Islanders Forward Oliver Wahlstrom is Day to Day

The Islanders received both good news and bad news on their day off today. First, Semyon Varlamov is back with the team after dealing with COVID when the Islanders were up in Canada last week. Unfortunately, another forward got banged up which is the bad news.

This time, it's Oliver Wahlstrom who is day to day with an upper body injury.

This makes a lot of sense. In the Islanders win over Boston on Thursday, Wahlstrom played only 9:47 which was the lowest on the team. I am slightly relieved that he was banged up rather than just being in the dog house for something.

Before the injury, Ollie was on a little bit of a cold run. He has just two goals in his last 20 games (10 points though) and just one point in his last six games for the Islanders.

Oliver's been a little bit streaky this year, which is expected from someone who has less than 100 career games in the league and is 21 years old. In November, he has a 10 game streak without a point but then after that was nearly unstoppable.

He then would go on an 11 game run of 11 points with three goals. The Islanders could use something closer to that version of Oliver Wahlstrom than what they have been getting recently.

With Wahlstrom out of the lineup for the next little bit, it will be interesting to see what Barry Trotz decides to do with the lines.

At practice today, this is the lineup they ran with:

This is likely my best guess for what happens on Sunday. Also, I like Bailey down on the third line. Kieffer Bellows has been playing extremely well I think he should be rewarded for his play up in the top-six and then when Wahlstrom is ready to return evaluate who should come out.