New York Islanders: Five Things They Need to Fix Next Season

Game Management

I wanted to further that last point in hammering home the notion of game management. By game management, I mean closing out games where the Isles are in a winning position. 

This was measured by comparing how often the Islanders ended the second period in a winning position, and how many times that winning position stayed by the end of the game.

We say in the previous slide that the Isles tend to ramp up their offense in the third period after letting it go in the second period. Was the actually helping in the points column?

In 2015-16, the Isles entered the third period in a winning position 47 times. Of those 47 times, the Isles had that winning position change from a losing to a tieing one 32% of the time.

For the majority of the time, the Islanders were able to maintain that winning position. But, a third of the time they lost a few points in the standings.

To take a step forward from last season the Islanders are going to have to stop shedding points from winning positions.

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We’re talking about marginal changes here, with all five fixes. The Islanders were a winning team with a 100 point haul last season. They weren’t perfect with a few area’s needing some slight improvements. Improvements that will have them back in the playoffs and pushing for that conference finals appearance.