Which is worse for the Islanders right now: the lack of power play production or the lack of power play opportunities?
Both are at a historically bad pace.
At just 10.5 percent, including a scoreless streak that extended to no points in 25 games in Tuesday's 2-0 loss to the Senators, the Islanders are the fifth-best man to score since the NHL began keeping statistics. They are on the verge of becoming a unit with a poor advantage. 1977-1978.
At just 2.44 chances per game, they're also the seventh-fewest of teams in taking power-play chances over the same span, but interestingly, three of the teams worse than them are this season. is also playing.
Whichever side you think is more aggressive, the situation seems untenable.
The Islanders haven't scored a power-play goal in front of their home crowd since Nov. 30, but even when they get called, they often hurt momentum, with repeated failures to put the puck in the zone and regular failures from UBS Arena. There was a lot of booing. Or take a shot.
“We want to score on the power play just like the other players,'' captain Anders Lee said. “Now that's a problem for us.”
That is an extreme underestimate.
Coach Patrick Roy made numerous changes to the unit, but to no avail.
This penalty kill has also been at a historically abysmal pace, but the Islanders have put a lot of energy into special teams in practice and have surprisingly shown some ability over the last week.
That's not the case on the power play, and Roy seemed at a loss for answers Tuesday night.
“I think we've got to trust what we're doing and we've got to trust the players that are there,” he said. “We have talent. I think sometimes we just simplify things and throw the puck towards the net. And that's what I've shown. [in film sessions]. Throw the puck towards the net, jam it and score on the rebound. Sometimes that's enough to score on the tip and gain some confidence, but then suddenly things start to open up. ”
In other words, there's not much you can do here other than hope that a group of players who haven't done anything on the power play all year suddenly start executing.
It's not the most exciting plan, but there's no silver bullet lurking past the midway point of the season.
“We're always trying to improve it,” Noah Dobson said. “We all know it's not enough. We have to do a better job.”
