EDMONTON, Alberta — The start to the season, in which Anders Lee has taken any questions about his game falling off at age 34, crumpled them into a ball and thrown them into the garbage, has not happened by some coincidence.
Rather, following a 2023-24 campaign in which Lee suffered some decline in his game and had his worst non-pandemic-affected scoring season since 2015-16, the Islanders captain made a major change in his offseason training, employing the services of renowned skills coach and NHL Hall of Famer Adam Oates.
“Worked on a lot of little things that I think paid some big dividends,” Lee told The Post after the Islanders completed Monday’s practice on the first of a 12-day road trip. “Just came in feeling really good. Body’s in a great spot. Felt really good on the ice and just tried to continue that through. Like everyone else, try to go into each summer believing that you can come out of it a better hockey player. Went in with a great mindset and did a lot of great stuff.”
Oates, who is based in Toronto, has worked with a number of players in the Islanders organization, including Bo Horvat, Matt Martin, Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Maggio.
He made two weeklong trips to Minnesota, where Lee is based, last summer to work with clients there and otherwise entrusted things in the area to Taylor Williamson, a former national champion women’s hockey player with the University of Minnesota who went into coaching upon graduating in 2019.
Lee found the program to be a massive help, much of it focusing on subtle nuances within the game.
“Little moments in our game: How you pick up the puck, how you handle it, you control your body,” Lee said. “And the second I got back on the ice with him, I just felt this is something I really liked and really needed. I feel really good about it.”
Lee, whose four-game assist streak ended in Saturday’s loss to the Devils, has nine points in the first 15 games of this season and has commanded noticeably greater presence around the front of the net, where the 6-foot-3 winger has always made his living.
It comes as no surprise that all four of Lee’s goals have come from directly in front of the crease, and per NHL Edge data, he is in the 99th percentile league-wide for shots on goal in such areas, with 29.
Those numbers have always been good, and a reason for Lee’s advanced metrics showing he is amongst the Islanders’ best players by individual expected goals, but the finishing touch was missing for much of last year.
For comparison, Lee shot 13 percent on high-danger looks a year ago. In 2021-22, the earliest year for which such data was kept, he shot 23.7 percent.
Some of that is a matter of goaltending or luck. But it is a big enough disparity that Lee could not merely dismiss it.
“In terms of the touches around the net, I think it’s a combination of both [bad luck and something needing to be fixed],” Lee said. “A lot of times you like what you did with it, the goalie makes a good save. You gotta understand if you like your thought process or like your touch, and also [there are] times where, OK, maybe I don’t like how I did that. And how can I find a way for the next one in that spot or the next one around there to put it in?”
So far this season — and yes it is a small sample — Lee’s shooting percentage is only up by 0.8 percent in high-danger areas, but he’s gotten so many chances that it has not mattered quite as much.
His advanced metrics have also been superb, as the Islanders have controlled 57.99 percent of five-on-five scoring chances with the captain on the ice.
Little things that are making a big difference.
