Penguins/Islanders notes: Brock Nelson a pest, series shifts back to Pittsburgh
All indications are that Brock Nelson is as polite and gregarious as his Minnesota background suggest he’d be.
On the ice, though, it can be a different story — particularly when the stakes are highest during the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The New York Islanders’ 6-foot-4 center, Nelson has seemingly found ways to get under the skin of Pittsburgh Penguins players throughout the course of the teams’ first-round series that is tied at two games apiece.
“It’s just part of the game,” Nelson said, matter-of-factly, of his duties as something of a pest to the Penguins. “You just try to go out there and play, and I want to try to give us the best chance of winning however that may be. You can impact a game in a lot of different ways, but whatever the game presets, you just try to out there and be hard to play against and be tough on them.”
A low-key so-called crap-disturber on a team that employs the likes of more renowned annoyances such as Matt Martin and Casey Cisekas, Nelson has drawn three penalties so far in this series.
But Nelson of course makes his impact in other ways. Second among Islanders forwards in average ice time (18 minutes, 12 seconds per game), Nelson has a goal and two assists in this series against the Penguins. He’s won 53% of his faceoffs and been credited with delivering eight hits.
According to naturalstattrick.com, among the 37 skaters who have taken part in this series, only four have been on the ice at 5-on-5 for more “high-danger” scoring chances created (18) by his team. Only eight have had a better percentage of those types of prime scoring opportunities for his team relative to the opponent (60%).
“He’s definitely on the top of his game on both sides of the puck,” teammate J-G Pageau said. “He plays hard, he’s good on (faceoffs), he’s a fast player with good vision. He does it all out there.”
Back to the Burgh
Several Islanders players and coach Barry Trotz were highly complimentary of the crowd at Nassau Coliseum for Games 3 and 4. After the bizarre 2020 postseason with no fans on hand at a neutral site, it was a welcome addition to the atmosphere.
But more than 9,000 fans of the opposition will be the ones making noise for Game 5, which is scheduled to face off just after 7 p.m. Monday at PPG Paints Arena.
“We have to take that energy and almost put it on our side,” Pageau said. “Instead of thinking we are the away team — take that energy and build off it.”
Trotz endorses a similar approach.
“Absolutely,” he said. “(Take the atmosphere and treat it like) ‘Us against the world, us against them.’”
Penguins off
For the second time this series, the Penguins called off a practice scheduled for an idle day between games. They had been scheduled for a noon workout at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry.
The Penguins had no media availability on Sunday, either.
The Penguins also called off their Wednesday practice between Games 2 and 3.
The Islanders did practice in New York before traveling to Pittsburgh on Sunday.
Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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