Islanders 3 Bold predictions for series vs. Washington Capitals

Ovechkin Doesn’t Score a Power Play Goal

Level of spice: 5/5

There’s no stopping Alex Ovechkin on the power play, right? Ovie may not move around much on the man-advantage but that lethal one-timer always finds a way to beat even the best penalty kill, right? His 260 career power-play goals should confirm that.

And it’s not like the Islanders power play was very good against the Florida Panthers who don’t have a perennial 50 goal scorer on their team like Alex Ovechkin. The Isles held a 71.4 percent PK efficiency in four games against the Panthers. Only the Blackhawks and Jets were worse with a 70.6 percent PK efficiency.

I’m leading you somewhere here because Alex Ovechkin hasn’t been efficient on the power play for the Capitals against the Isles over the last two years.

In eight games against the Islanders over the last two seasons, the future Hall of Famer has just one power-play goal on the Islanders. Just one.

I know only looking at two years worth of data can come off as cherry-picking data, but that two-year line marks the start of the Trotz tenure and the Trotz defensive system. A system that’s been a huge factor in the Islanders recent success.

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Barry knows how the Capitals want to set up their sniper. But he also knows how to shut him down. With the way the Islanders played on the penalty kill against Florida, you better believe that Trotz will focus his team on keeping Ovie off the score sheet on the man advantage. He’s almost been able to so far in the regular season, I bet he does it in the playoffs.