The Islanders got their season rolling quickly against the New York Rangers on January 14 with three first period goals. The first of these goals was a power-play goal courtesy of last season’s goals leader, Brock Nelson. The goal set the Islanders up for a 4-0 win over their archrivals and gave hope for the man-advantage’s chances to be effective this season. For the first time in 2021, let’s break it down.

The play starts with a risky Anthony-Beauvillier pass all the way across the zone to Josh Bailey. Bailey walks down the far wall and gives it to Nick Leddy at center-point. Meanwhile, Nelson is sitting in the slot and JG Pageau is screening Igor Shesterkin. Leddy swings the puck back to Beauvillier on the near-side wall for a one-timer. The shot is blocked but it comes right to Nelson for an easy opportunity that he slips five-hole on Shesterkin.

The play begins with the Rangers in a tight box between the slot and Beauvillier. When he makes the cross-ice pass to Bailey, the penalty killers are forced to spread out and respect the threats of Bailey and Leddy. By the time the puck makes its way back to Beauvillier, the Rangers are in a 1-1-2 with Rooney at the point Brett Howden in the high slot to cut off a potential pass back to Bailey. Adam Fox goes down and blocks Beauvillier’s shot but the broken play comes right to Nelson. Howden is too high to get there and Ryan Lindgren is engaged with Pageau, giving Nelson a chance to turn and shoot. Shesterkin attempts to recover from challenging Beauvillier’s shot, opening up his five-hole for the puck to slide through.

A big key to this play is Nelson’s stick positioning. He opens his blade to all three Islanders around the outside and his stick was on the ice when the shot came. Had his stick been up in the air or turned in a different direction, he likely would not have been able to catch the puck and shoot it. Pageau battling with Lindgren also helped because Lindgren could have made a play on Nelson if he wasn’t already paying attention to Pageau.

The Islanders’ power-play was a weak spot at times last year but a 2/8 start on the man-advantage to the season looks promising. The addition of Pageau is showing to be key in this revival as he is another significant threat on the second unit.

John Smark