One Thing the Islanders Can Fix to Rapidly Improve the Team

Since January 1, the New York Islanders have had the NHL’s best penalty kill. They turned the single worst part of their game into one of their strengths. Before that turnaround, Head Coach Patrick Roy admitted that he wished he spent more time on special teams during training camp. Despite the PK’s improvement, the power play lags far behind.

Good news for Roy and the Islanders—they have a window of practice to address those concerns. The Islanders’ dreadful power play is at 11.5% on the season, last in the NHL. Since January 1, it’s fired off at 12.1%, good for 29th in the NHL. It’s far from good enough and has cost them multiple games. 

Even a league-average power play would make this team significantly better. Just look what’s happened since they fixed the penalty kill.

The bonafide main focus coming out of this 4 Nations break must be the power play and continuity from the relatively strong play they had throughout January.

Zone Entry Improvement:

A big thing that’s hurting the power play all year has been the inability to break the puck. Too often, the Islanders relied on Mathew Barzal or Noah Dobson to rush in the puck, often causing turnovers and an inability to set things up. With those two out of the lineup, it’s made a bad situation worse.

That’s one area where the team constantly shoots itself in the foot. It’s far from a bad power play when they set it up. They don’t have consistent finishing, but that’s a team-wide theme.

The biggest thing to improve zone entries needs to be unpredictability. If you picture an Islanders entry, it’s a backhand drop pass in the neutral zone before the puck carrier walks into the middle and kicks a pass outside. When it works, it allows for a smooth setup. Too often, the puck is turned over, and the Islanders waste valuable time.

Something has to give on the entries, whether it’s effective dump-and-chasing or more passing.

DeAngelo a PP Disappointment:

Anthony DeAngelo has played in eight games so far with the Islanders. Half the reason for signing the defender was his ability to quarterback a power play unit, perhaps his biggest strength as a player.

Instead, he’s failed to register a single power play point through these first eight games while the units have sputtered. It’d be unfair to blame him solely, and I won’t do that, but it’s become more than fair to say he’s disappointed on the man advantage to this point.

Adam Boqvist, the other offensive-minded addition, has looked far more dangerous offensively, constantly creating chances. DeAngelo has moments, but Boqvist has confidence in the offensive zone, which is unmistakable. Additionally, Scott Perunovich adds another strong passing element with an extremely high IQ that stands out.

Without the new guys chipping in on the power play, Dobson’s absence has become more apparent. If the new guys can get going and Dobson returns, it would make for a much better scenario for the Islanders.