Islanders: Leo Komarov Has Game Of His Life After Being Waived

Before the Islanders took on the Boston Bruins they decided to waive Leo Komarov. This was just a paper transaction as it’s been 30 days since he cleared through waivers and in order for him to be moved to the taxi squad he needed to clear again.

To no surprise, Komarov cleared waivers and was right back in the lineup on Saturday night for the Isles. What was surprising was Komarov’s performance.

For the first time since January of 2016, Leo Komarov had a multi-assist game. It’s been over five years since Leo did what he did last night for the Islanders.

His first assist came on the first JG Pageau goal. Ryan Pulock threw a puck on net and both Komarov and Pageau were there, crashing the net, and trying to get a stick on it. Eventually, Pageau did and Komarov was rewarded with an assist.

The big play of the night was his assist on the Pageau short-handed goal.

A tremendous feed from Komarov over to Pageau to extend the Islanders lead to two goals and put the game on ice. A clearly rejuvenated Uncle Leo played 14:39, the most ice time he’s gotten this year, and had four hits to his name to go along with it.

That Komarov – Pageau – Wahlstorm line looked really solid again last night, and Leo was a big part of it. Yes, I usually tend to be critical of Komarov and I still think he should be the one to come out when Anthony Beauvillier is healthy but there’s no denying his performance from last night. He was solid.

I’ll even go ahead and say Michael Dal Colle has been playing better. He didn’t pick up a point but his effort was there all night, and his presence was actually noticed, which is an area he tends to be quiet in.

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It must be Valentine’s Day, as I’m being nice to both MDC and Leo Komarov, but in all honesty, they deserve it right now. Good on Uncle Leo, I hope he repeats that performance on Monday.