New York Islanders Round Table: Power Play Setup

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NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 28: Brock Nelson #29 of the New York Islanders skates against the Washington Capitals at the Barclays Center on September 28, 2015 in Brooklyn borough of New York City. The Capitals defeated the Islanders 3-1. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Michel Anderson

PP1: Nelson – Barzal – Lee – Eberle – Leddy

I like Brock Nelson along the half wall instead of Josh Bailey. Bailey can shoot, but hasn’t displayed the intent to shoot in some time. Nelson has an incredible shot that needs to be unleashed.

Mathew Barzal and Jordan Eberle can do most of the work down low to cycle the puck around and to make those crips passes. While Lee does what he does so well in front of the net: tipping pucks, screening goalies, and just generally causing havoc.

Nick Leddy can continue to operate at the blue line. While he doesn’t have the heavy shot of a Ryan Pulock or Johnny Boychuk he’s got an accurate shot from the blueline and is a great secondary option after Mathew Barzal to lug the puck into the o-zone.

PP2: Beauvillier – Bailey – Ho-Sang – Pulock – Boychuk

I’ve liked this structure for some time. Having two cannon shots on the blue line is an outstanding weapon to unleash on teams. As we saw against the Colorado Avalanche, they don’t just need to shoot them from the point, but they can move up to the Ovie slot too.

The two Josh’s are responsible to get the puck into the zone when it exits and for retrieving the puck along the boards. Anthony Beauvillier sticks between the two circles tipping pucks and acting as that link between the wingers and the defensemen.

(PS: Josh Ho-Sang isn’t going anywhere.)

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The New York Islanders have seen a slight resurgence on the power play recently but there’s still a long way to go before we can say they’re back.