DETROIT – The Islanders essentially set up their power play units as a mirror of their top two lines, with Anders Lee, Bo Horvat and Jean-Gabriel Pageau together on one and Max Tsyplakov, Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri together on the other.
Both lines played well in the five-on-five game.
But this power play combination was no better than anything else coach Patrick Roy has tried, as the Islanders ranked 31st in the league in power play percentage at 12.28 percent heading into Thursday's 2-1 loss to the Red Wings.
“Obviously, when things aren't going well, you want to shoot pucks into the net,” Palmieri told The Post before Thursday's loss, in which the Islanders had scored just once in the past two weeks. “But I think if we can do better timing, and get the players into the net at the same time, I think some of those second chances are there. Maybe we're a little spread out or stuck when those chances come.
However, timing and getting to the net don't appear to be much of an issue for Palmieri's unit in five-on-five, as the trio has scored 11 goals and accounted for 58.3 percent of the expected goals, according to Natural Stat Trick.
In theory, it should be easier with the man advantage. So what gives?
“I think when you get pucks back and support each other, you can definitely take a page off the way you play five-on-five,” Palmieri said. “I think we read each other well. Obviously, on the power play, you want to take advantage of a) the extra man; and b) oftentimes, the extra space you have. …
“But like I said, it comes down to not overcomplicating things. It doesn't have to be the prettiest of plays. You just have to make sure you execute the ball and face it at the net when we get there.”
Roy agreed, noting that on two power-play opportunities during Tuesday night's loss, Calgary's Rasmus Andersson blocked a number of their best chances.
“I think both [units] “They have to do the same thing, which means they have to put pucks in the net,” Roy said. “There are two things: Sometimes it is [not] Just throwing pucks at the net, but it's about how fast you can hit the next shot. This is what we have to do.
“I get a little better job. If we shoot a chance, we need to be better at our puck recovery, and from our puck recovery, we need to recreate something from that. Don't give them a chance to get caught and create some offense from that.”
The Red Wings honored Pavel Datsyuk for election to the Hockey Hall of Fame before Thursday's game.
Datsyuk's former agent, Dan Milstein – who represents the Islanders' Ilya Sorokin and Alexander Romanov – was present.
