Eyes On Isles

New York Islanders Daily: Power Play Problems Continue

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 26: Head Coach Barry Trotz of the New York Islanders instructs his team against the Washington Capitals during their game at the Barclays Center on November 26, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 26: Head Coach Barry Trotz of the New York Islanders instructs his team against the Washington Capitals during their game at the Barclays Center on November 26, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

The New York Islanders power play killed them again last night. They’re now one for their last 12 power play opportunities.

A power play is defined as; one team is penalized by having the number of players on the field of play temporarily reduced. The term power play is commonly applied to the state of advantage the unpenalized team enjoys during this time. Notice the term advantage in the definition? Apparently, the New York Islanders do not.

They were 0-for-4 on the power play last night and it inevitably cost them in a 4-1 victory. If you go back even further the power play numbers get worse.

In their last 10 games, nearly half the games they’ve played this year, their power play is 3-for-34. That’s nine percent. That’s inexcusable.

For some reason, the Islanders love to do this thing where they drop pass back to Mathew Barzal flying up the ice. It doesn’t work. They have too many people clogged at the blue line so it’s hard to get it into the zone.

Once it’s in the zone they also never generate any shots. Way too often they come out of a power play opportunity with either zero or one shot on goal. That cannot happen.

Lastly, the personnel isn’t the best. It doesn’t help when Cal Clutterbuck is getting power play time. He possesses a slightly above average wrist shot (that’s been put on display once in the last 10 months) for a fourth liner so that justifies the power play slot I guess.

That’s one of the reason’s why people were critical of all the Islanders moves to bring in all the bottom six pieces. They’re missing a piece on the power play and are doing virtually nothing to change their monstrosity they put out there every night.

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