Isles Looking To Lower Shots Against

After Monday's game against Nashville, Doug Weight was unhappy with how many point shots got through to Jaroslav Halak.
P.K. Subban alone had nine shots, one fifth of the Predators' 47 pucks on net. Even with the Islanders comfort level allowing shots from the outside instead of chances in tight or in high-danger areas, Weight sees a problem.
"When pucks are hitting your goalie in the stomach from the point, physics says you're not in the shot lane and that's unacceptable," Weight said.

So when the Islanders reconvened at practice on Wednesday, they worked on rushing the point and getting in shooting lanes, in hopes to limiting shots and chances against.
"They have to get in shot lanes. It's a big boy world, it's a tough thing to do," Weight said. "We have to sprint out at them, we have to pick up sticks in front of the net, pillage and get into people. If we're not going to do it, we'll be a soft team. Soft teams in this grind that we're going to play in right now aren't going to succeed. I'm confident in our guys and I trust them."
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The Islanders lead the league in shots allowed (35.6 per game) and have allowed at least 30 shots in 20 straight games, which is a club record. Of late that number has grown, with the Islanders allowing 40, 50, 49 and 47 in their last four games, respectively.
There are a few factors that go into this. The Islanders are playing with a depleted defense that's missed Calvin de Haan and Johnny Boychuk since December, while Scott Mayfield left Monday's game in the first period, leaving the Isles with five defensemen. Boychuk (2.3) and de Haan (2) lead the Islanders in blocked shots per game.
There's also the comfort level with shots from the outside and low-danger areas. Even Jaroslav Halak is fine with those types of shots, but to a point. Halak saw 26 shots in the first period of Saturday's 4-3 win over Columbus.
"It's better for a goalie when they shoot a lot of pucks, but obviously that was too many for the first period," Halak said after the win over Columbus.
Halak has been the busiest goalie in the NHL over the past month and a half, seeing 670 shots in 17 games since Dec. 21. That's 112 more shots than the second goalie on the list, Toronto's Frederik Andersen. Halak has seen 35+ shots in 15 of his last 17 games, but he hasn't even seen the most shots in one game for an Islanders goalie this season, as Thomas Greiss saw 56 in a 5-4 OT win over Montreal in January.

"We have to keep it under 30 here," Ryan Pulock said before Thursday's game in Buffalo. "It just comes down to in the d-zone, as d-men clearing the front of the net, not letting them get those second shots, for forwards getting into lanes and us as d-men too trying to get into lanes."
The Islanders are focusing on lessening the workload for their goalies. Getting in shooting lanes is part of the equation, but getting out of their own end quickly and keeping possession in the offensive zone will go a long way.
"Obviously the more efficient we are at breaking the puck out as a team, we're going to limit their opportunities and shots against," Josh Bailey said. "As well as how we play through the neutral zone and maintaining possession in the offensive zone and creating our own opportunities is going to limit their time in our zone and getting shots."
After giving up 37 shots in two periods against Nashville, the Islanders limited the Predators to six shots in the third, including one in the first 15 minutes of the period. A late 6-on-5 goal aside, there was a lot the Islanders liked about that period and as far as shot suppression goes, they'll be hoping to build off of it going forward.
"It's a little bit of everything," Pulock said. "And something that we need to focus on and clean up."