Ray Bennett was fired by the Avalanche final season after the facility play he ran went an abysmal 3-for-22 in a seven-game first-round loss to the Stars, following a daily season by which it transformed at 24.79 p.c.
That regular-season quantity is ho-hum for Colorado, which was final under 24 p.c throughout the shortened 2020-21 season, so it didn’t add a lot to Bennett’s case that his unit had merely executed what it all the time does by 82 video games. The Islanders, for whom Bennett is now teaching the facility play after being employed as an assistant on Patrick Roy’s bench, would soar for pleasure at far lower than that.
The Islanders transformed simply 12.56 p.c of their energy performs final season when the unit was run by John MacLean, rating thirty first within the league, and that’s not an anomaly. The Islanders have been above 20 p.c simply thrice since 1994, and final reached 24 p.c or above in 1986-87. Certainly, for the reason that 2005 lockout, when the two-line move was deemed authorized, the Islanders cumulatively rank thirty first leaguewide on the facility play at 17.5 p.c.
To place it mildly, there’s not a latest historical past of success right here.
