Dating back several weeks now, the New York Islanders have struggled to make the most of their power play opportunities.
“They’re very aggressive,” Brock Nelson told reporters in Raleigh on Sunday. “I think they have been for a number of years now, and they’ve been successful at it. They do a good job pressuring and have hard stands on entries. I think we saw that the first power play [in Game 1]. We kind of got stymied there a bit. In zone, it’s all-out pressure. I think it takes a little bit more to get up and get settled compared to maybe some other teams.”
“It was a good look for our guys in the way that they really pressed us hard,” Islanders head coach Patrick Roy told reporters in Raleigh on Sunday. “I’m sure today that the guys have a better idea of what to do tomorrow. At the same time, like I’ve said, both teams are going to have to, along the way, make some small adjustments here and there. Hopefully, we can learn from [Game 1] and move on.”
“It takes a little bit of everything,” said Nelson. “Speed, motion, support and hanging onto pucks. You have to be smart with puck placement. They pressure a lot through the neutral zone to kind of disrupt the flow of possession when trying to get into the O-zone. And then, once you get in there, it’s kind of the same thing. You need to have good out and good support from everybody, defensemen and forwards.”
“The last power play we had, we definitely found a little momentum,” Mathew Barzal told reporters in Raleigh on Sunday. “We made a couple of good plays and could’ve had a goal or two. We’ll definitely have to look at some video and make adjustments. That’s the beauty of a playoff series. It’s a chess game right now. We have to find a way to be good on the power play to at least give us momentum.”
