Every time I am around the Rangers, I am struck by the discourse around their power play in comparison to the Islanders’. The Rangers, annually, have one of the league’s best five-on-four units, which means that a few games in a row without a power-play goal is always a story on the rare occasion it happens. Currently, the Rangers have gone three straight without a power-play goal — just the third such time that has happened this season.
The Islanders had five such stretches and failed to score on the power play in more than half of their games this season. This isn’t to say it is not written about or covered when their power play struggles, but there is an element of feeling it is baked into the cake. It is not considered a five-alarm fire in the same kind of way, because it’s been a long time since the Islanders had a power play anywhere near as good as the Rangers’.
Maybe it should be.
Because the lowest-hanging fruit for the Islanders in terms of year-over-year improvement is — by far — special teams. And you could have said the same thing a year ago.
