New York Islanders Bottom 3 In Team Shot Rates
The New York Islanders aren’t a good Corsi team but just how bad is it? We’ll take a look at their Corsi For and Corsi Against through seven games.
Corsi For is something the New York Islanders weren’t strong in last year. The advanced metrics were not kind to the Islanders as we know, hence all the regression talk all year long and all offseason long as well.
In 2018-2019 the team was 26th in the league in CF% according to Natural Stat Trick. They were in the bottom third in the league in Corsi Against as well. So when you see the Team Shot Rates for 2019-2020 you shouldn’t be all that surprised.
Through seven games, the Islanders have the third-worst CF/60 in the league. Sitting at a measly 47.37 only the Stars (47.09) and Devils (44.69) have a worse CF/60 than the Islanders at this point in the season.
Combined, the Stars and Devils are 2-11-3. Somehow, the Islanders have doubled their combined win total despite being only marginally better at producing shots.
Well, the Islanders aren’t much better in terms of CA/60. In fact, they are also third-worst in the league in that metric as well. The Islanders have allowed a CA/60 of 63.47 with only the Rangers (65.69) and Senators (68.55) coming in worse.
What does this all mean? Well, the Islanders give up a ton of shots while not generating a ton of shots. In most cases, teams struggle to find ways to win with numbers that look like this. Not the Islanders.
Somehow, they defy the logic and with good goaltending and arguably the best coach in the league.
If the Islanders wanted to improve these numbers and create more chances here’s how they could do it.
The first step would be finding a way to get Noah Dobson in the lineup. He’s leading the team in CF% with a 53.33 in two games played. Johnny Boychuk, who Dobson usually replaces, is 18th on the team with a 41.49 CF%.
Even moving it to a more 50/50 split with Boychuk and Dobson in playing time should help the Islanders CF% begin to increase over time.
Another thing the Islanders could do is swap out Ross Johnston for Matt Martin more regularly. Johntson’s CF and CA are both 18, meaning he’s at an even 50% for CF%. Martin’s CF% is only 40.58.
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So yes, the Islanders can help their Corsi by making two fairly easy changes. They don’t need Josh Ho-Sang back in the lineup, they don’t need to replace Leo Komarov (even though both of those things would be nice) all they need is Ross Johnston and Noah Dobson.