New York Islanders: Power Play Is Key To Potent Offense

The New York Islanders were 21st in the league in goals for last year, but Barry Trotz isn’t worried about the offense (or lack thereof).

“Perception is reality”, that’s what Barry Trotz said to the media yesterday in regards to the New York Islanders offense. The thought about this team last year was they were very sound defensively but struggled offensively.

They were 21st in the league in goals for on the season including power-play goals. Keep in mind, the Isles had the third-worst power play in the league last season.

Barry Trotz came to the Islanders defense yesterday when talking about offense. If you look at just 5 on 5 numbers, the Isles were definitely better offensively than you might think. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Isles were 16th in the league in 5 on 5 goals for.

That’s pretty much exactly middle of the pack. If the Islanders are able to keep the 5 on 5 offense around that same spot while increasing the power-play percentage to just 20 percent, that should significantly help out their offensive output.

A power-play percentage around 14 percent is going to make your offense appear worse than it really is. Having an average power play, with the Isles defensive structure in place should theoretically be enough to fight off that dreaded hard regression.

Barry Trotz is coming for analytics, and he’s taking no prisoners. In Barry we trust, right?

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