This season the Islanders finished tied for 23rd in the league in Power Play. Numbers wise they were 49 for 306 which was good enough for 16%. Their PP Goals were 22% of their total goals on the season. John Tavares (11), Mark Streit (9) and Matt Moulson (8) combined for 28 power play goals, nearly half of the Islanders 49 PP goals. Kyle Okpos (18), Tavares (14) and Streit (13) combined for 45 power play assists, nearly half of the Isles PP Assists. After those four, Rob Schremp and Josh Bailey managed 10 power play points each and Doug Weight had 6 PP assists in 36 games.
Given the Islanders Power Play struggles, they had a 2 for 27 total in February, it wouldn't be surprising to discover that the times the PP did score the game was out of hand. But the opposite was true, a breakdown of what the score was at the time of the goal shows that they scored when it was most necessary.Ahead
By Three or More: 3
Two Goal Lead: 3
One Goal Lead: 6
Tied: 16
Behind
One Goal Behind: 10
Two Goals Behind: 4
By Three or More: 7
Of the Islanders 49 PP Goals, 26 of them either tied the game or broke a tie. 53% of Islanders PP goals could be considered game changers. It should be noted that 2 of the 7 Islanders goals when trailing by 3 or more were in the final game of the season against the Penguins and put them back into the game. This is promising for a young team that struggled on the power play for most of the season. When they needed goals to get back into the game they got them. If there was any problem, its that when the Islanders seemed to struggle scoring PP goals while in the lead to close out games.
There's a lot of reasons the Islanders power play needs to improve next year. Quite simply to improve the Islanders are going to need to score more goals with the mad advantage. That's without considering teams will make runs at younger players until the Islanders can score on the following penalty. Although the Islanders had 19 wins in one goal games last year, they lost a total of 24 games by one goal (13 Regulation, 11 OT/SO). When you combine all of the Islanders losses and OTLs last year the total is 48. That means half of all the Islanders losses last year were in games in which they were within one goal. During the season the Islanders averaged 3.7 PP opportunities a game. An addition of ten power play goals at the right moments last year could have easily put the Isles within one or two points of a playoff spot.