Islanders Advanced Stats Rankings For 2019-2020 Season

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 01: Jordan Eberle #7 of the New York Islanders (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 01: Jordan Eberle #7 of the New York Islanders (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Taking a lot at how the New York Islanders were in some advanced metrics vs the rest of the league in those same categories.

This isn’t going to be pretty. To those who follow the New York Islanders on a regular basis, you already know that the Isles aren’t a team that has these advanced metrics in their favor. In fact, it’s usually the exact opposite.

The national media and talking heads usually cite the poor metrics as a reason for why the Islanders are going to regress. While the team struggled from January to the sudden closure of the season, they were still on the cusp of a playoff spot and seventh in the conference in terms of point percentage.

So yes, the Islanders aren’t a team who wins pretty but they still more often than not figure it out due to significantly above average coaching and a good structure in place.

We’re going to take a look at CF%, SF%, GF%, SCF%, and HDCF%. All of these numbers and rankings are courtesy of Natural Stat Trick.

CF% or Corsi For Percentage essentially measures how often a team is controlling play in a percentile. In this category, the Islanders came in at 46.45% which ranks 29th out of 31 teams. Only the Devils and Red Wings trail the Islanders. New York is the lowest of any playoff team in this category.

SF% or shots for percentage measures the percentage of total shots. Again, the Islanders struggle in this category due to their quality over quantity mentality. The Isles rank 26th with only the Winnipeg Jets as a playoff team that ranks lower than them.

It’s anther bottom-10 ranking for the Islanders in goals for percentage as well. The Isles come In 23rd in the league in this category. Only Edmonton ranks lower than the Islanders as a playoff team in GF%.

SCF% measures the total percentage of scoring chances for. Once again, the mentality the Islanders play with costs them in this category as well. With a 48.70 percent, the Isles rank 22nd in the league. Edmonton and Winnipeg are the only teams with a worse SCF% that are in the playoff picture.

The last category we’ll look at is HDCF%, measuring the total percentage of high danger chances for. This is the Islanders best ranking, as they come in 18th. It’s still not great but it makes sense why they rank a little better in this category vs the others.

The quality over quantity approach is going to allow for more high danger chances as you’re only really shooting high percentage shots. 18th is still below average, but it’s not atrocious.

If the Islanders want to move from a decent team to a legit playoff threat they are going to have to improve in some of these categories. Yes, advance stats aren’t everything, I understand that but it does a pretty good job of measuring the Islanders’ lack of offense which is still evident to those who prefer the eye test.

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It’s going to be a little difficult to improve with the current personnel but a tweak, not a complete change but a slight adjustment to their logic, might be able to help the Islanders improve marginally offensively.