosters for the Four Nations Tournament are due in December, then perhaps someone over at Team USA will notice that a player who’s scored more goals than all but two American centers since 2021 has been conspicuously absent from most roster projections.
Banging the drum for Nelson being underappreciated is played out by now, but, well, here we are again.
The list of American centermen who No. 29 has outscored over that period, by the way, includes Dylan Larkin, Jack Hughes, Jack Eichel, J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck — all of whom have had an easier time finding their way into this conversation. No matter.
Three games into this Islanders season, the much-ballyhooed top line of Anthony Duclair, Bo Horvat and Mat Barzal has performed well, but the second line of Max Tsyplakov, Nelson and Kyle Palmieri has outdone them.
Small sample caveats apply, but so far, per Natural Stat Trick, the second line has accounted for a 61.76 percent shot share and a 61.24 percent expected goals share, outscoring its opposition 3-1.
That is not counting Nelson’s shorthanded goal, of course.
The trend is in keeping with recent history, over which Nelson, Palmieri and whoever is lucky enough to join them have regularly dominated the scoresheet to the notice of few outside of Long Island.
“Huge,” Anders Lee said following the first win of the season. “It’s always great to get [Nelson] when he’s at the top of his game. He’s a difference-maker every night.
“First one, what a move, and then the second one, just the patience with his stick to give [Georgiev] an option but not really, and then to finish it off. Great couple plays by him. Definitely extended our hold on the game.”
Tsyplakov’s successful integration into the top six has been a crucial development in the early goings for the Islanders.
The Russian import has looked the part of a veteran from the moment he stepped onto the ice in training camp and plays a physical offensive game that has meshed well with Nelson and Palmieri.
“I think he’s just comfortable communicating, which I imagine it’s an extremely hard thing going into a different environment, second language,” Nelson said. “I think he’s comfortable asking questions, talking to us. … He can make a lot of plays, trying to support and get to know him chemistry-wise and read and react off one another to build our game.”
But of course, Tsyplakov is the new part of a formula that’s had a long period of success.
“Max is lucky,” Roy said. “He’s playing with two great vets. I’m very happy for Nellie because Nellie’s been playing really well. … They’ve been playing very well since they’ve been together, but I’m very happy for them, because sometimes you’re not always rewarded for what you’re doing.”
They were on Monday. It was nothing new.