PITTSBURGH — How bad is the Islanders' penalty kill right now?
It's so bad that even the most unlucky 4-on-5 goals, like the deflected goal credited to Evgeni Malkin on Sunday, feel like empty excuses.
After the Isles lost 3-2 to the Penguins, Patrick Roy was furious: “When they shoot a shot six feet wide and it hits your pants and goes in, there's nothing we can do.'' “There is no structure. [for that]”
No, but certainly there are structures in place that prevent the Islanders from allowing more than one goal per game on the penalty kill, as they have been doing for the past month, and for the past 14 games dating back to November. 15 power play goals allowed in 29.
Hadfield, Ratel, Gilbert, not so much.
But GAG PK is an apt name in more ways than one.
Sunday's first beneficiary came less than 24 hours later when Michael Bunting remained hidden in the crease and finished off a Sidney Crosby feed from the back of the net at 1:36 of his second goal. He was the same player as before.
Malkin hit his double of the day at 6:57 of the third, making it 3-0 with the eventual game-winner two seconds before Kyle MacLean's cross-check penalty expired.
When it rains, it pours.
“We made some changes, some important points,” Jean-Gabriel Pageau told the Post. “I think we're all on the same page now and that helps a lot. The second one they got, I thought we played well. … Goals come on the power play. That bounce made the difference tonight.”
Not only do the Islanders have to deal with the embarrassment of rarely going to a game without allowing a goal on the penalty kill, but they are also on a historically bad pace at 4-on-5, the worst since the NHL began. Sunday was decided with a penalty kick. From 1977 to 1978, that percentage remained at 64.9 percent.
This leaves the 2023-24 Islanders with a 71.5 percent mark, currently the 13th worst in history, resulting in the firing of assistant coach Doug Huda and the hiring of Tommy Alverin to help run the penalty kicks. That was just one season after he was hired.
Indeed, it never occurred to anyone that the Islanders would somehow be even worse at 4-on-5.
But somehow, it just happened.
Max Tsyplakov was demoted from the second row during Saturday's victory and started the match in the fourth row, but later returned to his usual position.
