Islanders are establishing a functioning power play

OTTAWA, Ontario — All through training camp, the refrain coming from the Islanders’ dressing room was that if they had only had a functioning power play last season, they likely would have been in the playoffs.

The idea wasn’t even that the Islanders needed to have one of the best power plays in the league. It was just that after finishing with a putrid 12.56 percent scoring rate at five-on-four and struggling with so many of the basic tenets of the power play all season, they needed to be competent.

For example, to find their last game-winning goal during a five-on-four power play — which is to say in regulation — you had to go back all the way to Dec. 8 of last season. Until, that is, Thursday night, when Bo Horvat’s goal from the slot was the difference in the Islanders’ 4-2 win over Edmonton, their first two points of the season.

It was the Islanders’ third power play goal in as many games, a feat they achieved just once last season, and though their 3-for-16 mark on the man advantage isn’t going to win any medals, there has been a noticeable difference compared to a year ago.

No longer does the power play feel like it sucks the life out of the Islanders. No longer do you wonder whether they might ask to decline penalties.

They can enter the zone. They can get set up. They can generate chances. Just like the 31 other teams.

“Once we got established, started moving the puck around quick, we were great,” Horvat told reporters at Friday’s practice before the Islanders flew to Ottawa for a Saturday matinee against the Senators. “On our goal, it was just a matter of me winning the faceoff first and [Mat Barzal] helping out. That got us kick-started. It was funny because I think we were first in the league at zone entries before that game, then all of a sudden we were terrible.”

It took the Islanders some time to figure out Edmonton’s penalty kill Thursday, and their first two attempts on the power play looked more like last season. Once coach Patrick Roy inserted Matthew Schaefer on the top unit, though, things changed.

“It’s not just the way he moves with the puck,” Roy said. “It’s the way he moves [in general], it’s hard for their first guy, the top guy, to put pressure on us, and I think that opens up the ice a lot for our power play.”

Schaefer and Tony DeAngelo have both gotten time on the top power play unit, but Roy said after the game that it’s only a matter of time before Schaefer takes over full time. Indeed, Schaefer was on the top unit at Friday’s practice.

As much as the Islanders are trying not to rush the No. 1 pick, Schaefer’s skating and ability to enter the zone at speed are assets they can’t help but use on the power play. It helps, too, that he’s handled everything they’ve thrown at him through four games.

According to SportLogiq’s tracking data, posted to X by Mike Kelly, Schaefer is averaging 7.8 zone exits and 3.0 zone entries per game, ranking second and fifth among all defensemen.

“He’s such a threat to pick up the puck and go where they have to respect him,” Horvat said. “They have to respect his speed before he drops it to Barzy, and obviously they have to respect Barzy’s speed, too. I think it just adds that extra level of being a threat coming down the ice.

“He’s so good at it, and he’s so fast, that the forwards have to respect the speed. They back off a little more to make room for the drop.”

Even with Schaefer in the fold, the Islanders’ power play is far from perfect. But it is no longer an outright liability, and for the time being, that feels like a hard-fought win.