For all the talk about the Islanders being well-equipped stylistically to compete in the playoffs, there is the reality of the power play, which is dragging them down like an anvil.

And for how well the Islanders have played in waiting for Mathew Barzal to return, that power play is 5-for-47 since he got hurt, after being 23-for-148 prior to trading for Bo Horvat.

The closest thing to hope on this front comes in the 6-for-17 stretch during the six games that Barzal and Horvat were both in the lineup — and even that is dependent on Barzal (suspected knee) eventually returning to the fold.

With a playoff berth still up in the air with four games to go in the regular season, the Islanders no longer in control of their own destiny and the most generous possible timeline for Barzal — who started skating on his own over the weekend — still including a question mark on his ability to return for the regular season, that hope is not going to help coach Lane Lambert fix the power play.

“I think we’re having trouble getting the puck in the zone,” Lambert said after Sunday’s 2-1 loss to the Hurricanes. “Starts right there.”

That’s not new — it’s been an issue for the entire season. And asked how it can be fixed, Lambert gave a verbal shoulder shrug.

“Well, we continue to work on it,” he said. “We just try and come up with different ways to alleviate the situation, I guess, or alleviate the problem. All we can do is just continue to work on it. We had a great chance to tie it [on the power play], Bo Horvat in the slot. So that would’ve been a nice one to have.”

It’s true that Horvat’s shot from the slot was perhaps the best chance the Islanders had to tie the game after Carolina took the lead early in the third period.

But that was also the only shot the Isles had during two minutes at five-on-four late in the game, as they struggled to get the puck into the zone and to get set up once it was there.

That Horvat was in the slot to begin with is also an item of interest, as the night before, the Islanders had shifted him from the bumper spot to the left circle, with Kyle Palmieri going to the bumper.

It seems that experiment lasted all of one game, as the Isles went 0-for-3 on the power play against the Lightning.

The coaching staff has been reluctant to change the personnel on the first unit — which includes Noah Dobson, Palmieri, Horvat, Brock Nelson and Anders Lee — for anything more than a fleeting experiment, either.

But the Isles are desperate to get something from their power play right now.

Could that be the next move?