Islanders' NHL-worst penalty kill showing slight improvement
Adam Pelech of the Islanders moves the puck during a game against the Anaheim Ducks on Oct. 29, 2024 at UBS Arena. Credit: Dawn McCormick
The New Year always brings hope that things can be better.
And while it wasn’t much, the Islanders at least flipped the calendar with a sliver of encouragement that their penalty kill — on track to be the NHL’s worst ever — can improve.
“I think the biggest thing is we need to be a little more aggressive,” defenseman Adam Pelech said. “Not just being blindly aggressive but, as a unit, being aggressive together. If one guy is pressuring, then he has guys backing him up to support him. And pressuring at the right times. You can’t go chase someone who’s staring at you with the puck on their forehand.”
The Islanders’ playoff chances are already on life support before the season’s midpoint at 14-17-7 after Tuesday afternoon’s 3-1 loss in Toronto with the Maple Leafs coming to UBS Arena on Thursday night to conclude the home-and-home series. They lost both games on their road trip and have dropped three of four and six of nine.
The Islanders must improve on special teams if they are to do anything with their remaining 44 games. We’ll leave the power play alone for now even though it, just like the penalty kill, ranks 32nd and last in the NHL.
It’s tough to judge their two units against each other but the penalty kill has probably been slightly more of a dumpster fire. The Islanders have allowed 30 power-play goals on the opponents’ 83 chances, a dismal success rate of 63.9%.
For historical comparison, the 1979-80 Kings currently have the all-time worst penalty-kill percentage at 68.2, with NHL records available on the statistic since 1977-78. Remember, the Islanders brought in assistant coach Tommy Albelin to revamp and revitalize the penalty kill with an aggressive flush system this season.
The Islanders’ penalty kill went 3-for-4 in Tuesday’s defeat and it felt like a major victory because the last one was an empty-netter.
The Islanders killed off the Maple Leafs’ first three power plays while limiting them to two man-advantage shots. Then, John Tavares iced the match with a power-play goal at 19:27 of the third period after coach Patrick Roy kept Ilya Sorokin on the bench for an extra skater despite a faceoff coming in the Islanders’ zone.
“Outstanding,” Roy rated the overall penalty-kill effort. “I thought we recognized the danger. We did a good job in that regard. Protecting the middle area. And when we kept them on the outside, Ilya made some good saves.”
Roy was missing Simon Holmstrom (day-to-day with an upper-body issue) but otherwise relied on his usual penalty-kill suspects: Pelech (2:12 of shorthanded time) and fellow defensemen Scott Mayfield (3:28), Alexander Romanov (3:05) and Ryan Pulock (2:35) plus forwards Bo Horvat (3:54), Brock Nelson (2:56), Jean-Gabriel Pageau (2:36), Kyle Palmieri (1:47) and Casey Cizikas (1:17).
“They get one in the empty net but, other than that, it was a perfect game,” said Noah Dobson, who contributed 50 seconds of shorthanded ice time. “I don’t think we’ve had too many of those lately. So, it’s a positive. Build on it.”
The Islanders can’t change how poorly they’ve started the season on the penalty kill. They can only now try and stay out of the record books.
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.
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