For Islanders, life without Nelson gets off to good start

ANAHEIM, Calif. — There’s no way to sugarcoat the enormity of losing Brock Nelson from the Islanders’ lineup. The top-six center led the team in goals in each of the previous five seasons and ranked fourth in franchise history with 901 games, fifth with 295 goals and eighth with 574 points when he was traded to the Avalanche late Thursday night after rejecting the team’s final contract extension offer.

But in the NHL’s next-man-up world, this three-game California swing that continued on Sunday night against the Ducks at Honda Center is a chance for president/general manager Lou Lamoriello and coach Patrick Roy to test who will step into the void.

“We’re going to need different guys to step up in different times,” Bo Horvat said. “We’re a determined group in here.”

Saturday night’s 4-2 win over the NHL-worst Sharks had some positive signs.

“We just try to focus on what we have to do,” Roy said when asked if it was “weird” not to have Nelson in the lineup. “I think that’s what our guys did.”

Jean-Gabriel Pageau, elevated to second-line center, had a goal and two assists as, after a sluggishly passive first period, Roy’s reconfigured lines showed chemistry. Anthony Duclair, still dealing with the effects of a suspected groin issue that kept him out for 28 games from Oct. 22-Dec. 17 but expected to be a key top-line producer after signing a four-year, $14 million deal, notched a power-play goal for his first point in five games.

And the new-look power-play units went 2-for-4 with six shots, marking only the third time this season the Islanders have scored twice on the man advantage.

Horvat, with a game-high seven shots, centered Kyle Palmieri (six shots) and Duclair. Pageau was between Anders Lee (goal) and Simon Holmstrom (two assists).

“Sometimes it goes in, sometimes it goes through some stretches it doesn’t,” Pageau said. “They’re two extremely good players that have a really good hockey IQ that work extremely hard. We’ve played together before so we kind of know our tendencies.”

Pageau worked between the circles on one power-play unit quarterbacked by defenseman Tony DeAngelo with Lee as the net-front presence and defenseman Adam Boqvist (power-play goal) and Maxim Tsyplakov on the walls. Defenseman Noah Dobson quarterbacked the other unit with Horvat in the bumper spot, Holmstrom and Duclair on the walls and Palmieri at the net.

The Islanders finally have moved out of last in the NHL on the power play, ranking 31st (just ahead of the Ducks) at 19-for-148 (12.8%).

“It’s given us confidence,” Horvat said. “It wasn’t anything pretty, it was just us moving the puck around quickly and getting pucks toward the net, and they went in for us.”

While the Islanders have a team-wide mandate to step up and try to replace Nelson’s production, there is a focus on Duclair, given his rough first season on Long Island that yielded only six goals and four assists in his first 32 games.

Duclair said his injury is improving, though he readily acknowledged he “hasn’t been the same” since getting hurt. But Duclair dispelled any notion that he’s putting any extra pressure on himself right now.

“It’s going to be a full team effort,” Duclair said. “Everyone has to step up, not just one player. We can’t replace Brock and what he’s brought to the organization, but what we can do is come together and play as a team.”

Notes & quotes: Fourth-line center Kyle MacLean was unavailable because of illness, so Roy used offensive-minded defenseman  Boqvist in his place. Roy said it was the first time Boqvist had been used as a center in the NHL. “I kind of asked him,” Roy said when asked if Boqvist had volunteered. “He said whatever helps the team to win.” . . .  Goalie Marcus Hogberg (upper body), out since Jan. 25, was activated off injured reserve to start the second night of a back-to-back. Jakub Skarek was reassigned to the Islanders’ AHL affiliate in Bridgeport after appearing in two games, including his first NHL start. Ilya Sorokin had started 32 of the previous 38 games . . . Defenseman Scott Mayfield drew back into the lineup after he was a healthy scratch against the Sharks for the fourth time in the last six games.