New York Islanders 2017-18 NHL Season Month By Month

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NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 18: Ryan Pulock #6 of the New York Islanders celebrates a second period goal by Josh Bailey #12 against the Carolina Hurricanes at the Barclays Center on March 18, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

October – No Power

Record: 7-4-1 (3rd in Metro)

Remember when times were a bit simpler? When we still only had one arena. John Tavares was only a few months into his negotiation window with the Islanders, and more importantly, the Islanders were winning.

Through the month of October, the New York Islanders went 7-4-1 and ranked third in the Metro. It seemed like the Islanders were picking up where they left off from the 2016-17 season that saw them and new Head Coach Doug Weight put up a 24-12-4 record.

I know they lost 5-0 on opening night against the Blue Jackets, but a 7-4-1 record would put them at 48-27-7 or 103 points. Surely more than enough to make the postseason.

But there was one problem with the all this winning. The Islanders were doing it without the support of the power play. Scoring 5on5 is great, but if that special team kept putting up goose eggs the Islanders wouldn’t find success.

Through their first 20 opportunities, the Islanders power play was effective 0% of the time. Scoring zero goals. Until Ryan Pulock was put in the lineup. He immediately had an impact on the power play. Scoring his first goal of the season on the man advantage. That was October 13th.

By the end of the month, the Islanders jumped to 19th in the league with another six power-play goals. And by the end of the season, they’d rank sixth with a 23% efficiency.

They clearly fixed the problem on the powerplay. But for a while in October we thought they’d never score a power-play goal.