New York Islanders: Team Canada Takes Half Of Isles Offense

With the New York Islanders out of the playoffs, the World Championships is the second best option for summer hockey. And Team Canada is taking nearly half of the Islanders offense.

At the World Championships this May Team Canada will be taking nearly half of the New York Islanders offense. And I don’t mean half as the number of players their taking. Though that’s not too far off either.

For the second-rate annual summer hockey tournament Team Canada has invited a number of New York Islanders players, and four have already declared they will represent their country. And now a fifth has joined their ranks.

Before today, Mathew Barzal, Anthony Beauvillier, Ryan Pulock, and Jordan Eberle had all decided they would represent Canada. And now Josh Bailey will be joining them.

The quintet represents just less that half of all points scored by the New York Islanders in 2017-18.

Half the Offense. Hopefully, Some Defense

If there was one thing that defined the New York Islanders 2017-18 season it was how they scored a bucket load of goals. For a while they were the best offense in the league, by the end of the season they would rank eighth with 264 goals for.

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That eighth-ranked offense generated a total of 678 points. And the five players Team Canada is taking account for 42% of those points.

The Canadians are getting offense from the Islanders contingent they’re bringing to Denmark in May. But while the Islanders scored a ton this season, they gave up just as many goals against.

Based on the underlying numbers, Mathew Barzal, Ryan Pulock, and Jordan Eberle shouldn’t be a worry. All are some of the few Islanders players that registered positive expected goals +/- on the season. But Beauvilier (-1.78) and Josh Bailey (-11.06) rank 20th and second respectively on the team.

Expected goals +/- is the measure of goals the player is expected to generate based on the number and quality of shots-for versus the quality and number of shots-against.

(Stats from Corsica.Hockey)

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If you’re a Canadian you might be thrilled for the offense, but worried about the defense. If you’re American you’re probably thinking the opposite. Either way, the Worlds are starting to become a tournament to watch, between playoff games that is.