Brock Nelson scored 37 goals last season, which would take a lot to duplicate this time around, but the Islanders center played Saturday as if he could. 

The 31-year-old scored twice in a 4-3 overtime win over the Blue Jackets. Almost as notably, he shot the puck 10 times, three more than he did in any single game last season. That accounted for nearly a third of the Islanders’ shots on net through the first two periods and helped keep them in the game when they otherwise struggled through much of the first 40 minutes. 

“Every night I try to go in and you have different things you wanna look for,” Nelson said. “Shooting’s obviously one of them. Tonight felt like there was a couple more opportunities maybe to get clean looks. It was nice. Some nights it feels like the puck is falling and tonight’s kind of like that.” 

Both of Nelson’s goals came in the second period, as he first tied the score at 1-1, then at 2-2. The Islanders otherwise had trouble generating offense at that point in the night. They mostly played a structured defensive game, but failed to effectively transition the puck. 

Nelson sparked the offense with a shift featuring two high-danger chances — a tight-angled backhand and a breakaway — which Joonas Korpisalo stopped. On a third chance, though, Korpisalo was helpless on Nelson’s redirect of a Scott Mayfield pass to the crease for his first goal. 

“I don’t know if we made direct eye contact [but] I’m looking at him,” Nelson said. “He’s scanning the whole zone. It’s a good heads up play from him to kind of get that [pass] through.” 

At the tail end of the period, Nelson struck again, this time off Sebastian Aho’s rebound, to energize the UBS Arena crowd heading into the third period. 

Nelson now has eight goals through 16 games, putting him on pace for 41. 

“I thought he was moving his feet,” Islanders coach Lane Lambert said. “When he skates, he can skate and he did tonight. And he didn’t pass up any shots and he got rewarded for it.” 

Lambert pointed to Nelson’s numbers in the faceoff circle — he won 8 of 11 draws — as a further sign that he was locked in. 

“Everything sort of leads into that,” Lambert said. “When you’re on your game, you’re hot on faceoffs and you’re staying on pucks and that’s what he was doing.” 

Nelson was jokingly asked about reaching 40 goals, a number he has never approached until last season, and one that would cement his status as a star without reproach. 

“I’ll try,” he said. 

The Blue Jackets were missing seven regulars: defensemen Zach Werenski (torn labrum), Nick Blankenburg (ankle fracture), Erik Gudbranson (upper-body) and Adam Boqvist (broken foot); forwards Justin Danforth (torn labrum), Sean Kuraly (upper-body) and Jakub Voracek (upper-body).