Islanders Scott Gomez Can Provide Help To Power Play

The New York Islanders were abysmal on the power play in 2016-2017, but their newest coach should be able to help out in that category.

So the New York Islanders added another former player to their staff in Scott Gomez. Hopefully, Gomez will be able to help out in one are in particular that the Isles desperately need. That, to no surprise, is the power play.

Last year the Islanders were 15 percent on the power play. It was “good” enough for third to last in the league. A cringe-worthy stat that was likely one of the reasons the Isles missed out on the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2017.

My thought is that the addition of Gomez could potentially help the Isles power play be somewhat competitive. Here are some numbers for you:

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Scott Gomez scored 123 goals in his career. He wasn’t necessarily a prolific scorer in his day but he served a purpose and his play yielded him a 16-year career in the league. Of those 123 goals, 28 of them came on the power play.

That’s 27 percent of his career goals coming on the power play. For comparison, we will look at the Isles numbers from last year. Of their 239 goals on the season, just 35 of them came on the power play (17 percent).

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Can Gomez help get that power play in motion? He certainly can’t make it any worse! The power play used to be Doug Weight’s job when Jack Capuano was behind the bench and we know how that faired.

If Gomez can’t be the savior of the power play than option number two is a man who goes by the name of Ryan Pulock. The Isles can put that huge right-handed shot on the power play and those numbers should skyrocket (in theory).

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Only time will tell but it’s worth a shot. The Isles have nothing to lose here.

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