NY Positive Stats: Fact, Fiction, Not Relevant?

New York Islander Fan Central | 2/21/2016 06:21:00 PM |
Granted in the limited entries here this season, I have made clear I am not satisfied with the 2015-16 New York Islanders season, expressing my concerns since camp opened which have played out as expected while they struggle through so many games which the players/coaches discuss far too often win or lose.

New Jersey dominated them virtually the entire game on Friday, almost no sustained pressure, with a powerplay that was only good at shooting from the outside. (missing the net)

They lose that game nine/ten times vs another NHL team or if Mike Cammalleri was healthy for the NHL's lowest scoring team. I did not see that as a good win, despite the Devils system. The Flyers/Caps got their goals against them.

Having written this, it's shoddy on my part to ignore the things that have been positive. I sure did harp on special teams last season, when the 29th pk changed in  March 2015, now this team is second overall for this long, and I do not even write it?

This team is 14th in powerplay percentage.
8th in even strength goals.
The two goals leads are no longer blown every other game, in fact they seem to hold leads now.

It's been very ugly, but all bad? 

For all my complaints about home record in past vs road record, on the surface it seems to be what you expect, a good home record, five hundred road record.

The Islanders have been such a dominating road team over several years, the notion of them only around five hundred seems like a big negative.

My issue with what I'm seeing still goes back to preseason. So many of the games this year go beyond stats, so I ignore the peripheral, and wonder why this team almost never plays a sixty minute game, or have gone from one of the hardest working to one very easy to play against?

I see so many of their wins where the opposing goalie has a poor game, and know for this team to have any real chance of making the playoffs, they have to be able to defeat teams playing well by raising their game/making their own push where the other team/goalie cannot match them.

We saw this when Chicago came to Coliseum last year, same with Tampa, the Islanders simply kept working/wore them down, and setup goals even a top goalie playing well could not stop them.

Bottom line here is I have been treating the positive numbers as not relevant because the team is too easy to play against now. My ignoring those numbers has not been intentional but a small part of a big picture that has told me from day one this team is not good enough.

For the moment we know the standings have them in contention, but folks who have read this website understand I do not see a playoff team ultimately or one that's a very easy out if they qualify.

Meanwhile here they are at 5-1-1 in the last seven games, the most important number of all. (point total)