Andrew Gross: Islanders need better offense for playoff push
Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stops New York Islanders left wing Anders Lee on a penalty shot on Tuesday. Credit: AP/Jeffrey T. Barnes
The Islanders’ defense has been riddled with self-destructive mistakes over the last two games. It led to goalie Ilya Sorokin giving up a career-high seven goals in Monday’s 8-3 loss to the Penguins at UBS Arena and not having enough heroics in him to steal two points in Tuesday’s 4-3 defeat in Buffalo.
Those deficiencies have been adjudicated and dissected and the sense of frustration in the loser’s dressing room after the back-to-back defeats was palpable.
But, sometimes, the best defense can be a good offense even when NHL games get so tight in the true crunch of the playoff push. And the Islanders’ offense is struggling as well.
Their penchant for giving up odd-man rushes and coughing up the puck in the last two matches has taken the focus away from the fact that there has been a lack of consistent forecheck or ability to play up ice. There certainly hasn’t been enough traffic around the opponent’s net.
Thanks to a forgiving scoreboard, the Islanders remained in third place in the Metropolitan Division despite garnering zero points against the Penguins and Sabres. But they are now three points behind the second-place Penguins, who have played one fewer game. The fourth-place Blue Jackets are just one point back, having also played one fewer game. As for the wild-card chase, the Islanders are three points ahead of the Senators, Red Wings and Flyers but all three have played two fewer games.
So the offense must absolutely improve with another challenging back-to-back upcoming against the Flyers on Friday night at UBS Arena and a road match against the first-place Hurricanes on Saturday.
“I think when we’re effective, this time of the year, you have to have two guys inside the dots and going hard to the nets and that’s how you get deflections and tips and screens,” Brayden Schenn told Newsday after Tuesday’s loss.
That’s how Anders Lee, who had earlier been unsuccessful on his first career penalty shot, tied Tuesday’s game at 2-2 in the third period. Schenn was also the middle part of a tic-tac-toe power-play goal started by Bo Horvat and finished by Cal Ritchie to tie it at 1-1 in the second period. Schenn made it a one-goal game with one second left on the clock in the third period.
“It’s tight out there,” Schenn said. “There’s not much room. When we do that, we’re pretty effective. This time of the year, everyone’s doing it. Everyone’s getting bodies and pucks to the net. Points are so crucial and valuable. We all know that. The way to score goals is getting people and pucks to the net.”
Again, for the Islanders, it’s a matter of consistency in doing so.
According to NaturalStatTrick.com, the Sabres held a lopsided 12-3 edge in high-danger chances skating five-on-five, including 4-1 in the third period when the Islanders should have been pressing their hardest.
Coach Patrick Roy said some of it was the result of the Islanders trying to concentrate on their defensive effort following Monday’s debacle.
But NaturalStatTrick.com’s “heat map” for Tuesday’s match that details where each team took its shots shows the Islanders playing to the outside without any patches of red (indicating the highest intensity of shots). The Sabres have a big red circle surrounding the Islanders’ crease.
“Every team is different,” said Matthew Schaefer, after his assist on Tuesday allowed him to break Stefan Persson’s team mark for rookie defensemen with his 57th point. “Some games, when we’re at our best, we’re playing down deep. We’re pressuring their defense. We’re cycling. We’re getting the puck to the net. I thought we had some chances but I think we can get the puck to the net a little more. That will definitely help.”
The Corsi for percentage, a metric used by NaturalStatTrick.com to show whether a player or line is playing with the puck up ice, also tells the tale of a team not able to sustain offense. Of the Islanders' four lines, only Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s third line with Ritchie and Ondrej Palat was over 50% at 56.25%, which is considered good. Schenn’s trio with Mathew Barzal and Anthony Duclair was at 30.77%. Horvat’s top line with Lee and Emil Heieneman was at 42.86% while Casey Cizikas’ fourth line with Kyle MacLean and Marc Gatcomb was at 40.0%. Schenn’s line also suffered in the expected goals’ category with NaturalStatTrick.com calculating it to have a 0.1 expected goals for and a 0.68 expected goals against.
“Our tracking was outstanding,” the always-positive Roy said when Newsday asked about the need for more traffic at the crease. “[The Sabres] are a team that plays well defensively. I thought we did a good job and we played a playoff-hockey type game.”
The Islanders must do a better job. A much better job.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
