The New York Islanders' special teams are anything but.
Following Sunday's 6-2 blowout loss to the Ottawa Senators, Islanders bench boss Jack Capuano vented about his team's poor power-play and penalty-kill showings this season.
"I sound like a broken record with our effort," Capuano told reporter Denis Gorman. "The third goal was a big goal for them. The power-play goal that they got. We had three guys versus their two at the net. So that's what you want to talk about. Lift their stick, have some battle level in (you), have some fight. That, to me, that was a big goal for them. They didn't generate much tonight, I can tell you that."
The Senators finished the night with 32 shots on goal and went 1-for-2 on the power play. The Islanders were unsuccessful with four opportunities on the man advantage.
"Our power play didn't do anything to help our case, either," Capuano added. "We had a power play right off the bat that actually killed the momentum of our team."
At a 12.8 success rate, no team has a worse power play than the Islanders, while their penalty-killing unit doesn't fare much better, ranking 26th league-wide at 78.1 per cent. The Winnipeg Jets are the only other club to rank in the bottom five in both categories.
Losing four of their last five, the Islanders have only come away with a single point following an overtime loss to the Buffalo Sabres. The Islanders sit last place in the Eastern Conference.
Asked about his team's mental state through the losing skid, Capuano continued, "I don't think it's fragile at all right now. I think it's more like, 'Look at our record, look at (the) standings. We have nothing to lose. We have to win hockey games.'
Joining the Islanders in 2010, Capuano is the NHL's fourth-longest tenured head coach, behind only Boston's Claude Julien, Chicago's Joel Quenneville, and Arizona's Dave Tippett. Capuano's 221 wins behind the bench sits second in franchise history to only Al Arbour.
"When your special teams (are) at the bottom of the league and your goaltending is not kicking where it was last year, it's a recipe for a losing streak," Capuano added. "Just look at the teams that were high in the standings at the start and look where they are now. It's all correlated. We have to fix (those units).
Goalie | 2015-16 Record | SV% | GAA | 2016-17 Record | SV% | GAA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Thomas Greiss | 23-11-4 | .925 | 2.36 | 6-5-0 | .912 | 2.67 |
Jaroslav Halak | 18-13-4 | .919 | 2.30 | 5-8-5 | .907 | 3.13 |
"We have options we can use but at the same time, we're trying to put skill on the ice and have the lefty-righty shots that we need ... Last year we were top five in the league in penalty kill, top 15 in the league power play and top-10 goaltending. That's changed this year. And we're sitting where we're sitting."
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