New York Islanders Power Play Woes Under Doug Weight

The New York Islanders have scored their first power-play goal of the 2017-18 NHL season. Let’s rejoice! Sure. But don’t party too long. There’s a lot of work to do here. Cause Weight hasn’t been the best special teams coach.

Against the New York Rangers, the New York Islanders finally scored their first power-play goal of the 2017-18 NHL season. It only took 21 chances, but finally the Isles we able to get the puck to the back of the net on the man advantage.

Maybe all it took was putting Ryan Pulock into the lineup to spark the power-play. He did provide a primary assist on Anders Lee’s goal on the man-advantage.

Or maybe it was just the odds just going in the New York Islanders. Statistically speaking the Islanders had to score a power-play goal at some point. They weren’t going to go all year without a PP goal. That just doesn’t happen.

I want to hope that this singular power-play goal will open the floodgates for a ton more. But looking at Doug Weight’s numbers on the power-play as the coach tells me otherwise.

Efficiency Since Take Over

Doug Weight took over from Jack Capuano as head coach back in the middle of January 2017. He successfully took the New York Islanders to the brink of the playoffs.

With a 24-12-4 record, Doug Weight led the Islanders to just a point of the playoffs behind Mike Babcock’s Toronto Maple Leafs. But the Islanders finished the season 28th overall in terms of power-play efficiency with 15%.

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Only the Vancouver Canucks and Colorado Avalanche were worse than the Islanders. Two absolute tire fires in the NHL during the 2016-17 season.

Terrible. And this season, obviously, hasn’t been any better. Since Doug Weight has taken over as the Isles bench boss his overall power-play efficiency has been 14.38%. With a total of 20 goals on 139 opportunities.

And look, the Islanders haven’t always been this bad on the power-play. Just three seasons ago they ranked 17th in the league with an 18.3% efficiency on 43 PPG in 229 opportunities.

Doug Weight was coaching with Jack Capuano then and was even responsible for the special teams.

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Doug Weight has to switch things up. His strategy obviously isn’t working. And sure inserting a new player like Pulock might give the PP a boost, but that won’t last forever. He’s got to rethink how he enters the zone, how they cycle the puck in the zone. Hey, we’ve got ideas for him.