'Puck luck' has not been on the side of Kyle Okposo

Kyle Okposo's late goal on Thursday night, with the game out of reach in the Islanders' 6-3 loss to the Blues in St. Louis, did have some significance. It was Okposo's first goal in 17 games, a rather remarkable drought given how well the Islanders have played through the first 30 games this season. Okposo scored again Saturday night, this time on the power play in the third period to tie the score at 2 against Chicago.

Entering Saturday night's game, Okposo led the Isles with 89 shots on goal, three more than linemate John Tavares and tied for 26th in the NHL.

Add in 41 missed shots on goal (14th in the league in that sometimes vaguely kept statistic) and one might say that "puck luck" has not been on Okposo's side.

This is not the first time for Okposo, but it's not quite the same as his goal slumps of years gone by. In the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, Okposo scored four times on 101 shots, a 4.0 shooting percentage that was the worst for any NHL forward with at least 100 shots on goal that season.

So his current 6.7 percentage is not awful by comparison, but still incredibly unlucky for a guy who scored 27 and 24 goals during the last four seasons and produced 13.8 and 15.8 shooting percentages in doing so.

"It's not like I'm playing poorly," Okposo said this past week, noting the biggest difference between the 2012-13 season-long slump and his current one. "When you're playing well and the puck's just not going in, it's a very different feeling. That said, the job is to score goals, and I've got to find a way."

His sharp-angle, pinpoint wrister under the crossbar to beat Jake Allen with 1:44 left on Thursday made it 5-3 Blues, so that was barely a dent in the final result. But perhaps it was a dent in the bad puck luck Okposo has found this season, which would matter greatly to the Islanders' final place in the standings.