Islanders’ Anders Lee is a power forward who can score

Since the start of the 2016-17 season, here are the top six goal scorers in the NHL:

Nikita Kucherov, Sidney Crosby, Auston Matthews, Alex Ovechkin, Vladimir Tarasenko and Anders Lee.

That’s most definitely the first time Lee has been mentioned in the same sentence with those five all-world players. They create goals off the rush, with blazing speed or with a lethal slap shot. Lee, as he did twice on Friday, goes to the net and stays there, like the prototypical power forwards of what most thought was a bygone era of hockey.

He has 15 goals this season, three off Ovechkin’s league-leading total. The total distance those pucks have traveled off Lee’s stick and into various nets is probably equal to three of Ovechkin’s blasts. But through his college career to a brief stop in the AHL to wildly varying usage by his two Islander coaches since Lee became an NHL regular in the 2013-14 season, all the 27-year-old does is score goals.

“He knows what makes him a productive player,” John Tavares said of his linemate. “To do what he does, you can’t just ask anyone to go out there and do it. That’s what makes him unique, plus he has that great touch around the net. He’s not going to blow by guys, but I don’t think his speed hurts him. He gets to where he needs to be and he’s so good along the boards, on the puck — he’s a house. Very good positionally. He always seems to be in the right place.”

Lee now has 99 career goals in 286 games as an Islander and he’ll almost certainly become the 30th player to reach 100 goals in franchise history soon. Most of them look like the two he swept home in Friday’s wild 6-5 loss, which means most of them haven’t looked too pretty.

On the power play, Lee took Josh Bailey’s shot in the ribcage and found the puck when it pinballed to the ice to put it home. The other, on a two on one with Tavares, occurred when a rebound lay in the blue paint again and Lee bumped Erik Karlsson aside to one-hand the puck into the net.

“The amount of talent he has around the net is second to none, it makes the guys around him better the way he makes room for them,” Doug Weight said. “He hunts pucks like (Tavares) — a little different style but they’re on pucks and they’ve committed to that as a line.”

And Lee is happy that the crackdown on slashes and other stick infractions hasn’t spilled over to the violent jostling that goes on within five feet of the opposing goal. That’s where Lee makes his living, like Keith Tkachuk and Dave Andreychuk and Tim Kerr did.

“I’m thankful the net-front stuff has stayed the way it has,” he said. “If that contact can’t be initiated either way, it’d be a whole different game down there.”

Lee has one more year after this season at a $3.5-million cap hit. At this rate, the Islanders will need to set aside serious money for him on a long-term deal.

Goal scorer money. That’s what he does, after all.

Tavares ties Lafontaine

Tavares tied Pat Lafontaine for sixth on the Isles franchise list at 566 points on Friday and if the Isles captain can keep up his torrid pace he could catch Brent Sutter, fifth with 610 points, before the end of the season.

Tavares has professed to not know much about hitting these milestones but if he passes Sutter, he’ll be up with the Mount Rushmore of Isles skaters from the dynasty era. It’s a long way to the 1,000-point plateau and the likes of Bossy, Trottier and Potvin, with Clark Gillies fourth at 663 points.

Cappy reunion

The Isles face Jack Capuano for the first time on Monday. Capuano is the Panthers’ associate head coach, the job he chose after interviewing to be the right-hand man behind the bench for several teams. He also was reportedly the runner-up for the Vegas job that went to Gerard Gallant, who currently seems to be the front-runner for the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year.

Capuano’s (and Bob Boughner’s) Panthers are scuffling at 10-13-2, next to last in the Eastern Conference.