The New York Islanders are not afraid of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
After the big win with 6-2 in the sixth game against the Boston Bruins, the New York Islanders are ready for the semifinals in the playoffs for the Stanley Cup. Now the team is playing match series across the division boundaries for the first time; Islanders, fourth in MassMutual East, take on Lightning, third in Discover Central.
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Since the New York Rangers have not even managed to reach the playoffs, the Islanders enter the semifinals under the slogan “defend New York”. Now against a powerful opponent: reigning Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning.
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– We have not thought about anything in Tampa, nothing at all, says Islanders coach Barry Trotz. We started this trip focusing on beating Pittsburgh. When we did that, we focused on Boston. Now we get another chance against the champions.
The Penguins and Bruins were commonplace for the Islanders during the regular season. The teams met eight times each in the new and corona-adapted series format 2020-21. However, the Islanders have not met Lightning since September 17 last year. The upcoming match series between the teams will be the second time in a row the Islanders face Lightning in the playoffs and the third time in six years: in 2016, the Islanders lost 1-4 in the second round and 2-4 in the third playoff round in 2020. No good statistics, of course.
Eight players from the Islanders remain from the team that met Tampa in 2016, and three more players, Kyle Palmieri, Travis Rabbit and backen Andy Greene met Tampa in the first playoff round of 2018; then it played the trio for the New Jersey Devils. Barry Trotz also has Lightning experience: Trotz experienced the playoffs-Tampa season 2017-18, when he led the Washington Capitals past Lightning in the third playoff round (4-3) on the road to the Stanley Cup triumph.
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So the players and management of the team from Long Island in New York know what to expect.
– I just saw them run out of Carolina. Tampa is a good hockey team right now, and they obviously have a very dangerous power play game with an efficiency of around 50 percent (41.7), says Barry Trotz. And it’s a team with some real superstars… but they had that in Boston too. They have great breadth in the team both offensively and defensively, some chains that can do great damage. And they have a goalkeeper (Andrei Vasilevskiy) with Vezina quality.
Barry Trotz sees the challenge. But he is not afraid of it. Trotz, the 58-year-old from Winnipeg, has won five playoff series since leaving the Washington Capitals after the 2018 Cup victory (the Capitals have not won any), and he knows how to analyze the opponent.
– It will be a huge challenge for us, but we will go through what needs to be done, and then try to do it, says Barry Trotz.
The Islanders have plenty of match winners, with four players over ten points in the twelve games so far in the playoffs. 28-year-old center Jean-Gabriel Pageau has 13 points (3 + 10) and impressive +11 in the plus-minus statistics. Josh Bailey, 31, has scored eleven points, including five goals. 24-year-olds Anthony Beauvillier also stands at eleven points, but with four goals. Brock Nelson, 29 years old and with his two goal match winners in the last game against Boston, has come up with ten points (6 + 4). Behind the close quartet is the experienced 30-year-old Kyle Palmieri with seven goals for a total of nine points.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who joined the Islanders from Ottawa last season, has received much praise during the playoffs. Among others from Boston coach Bruce Cassidy who after the match stated that “they (Islanders) did not want to go into a match to change chances. They have very good defensive players, a whole world of Pageau’s. He does a fantastic job, it was of course no coincidence that they pitched him against our best players “.
Islanders can not show the real superstars that other teams can, players like McDavid, Ovechkin, Matthews or Crosby. Instead, the Islanders appear to be a well-knit team building.
– Many of us have been playing together for quite some time now, and in the meantime we have filled in with important pieces of the puzzle. When it starts to apply a lot and you see that everyone stands up for each other, then the band that raises the team builds, says Josh Bailey. It will not be an easy task, Tampa is a fantastic team. It will be tough, but we believe in ourselves and we know we will have to give our very best to find a way to take them down.
Tampa will benefit from home ground if the playoff series goes to seven games.
– If you want to win everything, you have to beat the best, states Brock Nelson who was with last year when Tampa beat the Islanders in the playoffs.
– I do not think anyone is necessarily considering taking revenge on Tampa. We try to take the matches one by one, one after the other. Now (after the victory against Boston) we can turn the page and focus on Tampa. They are a good team, reigning champions and all. This will be a good fight, Brock Nelson believes.
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