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Islanders: Why not try Matt Martin on the power play again?

By Michel Anderson

UNIONDALE, NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 06: Matt Martin #17 of the New York Islanders skates in warm-ups prior to the game against the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Nassau Coliseum on February 06, 2021 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
UNIONDALE, NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 06: Matt Martin #17 of the New York Islanders skates in warm-ups prior to the game against the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Nassau Coliseum on February 06, 2021 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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The New York Islanders need to fix their power play. Over their last ten games, they’ve scored four power-play goals on 27 attempts. That’s a 14.8% efficiency. In other words, horrendous.

Unfortunately, Anders Lee isn’t about to step on the ice this season. The Islanders captain would be the perfect fix for the Isles ailing power play. His ability to create opportunities in that little piece of real estate in front of the net is second to none in the league.

The Islanders don’t have another Lee just sitting around, but they do have a guy that’s big and strong, who can be disruptive in front of the net, and found some relative success on the man-advantage this year. And that’s Matt Martin.

Making the case for Matt Martin on the New York Islanders power play

Yeah, the Islanders are that desperate. Normally a fourth-liner isn’t seen as a possible fix for the power play but at this point, the Islanders might just have to go back to the “Martin-on-the-PP” well.

Like I said, he’s played on the man advantage already this year. It’s not much, but he’s done some good stuff with the 27:24 of PP time he’s logged this year. Most of his PP ice-time (17:22) was accumulated from March 20 to April 8. Martin scored his first power-play since the 2012-13 season in that span.

And look, I know, one power-play goal over a ten-game sample isn’t what you’d call “prolific”. But his underlying numbers on the power play in that span are pretty good. Here are some key individual metrics from March 20 to April 8 and his rank on the team for forwards:

  • ixG: 0.65 (2)
  • iCF: 5 (3)
  • iSCF: 4 (3)
  • iHDCF: 3 (2)
  • Shots: 3 (3)

(Stats from NaturalStatTrick)

The guy gets pucks on net and creates good chances. Isn’t that what the Isles are looking for right now? The only two forwards to routinely rank above him across all of those metrics are Mathew Barzal and Oliver Wahlstrom. That’s it. That’s the list.

Look I know. Putting Matt Martin out there shouldn’t be what fixes the Islanders power play. They have enough talented forwards to put out there that they should be able to get the job done without adding the team’s fourth-line left wing. But they aren’t, and desperate times call for desperate measures.

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