The difference between the Islanders’ 9-4 start and their 4-5-1 record over the past 10 games was the effectiveness of their power play. If you’re looking for answers to the Isles’ recent scoring drought, that’s the place to start.
Through those first 13 games, the power play converted 14 of 59 chances, and the result was that the Islanders scored at least three goals in eight of those games. Over the past 10 games, the Islanders have failed to score more than two goals (not counting their shootout goal against Ottawa) primarily because the power play is 3-for-39 in that stretch, including a goal credited to Miroslav Satan that actually was poked in by Rangers forward Blair Betts in Thursday’s 4-2 loss at Madison Square Garden.
After playing nine games in 15 days, coach Ted Nolan gave all but a few players a day off from skating today while he and his staff looked at ways to fix the power play for Saturday night’s game against Atlanta at the Coliseum.
“We’re going to change it up a little bit, maybe use Miro a little more on the half-wall,” Nolan said. “He’s very intelligent with the puck, and he loves to attack the net.”
Satan had been working on the second unit with Mike Sillinger and Trent Hunter, but he’ll move up to the first unit with Mike Comrie and Ruslan Fedotenko. Nolan plans to put Bill Guerin with Sillinger and Hunter to create a “banging line.”
“We’ve got to get pucks to the net, get traffic and create some opportunities,” Nolan said.
Against the Rangers, Nolan returned to a lineup with seven defenseman because he was uncertain whether Radek Martinek could get through the game after suffering a gash in his left cheek that took 15 stitches to close. “He could barely chew his food on game day,” Nolan said of Martinek. “We were going to scratch him, but he really wanted to play. So, we had extra defense just in case.”
Look for Nolan to stick with seven defensemen against the Thrashers, not only as a precaution against injury, but also because it keeps both Bryan Berard and Marc-Andre Bergeron available to quarterback the power play units.
If the power play gets going, the rest of the offense should follow. “We’re scoring most of our goals even strength,” Guerin said. “Two even strength goals a game is pretty good. If you put in one or two on the power play, that makes a big difference.”
Guerin overstated the numbers a bit. Over the past 10 games, the Isles have scored only 12 goals at even strength (1.2 per game) along with three on the power play, two short-handed goals plus a shootout goal. But you get the idea. The numbers for the first 13 games included 23 even-strength goals (1.8 per game) plus the 14 power-play goals and one shortie. When the power play works, it opens things up.
COMING ATTRACTIONS: More lineup changes are afoot, though not necessarily all for the Atlanta game. Please check out the Islanders story in Saturday’s Newsday.
Comments (13)
hate to see Bergenheim scratched for Bates or Berard. How about finally putting Hilbert on the bench. I cant believe Bergenheim wound not be an upgrade over "no hands" Hilbert. He could kill penalties and has potential to score some goals.
Success on the power play is as simple as this -- get the puck back to the point, then BLAST IT AT THE NET AND GO TO THE FRONT FOR REBOUNDS AND DEFLECTIONS! It seems so easy and it's frustrating to watch the puck be passed around the perimeter looking for a fancy, perfect, tic-tac-toe play, but I will say this. Getting shots from the point through to the net nowadays is much more difficult than it used to be -- defensemen are bigger and know how to play the shooting lanes more effectively than in the past (not to mention the gladiator-like equipment of today allowing them to be virtually fearless in blocking shots) and of course, the goaltenders of today are much more adept at tracking the puck through crowds of players, skates and sticks, as well as their improved ability to control rebounds. This being said, throwing the puck at the net is still never a bad play, but half the time, it never gets there.
The offense needs a big-time spark. Is it enough to tinker here and there? Is it really just a matter of positioning?
The defense has been playing well, and the goaltending has been near spectacular. How good would this team be if they could just score some goals? At three goals a game instead of two they would have something like 12 more points than they do now... Even at half that, six more points and isles would easily lead the division.
Adding a real scoring threat would give the team some balance and move away from all these nail-biting 2-1 games that they so easily end up on the short end of. It would also help take some of the pressure off of rick. He's been playing great but he cant do it all year without rest and if he tries, he's gonna get hurt and the team will suffer.
That Ryan Smyth deal kind of comes back to bite now, I think. If we still had all those chips I bet some kind of a move for more offense would already been made by this point. Even with that what it is, I think that real soon something will have to be done if the team is going to compete in the long haul. Unfortunately I don't see much standout offensive talent in bridgeport.
Garth should package the necessary assets and do what it takes to bring a scorer in here, a legitimate 40-goal guy. That kind of addition would take this team from mediocre with a good defense to a real, serious threat that nobody wants to play.
It would be a lot more fun than sweating out these 2-1 and 1-0 games, like 90s style devils trap teams. That kind of stuff is just boring.
Re the lookalike stuff in a recent thread. I forgot to mention that to me, Garth Snow resembles Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn from the Lord of the Rings movies). Here's an example
http://images.eonline.com/eol_images/Profiles/20061003/244.mortensen.viggo.100306.jpg
And here's an image of the young Ted Nolan in an old episode of Have Gun Will Travel (tried to post this a few days ago but it didn't go through for some reason:)
http://www.fiftiesweb.com/tv/have-gun-bronson.jpg
Man, the Islanders who are one of the oldest teams in the NHL are in serious trouble. They manage there way through a decent season, but they clearly have no future. They dressed 13 FA"s against the Rangers and they STILL don't have any young talent worth calling up to help in their futile effort to score goals. Oksopo had ANOTHER scoreless night at the COLLEGE level last night. (3-5-8 in 15 games and is minus 8...........I thought this kid was supposed to be good, LOL).
The Isles dressed 2 players against the Rangers under 25 years old. That's absurd. They can't score goals, which obviously makes you believe they have no faith in ANY player in Bridgeport.
Okay, so the Isles have a decent record. Big deal. Old teams with 13 FA's in the lineup should have a decent record because they are developing NOTHING.
These are just the facts. THey cannit be disputed. And you know it.
Thanks Greg for getting an answer to the "why 7 defensemen" question.
PP Thoughts:
Maybe the biggest problem with the PP over last ten game stretch has been continuity. I'd really like to see an NHL coach that recognizes that you don't have to break up lines to make your PP work. If you are getting good pressure with your first two lines, which they are, just roll them on the PP.
I can see defensive pairings change to get two offense oriented players at the point at one time, but the forwards need familiarity.
I really feel the team has the talent to succeed. It may take a little patience and ingenuity... and if a team is looking to dump some salary along the way... go grab it.
My top PP line would be Vasicek-Satan-Tank, followed by Comrie-Park-Guerin. Replacing Park with Hunter makes sense as it creates the dynamic that they had with Smyth-hunter last year.
Everyone would like a 40 goal guy on their team to upgrade the offense, but unfortunately there aren't any teams parting with 40 goal guys and if there were you would need to give something in return and probably have to take on a huge salary. Heck Glenn Murray might be available in Boston, but you have to absorb 4.5 million a year for another two years for a 37 year old.
I like the move of putting Satan on the top power play unit. I mentioned it before in one of my other posts. I am not sure why he wasn't there to begin with? I think Sillinger should be taken off of the PP unit and put Vasicek in his place.
If Nolan would start to make wholesale changes he would lose the players confidense. You have to tinker, remember this is a good team in a playoff spot right now. they lost a game in which the players were tired after playing 3 games in 4 nights. We should be able to make up lost ground this month with the schedule we have.
Lets not panic!
Nolen has said all along that he has confidence in this team and that if we keep playing a strong defensive game, the goals will come. I have confidence in Nolen. I don,t think making major changes at this time is necessary, just some tweeking.
Have faith in this coach and the charactor of this team.
Claire
Everybody talks about a 40 goal guy,hey I want a 50 goal guy,is that too much to ask for?!As for the PP-struggle,give the boys a tape of Montreal PPs,they shoot and they shoot.It´s very simple actually.Well to write it on a blog it is lol.
Too another subject,all of you that wanna know,I´m gonna get wasted tonight so maybe I dont remember the game tomorrow.
BOTTOM´S UP!
NY Times has an article today about the Isles starting to broadcast the games in Mandarin with the long term plan of penetrating the untapped Chinese market and televising in China by the end of the year.
Okay, first off, I'll state the obvious.
Does this mean the Ranger fans' "Fishsticks" chant will morph over to "Chopsticks"?
Secondly, how do you say "Wanted, 40 goal scorer who has a mean backcheck" in Mandarin.
In other news, (Sorry Andy, but you deserve this) I got a call from an old lifeguard buddy of mine last night. There was an Andy Hilbert sighting at Field 6 at Jones Beach yesterday afternoon.
He had a dozen sticks and 3 bags of pucks.
The good news?
85% success rate in hitting the ocean.
The bad news?
He was issued a citation by Fish and Wildlife officers for killing two high flying sea gulls.
Okay Sports fans, Thrashers tonight. A team who's goals against is second only to Toronto in the NHL as the worst in the league.
A/WIN THE GAME
B/Let's see if we can get 4 goals.
AND YOU PEOPLE ON THE ISLAND GET YOUR FANNIES TO THE GAME!!!
KH, you're way off, when you talk about Snow it begins and ends with Mitt Romney:
http://www.ontheissues.org/Governor/romney.jpg
I'm on the fence about this team's true need. Given the reliance on depth, would it be better to get 2 25-goal guys than a 40-goal guy? You could create a situation where the current players relax a little and try to let the new guy carry the offense. Granted, this is more likely to have happened in the Yashin era than the Guerin era, but still something to think about. You really need to search for the right sort of guy that would be adding to the team concept rather than coming in here as the savior. That could in theory lead to even fewer goals.
Ted, THANK YOU FOR FINALLY COMING AROUND ON ANDY HILBERT. It took you far too long, but it's about time you realize that an NHL player has to bury the chances he's been getting. You'd have to think any other player on this team would've buried at least half the chances he's screwed up this year, and he hasn't put ANY of them in. Remember, his goal came off a rush, not from one of the countless chances he has in front of the net. He clearly only removed a training bra, and it's time to get him past first base (though I think I need to get myself first in the Christie Brinkley line too.....haha).
Smart move would be to send Dubie to Bridgeport for a conditioning stint today, and bring up MacDonald to be DP's backup. Let Dubie start a few down there, and then play him next Wednesday in Atlanta. This only changes if it's painfully clear Dubie isn't rusty and won't pull an 06-07 Dunham on us.
I agree with Coral Springs that giving Vasicek more exposure on the powerplay is a long-overdue decision. The guy is leading the team in goals and shooting percentage; you have to see what he can do, especially in the struggling phase. It's right not to panic, but standing pat and pretending the powerplay doesn't need help or Hilbert really is as useless in the offensive zone as many are convinced. Let's take 2 points tonight!
Someone at some point will have to explain to me why they keep confusing "Jeff Tambellini" with "Sidney Crosby"... this kid has been here like three times and showed little more than cement hands. He lacks the necessary skill and is not the answer for this teams lack of offense.
Frei, I definitely agree with you- Tambellini is NOT the solution to the offense problem. But, I wouldnt mind trying him out or trying whatever to try and get these guys- who we have already seen CAN score- going again.
I think this team needs to add just one guy who can score... it will make all the difference.