Earlier in the season, before Weight went down, weren’t we floating around the middle of the pack PP wise?

I mentioned once, the Islanders tend to play a reactionary system. Most plays they are willing to dump the puck and press with the forecheck. Hoping that the other team makes a mistake or a bad pass But on the PP they have to work the puck into the zone, and they just seem to have trouble getting out of their end and neutral ice. We’ve seen too many PPs in which the other team dumps the puck and it takes a minute for them to re-enter the offensive zone. Basically they need someone on the PP who can through force of will get the puck quickly into the offensive zone.

There would be two interesting ways to look at the PK. Either a breakdown of our PK% by period or by amount of Penalties against. I might be wrong, but it feels like the PK really breaks down in the 3rd, or when they get above 3 PKs a night. The weakness of the PK might tie into the Islanders weakness in the 3rd period.

If I make no sense, its because I didn’t go digging through the stats when I was writing this, it was mostly off the top of my head.

so the PP is diminished even further

Didn’t Trottier run the PP in COL and PIT… I’m pretty sure he would need some Xanex to get behind the bench again, even less of a chance to see him as an asst… but jeez, couldn’t he just work with the guys at practice.
Not to mention there is one of the best PK guys (and a helluva coach) running around the rink with a microphone. Of course, his appearance behind thebench would also necessitate an Rx for the X.
AND YES, at the beginning of the season their PP was clicking… before other teams found out that tavares’ teeth were removable, and that dude, Moulson, wasn’t a skating ad for their favorite beer.

Newgaming the Goon Gambit

I am more worried about the PK. This bothers me because the guys have to play overly cautious to avoid a penalty. That takes away from the forecheck some and any aggressiveness they might have had. Especially now without Sutton and MacDonald. If we get 4 penalties a game, then the percentage says 1 PP goal against.We are down 1-0. Now you figure most games if there are 4 penalties called there is at least 1 that is an iffy call anyway.
Now if we get 4 PP a game we are averaging a goal every other game.

I think that we need to concentrate on good PK guys during the off season, and maybe go for a big D guy for our #1 pick, or PP blue liner, like Doughty or Myers.

their PP is a microcosm of their 5-5 play… for it to be successful they need to play very uptempo and crisp, when they are merely going thru the motions, it shows, and looks awful, but when they are skating well, the PP opens up lanes to pass and shoot that are normally intercepted or blocked outright… and implementing a BOMBER on the blueline wouldn’t hurt, Streit has a nice shot, but it’s not making shotblockers tremble in their skates… one of the main reasons i want fowler is for puck distribution on the PP

so, is #15 finally a regular again?

I think all three problems have a similar root – they’re not aggressive enough to draw enough penalties or commit them. As a result they play a lot of time even strength, where their poor 5-on-5 numbers can really hurt them. You need to be able to score more PP goals than your opponents if you’re going to be shaky at even strength, in order to help make up the difference.

Luckily, the PP will improve as the kids get experience and mature into their skills, but if they’re still not aggressive enough and still not drawing penalties, an improvement in the PP% won’t help as much. I’d rather see them get an extra PP chance per game at the current percentage. It sounds like not that much but it works out to 13 more goals in a full season; to gain that many more goals while drawing penalties at their current rate, their PP would have to go from 15.5% to 19.8% for a full year. Just getting their legs moving and drawing one more penalty per game would begin to help… it also means two extra minutes they’re not getting burned on the PK and at EvS.

Just enjoying chewing over the theories put forward in comments. That is all.

improving our PP is the best thing we can do to protect JT and our other stars.

what did you think of having Frans, Okposo, and JT out there with Streit in the OT. I thought it was interesting but it seemed like they had no idea had to play it. maybe they need to practice that one

Not very special — One reason for the Isles’ problems against Philadelphia is their failings on special teams.

In five meetings this season, the Flyers have scored seven times on just 18 power plays (38.9 percent) while allowing the Isles just three extra-man goals in 20 tries (15 percent). While going 6-0 against the Isles last season, they were 4-for-17 (23.5 percent) on the power play while surrendering just two goals on the Isles’ 23 advantages (8.7 percent). Philadelphia also went 9-for-14 (64.3 percent) while winning the last four meetings in March 2008, while the Isles were 2-for-19 (10.5 percent).

All told, the Flyers are 20-for-49 (40.8 percent) on the power play against the Isles during the streak, while New York is just 7-for-62 (11.3 percent).

Their failings against the Flyers on the penalty kill aren’t unique. The Isles are 29th in the NHL this season after finishing 22nd last season and 19th in 2007-08. New York hasn’t finished higher than 18th on the penalty kill since coming in fifth in 2003-04.