Islanders Breakdown: Holmstrom, Horvat & Barzal Discuss Missed Chance

The Hockey News caught up with Simon Holmstrom, Bo Horvat, and Mathew Barzal to discuss a chance that went by the boards Saturday night in their 3-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres.

EAST MEADOW, NY -- The New York Islanders' top-six dominated Saturday night against the Buffalo Sabres.

While Brock Nelson's line produced two of the three goals, the Islanders top line of Mathew Barzal, Bo Horvat, and Simon Holmstrom were flying all over the ice. 

With 11 of the club's 29 shots, the only thing they failed to do was find the back of the net, generating 12 scoring chances. 

"I was happy with our line's game," Horvat told The Hockey News following Tuesday's practice. "We were creating chances. We didn't spend a lot of time in our own end, and I think that's going to benefit us here in the long."

As mentioned Monday morning in our piece on Holmstrom's first game with the Islanders dynamic duo, there was a prime scoring chance for that line late in the second period.

Here's the play:

If Barzal's feed to Horvat at the back post is executed, it would have been a beautiful tic-tac-toe play. Instead, the play went by the boards. 

Should Holmstrom have just shot the puck rather than feeding Barzal?

There's a couple of reasons as to why people thought Holmstrom didn't shoot the puck. 

The main one was that Holmstrom lacked confidence in his shot, as he struggled throughout his professional career to hit the net, and that since Barzal was wide-open, he would rather just get the puck off his stick. 

"There's no confidence issue there," Islanders head coach Lane Lambert said after practice. 

"I trust my shot, and I trust my instincts" were the words of Holmstrom post-game. 

The Hockey News spoke with all three forwards to get their take on the play following Tuesday's practice:

"I actually [told Holmstrom] I shouldn't have called for it," Barzal told THN. "I like that he's given me the puck, but it was actually my bad.

"I felt like the defenseman was going to commit to Holmstrom, but he didn't."

Holmstrom told us Saturday night that he had to rewatch the sequence and determine if he made the right play, given what he saw on th ice. 

The young Swede did his homework.

"Looking back, I probably should have shot it," Holmstrom said.

In terms of Barzal calling for the puck, the 22-year-old forward knows that it's his call to listen. 

"Even if he calls for it, it's my call too, to either make the play or shoot it," Holmstrom said. 

It's a fast game, and decision-making needs to be made in a split second. 

The belief that Holmstrom had a wide-open lane isn't 100 percent true.

 If he shoots the puck initially after cutting to the slot or a few strides after following the board battle win, then yes, he has the entire net to shoot at.

But because Holmstrom takes that extra few seconds, being a left-handed shot, he loses the blocker side because of the stick positioning of Sabres' defenseman Mattias Samuelsson. 

That doesn't mean a shot there doesn't find twine, but with Sabres' netminder Devon Levi at the top of his crease and not dropping down into the butterfly position, there wasn't a whole lot of net to shoot at, and the pass became the only real option. 

"I feel like if [the passing play] is executed, it's in the back of the net," Horvat said. "I mean, you can't be mad at a guy for trying to make a play. 

"I think it was the first play of the game for us, when I took that shot, I could have had Homer backdoor, so it's like...I don't know...you got to just make the read, and sometimes you make the wrong play, but it's never a bad play to shoot the puck."

Horvat wants to see Holmstrom shoot the puck more. 

"I think he's a little too nice," Horvat joked. "He's got a great shot, a great release, and I think he's got to use a little bit more too."

The more the line plays with another, the more Holmstrom will get more comfortable with when to make passes and when to be selfish.

"All of us are smart enough players and have enough skill to make those kinds of plays," Horvat said. "It's just kind of reading off each other. And the more we play with each other and practice with each other, the more we're going to get comfortable, so we just gotta keep it going."