Month: May 2019

Don Draper knows how to celebrate.

Following the St. Louis Blues’ 2-1 win over the Dallas Stars in Game 7 on Tuesday night, advancing to the Western Conference finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs, Blues superfan and St. Louis native Jon Hamm expressed his excitement postgame.

“This is what makes hockey amazing,” Hamm, 48, said.

A lifelong Blues fan, Hamm, who had been commentating on the game via the NHL’s “Cup Confidential,” was on the edge of his seat, much like every other Blues fan inside the Enterprise Center, where Patrick Maroon scored the game-winning goal in double-overtime. Hamm and Maroon embraced after the goal.

“We dominated [the Stars] for three periods and we still could have lost. And that sucks … except it didn’t,” Hamm said, according to St. Louis’ KMOX News Radio.

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The celebrations naturally got underway soon after, with the “Mad Men” alum doling out countless high-fives.

“When you are remotely recognizable, everyone wants to high-five you, so it’s very difficult to determine how many high-fives you have to deal out,” Hamm said.

The Blues will find out late Wednesday whether they will face the Colorado Avalanche or the San Jose Sharks next.

You look for electricity and greatness, not indistinguishable parity, during the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. That’s what championship events are supposed to showcase. Maybe that’s why Cale Makar has been so transcendent while infusing the Avalanche and the tournament with unabashed exuberance less than two weeks off the UMass campus.

All of the intangibles are and should be recognized, and work ethic deserves credit. But we’re hungry for talent to break through following a talent-based regular season. It does not diminish what the eight teams standing did to advance — they clearly earned these moments in the sun and their activity produced achievement.

But talent. How much sheer talent is on display here as the weather turns warm and fans whose teams — 27 of them soon enough — are home for the summer might have better entertainment choices. A marquee event requires marquee performers.

So bear with me. How many future Hall of Famers would you say are/were in this second round? No, Makar would not be counted, and neither at this point would, say, Sebastian Aho or Mat Barzal — brilliantly talented young’uns who have 15-20 years in front of them to make their respective cases.

All right. Let’s start with Zdeno Chara, perhaps the most underrated player of the last quarter century. Patrice Bergeron is assured a plaque. Let’s say that David Pastrnak is on the track. And stop. Stop right there. Just say no to Brad Marchand. So, two or three Bruins.

Artemi Panarin, the impending Rangers/Panthers/Islanders winger, has an outside shot after taking advantage of the playoff stage, but you look at a couple of other definitive Hall-worthy Russians in Alexander Mogilny and Sergei Zubov, so maybe not. Seth Jones could be considered with another decade-plus of excellence. And I guess if Sergei Bobrovsky pulls off something grand here or in his next life in Florida/wherever, there’s a chance for the Russian goaltender, too. So maybe one, maybe two, maybe three stretching it. Or maybe none from the Jackets.

Nathan MacKinnon can start his speech now. Mikko Rantanen has a long way to go, obviously, but he has the tools. One for sure from the Avalanche.

It is only a matter of when, not if, for Joe Thornton. Erik Karlsson, who would have been Broadway-bound three summers ago had No. 65’s impending free agency moons aligned, is a lock. Joe Pavelski may have an outside chance, but probably not. Same for Marc-Edouard Vlasic, perhaps, but come on, Kevin Lowe and Doug Wilson aren’t in the HHOF. But Brent Burns will get to the Grand Hall. That’s three for sure from San Jose.

Jamie Benn is making a pretty good case for himself. Tyler Seguin is kind of a blip on the radar, but he is on the screen. And no, you can’t say now that Miro Heiskanen has declared himself a candidate, but the freshman defenseman inexplicably not a finalist for the Calder Trophy — is on that path. A few possibilities in Dallas.

Vladimir Tarasenko? The Blues’ winger might have a chance. Ryan O’Reilly is almost a linear descendent of Walter Tkachuk, and nobody can recall much support for No. 18. But a Conn Smythe and a Cup or two along the way could bolster his candidacy.

There is one more, though, and he is Justin Williams, whose numbers don’t reach the threshold but who consistently aces the eye-test. When you watch the winger in these biggest of games, you know you are watching a Hall of Fame player, his comparably modest 312 goals, 476 assists and 786 points in 1,244 games over a 19-year career, aside. There are also 39 playoff goals and 100 points in 151 playoff games, three Cup rings, and counting.

Mr. Game 7 should become Mr. Honored Member.

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So the puck hits the netting, somehow not one of the four on-ice officials working Game 4 of the Columbus-Boston series notices that, and the Jackets’ Panarin scores a goal off a feed following the ricochet that obviously should have been disallowed but couldn’t be under league video-review guidelines.

A week after arguing against adding a coach’s challenge to review major penalties, it’s somewhat inconsistent to suggest video review should be employed under the scenario that occurred in the first period of the Bruins’ 4-1 win.

But on clear-cut plays like that — just as on determining whether it was truly in the defensive zone and thus worthy of a delay-of-game penalty — couldn’t Toronto simply signal the official scorer to instantly correct the situation? Toronto stops play when they recognize a goal has been scored, so why not this?

You know what is desperately needed? A Summer of ’19 Shanahan-type summit that focuses exclusively on officiating. The game is just so fast — so fast. The time in which players have to make decisions shrinks by the day. That applies to the officials, as well.

This model might be broken for good. Maybe there should be an off-ice referee who would have the ability to override calls on the ice. I don’t pretend to know. But this way doesn’t seem to be working. No referee or linesman takes the ice with the intent to commit mistakes, let alone multiple ones. They obviously need help. The league needs to reimagine the way the game is officiated.

A summit is the way to go. Presumably, notes would be taken and kept.

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The trade for Adam Fox that includes an encumbered 2020 second-rounder (a third will become a second if the Harvard product plays 30 NHL games this season) takes the Rangers out of the offer-sheet game for any compensation that includes a No. 2 for 2020.

In other words, no Mitch Marner or Brayden Point on Broadway … unless you’re sacrificing four first-rounders.

Which potential new president John Davidson is not.

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Bruins and Canadiens at The Forum, this isn’t, but that’s all right, too, because nothing says the second round of the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs quite like Islanders, Hurricanes and Brooklyn.

“The door is wide open,” Mat Barzal told The Post following Thursday’s practice. “You see big teams like Tampa and Calgary go down, now Washington and Pittsburgh are both out, but we’re still here.

“The further we go, the further we want to go. Winning the Stanley Cup, it’s what you play for.”

This tournament represents a recess from historical storylines. No Crosby-Ovechkin. No Ovechkin-Trotz. No Canadian team left standing. The Cup is there for the taking. Problem for the Islanders is that the Canes, rock candy now in the aftermath of Wednesday’s Game 7 double-overtime takeout of the Caps, want to grab it, too.

Just because their opponent doesn’t have the cachet of big-name and big-market clubs that have gone down in a heap doesn’t mean the Islanders will be in for a free ride when the second round commences against Carolina on Friday at Barclays. Fact is the Canes, after dispatching the defending champs, are extremely dangerous. They are playing with the same kind of house money John Spano once used to try and buy the Islanders.

“All these series, all these things are happening, and you notice it,” said Barzal, who dazzled against the Penguins in his first NHL playoff competition. “Upsets maybe become contagious if that’s possible.

“But we’re just going day by day; game by game. If you look ahead you get left behind.”

Lou Lamoriello could not have said it better himself.

Nine months ago, this would have been inconceivable. Lamoriello at the Islanders practice rink overseeing prep work for Round 2 at essentially the same time Kyle Dubas, his successor as general manager in Toronto, was trying to come up with answers at the Maple Leafs breakup day. The Islanders getting ready for Round 2 just as John

Tavares was cleaning out his locker.

Inconceivable nine months ago? How about nine weeks ago?

The Islanders finished with 103 points and fifth-overall in the league. They are not interlopers into this pentagon that features teams with the 11th, 12th, 13th, 15th and 17th best records in the NHL following this bracket-busting opening round.

“Nothing really surprised me and everything surprised me,” Barry Trotz said. “There’s just not as much separation in the league as you think there is.”

Everyone loves upsets until the absence of marquee names dilutes national interest in consequent matchups. These are the NHL’s elite eight? Really? The Islanders and Canes could drop the puck at six in the morning and the national networks still wouldn’t find time to televise it. This is one that hardly stokes the imagination.

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Guess what?

So what.

The teams with the fanciest pedigrees and the biggest names, they’re home. The Islanders and Canes, they’re two of the eight teams left with a chance to win the Cup and they are not going to apologize for it.

“I think every player comes to training camp believing they have a chance to win the Cup, and if not, they probably shouldn’t be playing” Cal Clutterbuck said. “That doesn’t mean you have to talk about it, though. You don’t put the result in front of the journey.

“You go through the year and confront and respond to different situations. Everybody gets knocked down. It’s whether you keep getting back up that defines you.”

The Islanders remained pretty much upright all season. They barely had a glove laid on them by the Penguins, whom they never trailed for so much as one second in the third period of any of their four first-round matches. Recognizable names or not up and down the Carolina lineup, the Islanders surely will face some adversity in this series that doesn’t quite pop or resonate. They are surely no sure thing.

But they are deep, they are committed, they are disciplined and they are ready for the spotlight even if the spotlight might take some time getting around to them.

Islanders in six.

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The assumption was that Islanders team president Lou Lamoriello would not have approved naming Anders Lee captain if there wasn’t an understanding on a new contract for the 28-year-old Minnesotan.

Well, that wasn’t the case.

The future of Lee, and therefore the whereabouts of the ‘C’ on an Islanders sweater, is arguably the biggest question going into break-up day Monday. Following the team’s commendable second-round postseason exit, ending with it getting swept by the Hurricanes after a Game 4 loss Friday night in Raleigh, Lee goes into the summer having completed his team-friendly four-year, $15 million deal, looking at unrestricted free agency if a new contract is not reached by July 1.

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Whenever asked about his situation, Lee would trot out the trope “things will take care of themselves,” but that’s not necessarily the case. He would presumably be looking for a hometown eight-year deal, while Lamoriello most likely would not want to commit for that type of term — unless the salary-cap hit was substantially decreased, say to $5 million per.

But rest assured Mark Stone’s eight-year, $76 million deal with the Golden Knights, carrying an annual salary-cap hit of $9.5 million in a no-tax state, will be used as a comparable. And even though Lee is not in the same realm as Stone, that will be a starting point for negotiations. Add in the gap in term, and it’s clear how reaching a deal might be a tougher situation than first anticipated.

Lee is one of only 15 players to score 100 or more goals combined the past three seasons, highlighted by his 40-goal performance in the 2017-18 season playing in the wide-open style of Doug Weight.

But since Barry Trotz moved behind the bench this season and procured a winning, defensive style, everyone’s numbers went down. Lee managed just 28 goals while playing all 82 games and he didn’t exactly help himself with adding just one empty-netter in the eight playoff games — his first postseason goal.

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Lee’s leadership is undeniable, as Trotz needed only training camp to identify him as the man who should take over the captaincy in the wake of John Tavares’ unceremonious departure to go play for his hometown Maple Leafs. After the Game 4 loss, Lee was understandably emotional, knowing that it could have been his final game as the Islanders’ captain.

“That’s part of our game, our business,” Lee said. “We’re a family in here. We’re a team. Until that changes, we’re a family.”

Lee has an understated Midwestern way about him, accentuated by the three years he spent at Notre Dame after the Islanders had taken the standout quarterback from Edina High School in the sixth round (No. 152 overall) in 2009.

It is seemingly the perfect temperament for a team coached by Trotz, confident and poised while straining away from the spotlight.

“He’s been a really good captain,” Trotz said. “Sometimes he’ll try to shoulder too much of the responsibilities. We’ve got a really good leadership group and they’re all saying the right things.”

Lamoriello has his plate full with three more big-name free agents in forwards Jordan Eberle and Brock Nelson, along with goalie Robin Lehner. Capable veteran Valtteri Filppula also just completed his one-year, $2.75 million deal that turned out to be a bargain.

While Lehner might play the most important position, Lee is the most important in terms of continuing to establish a team identity. With the import of Lamoriello and Trotz, the organizational culture has drastically changed, and Lee is that representation of professionalism in the locker room. Of course Monday he will say he wants to stay, and of course that means only at the right price.

As proven over the years, Lamoriello has an uncanny way of disregarding sentimentality when it comes to negotiations, but that doesn’t not mean he undervalues leadership. With a roster overhaul inevitable, soon Lamoriello will have to decide just how far he is willing to go to keep his captain, or watch him walk out the door.

RALEIGH, N.C. — If you ever wondered why Lou Lamoriello joined the trade-deadline hunt for Mark Stone and Matt Duchene before the high-octane talents went to Vegas and Columbus, respectively, simply check out the rows of zeroes under the goal-scoring column of this Round 2 against the Hurricanes.

None for Jordan Eberle, who scored in each game of the sweep of Pittsburgh. None for Brock Nelson, who got three against the Penguins. None for Anders Lee, who put in one in the first round.

We know what the Islanders did to get here. No, not to arrive at the precipice down 3-0 entering Friday’s Game 4, but rather to record 103 points, make the playoffs when that seemed a lunatic’s pipe dream in September, and outclass the Penguins.

They did it by relentlessly committing to coach Barry Trotz’s sound defensive precepts, by getting superior goaltending from the Robin Lehner-Thomas Greiss tandem and by sprinkling in enough production to turn 82 games of grind into a reward.

Now, though, they’re up against an opponent that grinds equally well, plays both sides of the puck with equal dedication, has gotten equally strong goaltending and has been the more opportunistic squad in the critical moments of Games 1, 2 and 3. In other words, all of them.

Other than that, it’s been a ball for the Islanders, with party hats, noise-makers and everything.

There comes a time in the playoffs when talent must emerge, when sheer guts, work effort and character just don’t add to quite enough because the other guys also own those essential qualities. If they didn’t they wouldn’t be one of the final eight teams standing. So more is needed from the Islanders’ top guns.

When you’re having trouble scoring, when you’re down by one and pull the goaltender for the extra attacker, wouldn’t you want the guys who have the slickest hands on the ice? Wouldn’t, in this case, you expect to see Eberle out there as part of the six-on-five unit?

You probably would.

But you would be wrong.

On Sunday in Brooklyn in the 2-1 Game 2 defeat, Eberle did not get on for the final 3:22 while Trotz went with Josh Bailey (whose Game 3 snipe represents his team’s only five-on-five goal of the series), Mat Barzal, Lee, Nelson, Devon Toews and Ryan Pulock. Indeed, Eberle got only two shifts worth 1:59 over the final 9:15.

Then on Wednesday in the 5-2 Game 3 defeat in which Carolina scored a pair of empty-netters, Eberle once again was on the bench when Trotz summoned Lehner to go with the extra attacker. Again it was Bailey, Barzal, Lee, Nelson, Toews and Pulock. On this night, Eberle took two shifts worth 2:02 over the final 9:51.

Odd, no?

Apparently not to Eberle, though.

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“We’ve got two six-on-five units and I play on the other one,” the 28-year-old impending free-agent winger told The Post. “I don’t think it has anything to do with the coach being unhappy with the way I’m playing. That’s the way we set it up.

“I have full faith in the guys who are on the ice.”

Wait a minute. How often are teams able to change skating six-on-five, much less a full unit? It is essentially pure chaos out there in the final minute-plus, guys jamming the net, throwing pucks toward the front, desperately attempting to create outnumbered situations. It is not a power play that can be conducted.

But all right, if that’s the way coach-of-the-year nominee Trotz and the Islanders have done it throughout the season. So the second unit during the season was … well, not only was there no second unit that got a consequential amount of time, guess who was on the first unit?

Why, that was Mr. Eberle, who got the sixth-most ice time (19:01) behind Barzal (31:34), Lee (24:28), Bailey (23:12), Pulock (21:42) and Nick Leddy (19:01) during the regular season, according to Naturalstattrick.com. So, for the playoffs, Leddy and Eberle are out — er, on the second unit — while supplanted by Nelson and Toews.

Eberle may not be everyone’s cup of tea. He represents kind of an incongruity on the Islanders, a smoothie on a team that wants to play relentlessly with a jagged edge. He generally doesn’t pop up unless he’s around the net with the puck on his stick. He has only put five shots on net on 12 attempts against Carolina after recording 15 shots on 22 tries in the four first-round matches.

But Eberle is a finisher on a team that doesn’t have enough of them, and absent some goal-scoring could be finished, period, after Game 4. Maybe he can get on more than twice the final 10 minutes of the contest.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Maybe it was a bit of gamesmanship, as it was during the regular season, but Islanders coach Barry Trotz was not ruling out anything in terms of his lineup for a must-win Game 4 against the Hurricanes here on Friday night — and that includes in goal.

With Trotz’s team down 3-0 in the best-of-seven, second-round series, he did not declare Robin Lehner as his starting goalie, even though Lehner has been solid in the first seven games of this postseason.

It would be a rather big shock if Trotz decided Thomas Greiss would be the one to come in with the season on the line, since Greiss has not played since the next-to-last game of the regular season on April 4.

“Quite frankly, I haven’t told them who’s playing in goal, and I haven’t told them the lines,” Trotz said after an upbeat practice Thursday.

Trotz made it a point during the regular season not to disclose his starting goalie, but it seemed clear Lehner was going to be the No. 1 guy going into the playoffs. He was terrific in a first-round sweep of the Penguins, but the whole team hasn’t been as sharp in the first three games of this series.

Lehner then made an ill-advised pass up the boards midway through the third period of Game 3 that started the sequence ending in Justin Williams’ game-winning goal, and he took ownership of the mistake after the game.

When Trotz was asked what type of reaction he might get from the team if he made a drastic move like starting Greiss, he balked.

“We lost three,” Trotz said. “The reaction is ‘let’s go.’ ”

Asked if he was considering lineup changes, Trotz didn’t hesitate.

“Yup. We haven’t gotten the results we wanted, so yes, we are,” he said. “We spent a lot of time this morning [talking about it]. So yes, absolutely, 100%.”

Asked at what position, Trotz said, “at all positions.”

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Four players missed practice, with Trotz citing “maintenance days” for Cal Clutterbuck, Scott Mayfield, Adam Pelech and Tom Kuhnhackl. It was unclear if any would be unavailable for Game 4.

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The lineup hasn’t changed all postseason, with the two extra forwards being Michael Dal Colle and Ross Johnston. The extra defensemen are Luca Sbisa — who has played one game (Jan. 12) in the calendar year — and Dennis Seidenberg, who didn’t play a game all season.

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Former Islander and current Hurricanes defenseman Calvin de Haan had some choice words about the league’s decision to have the Islanders play their first-round home games at the Coliseum and then move them to Barclays Center for the second round.

“It’s great for us,” de Haan told reporters Thursday morning. “It’s good for the away team. It kind of negates the home-ice advantage.”

The other skate has dropped with the Rangers and Adam Fox.

Two days after trading for the rights to the Harvard defenseman from the Hurricanes, the Rangers signed Fox to an entry-level contract, the team announced Thursday. The three-year entry-level deal is believed to be the max of $925,000 per year, plus bonuses, according to The Post’s Larry Brooks.

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Before he joins the Rangers in camp, Fox will play for Team USA in the upcoming World Championships, adding to a roster that includes fellow Blueshirts Chris Kreider and Brady Skjei.

The Rangers acquired the 5-foot-11, 195-pound Fox from Carolina on Tuesday in exchange for their own 2019 second-round draft pick and a 2020 third-round pick that will turn into a second if Fox plays at least 30 games this season. Had he not been traded, Fox was expected to return to Harvard for his senior year and then become a free agent next summer.

The 21-year-old, right-shot defenseman from Jericho, Long Island, is “ready to play now,” general manager Jeff Gorton told Brooks on Tuesday.

“We wanted him here and we didn’t want to wait,” Gorton said. “We want to get moving.”

Finally, after what amounted to a 10-day break for the Islanders following their first-round sweep of the Penguins, the second round will begin against the Hurricanes with Game 1 on Friday night at Barclays Center.

Carolina comes in after a dramatic 4-3 double-overtime victory against the defending Stanley Cup champion Capitals on Wednesday night in Washington, so not a lot of time for them to breathe. The question is whether their prolonged wait was enough time for the Islanders to develop some rust.

Yet, in terms of personnel and style, the Islanders now find themselves with a matchup against a team very similar to themselves. They both are bereft of full-fledged superstars and both play to their strengths of depth and unity. If any precedent exists in the playoffs, these will be tight, defensive games.

The matchups:

Goaltending

This summer, if someone said Robin Lehner and Petr Mrazek would be the starting goalies in the second round of the playoffs, there would be few who believed. But here they are, as Lehner has entirely turned around his personal life and his career while getting nominated for both the Masterton and Vezina trophies.

He had one of the best statistical seasons between the pipes in Islanders history — as did his co-winner of the Jennings Trophy, Thomas Greiss, ready to go in at any moment without much drop-off. Lehner was terrific in sweeping the Penguins, showing not just high-end talent and athleticism, but a competitive fire that can be contagious.

Mzarek, 27, spent the early part of his career with the Red Wings and came to the Hurricanes this season, taking over as the starter about midway through. He was a big part of their second-half push, going 12-3-0 with a 1.67 goals-against average and .943 save percentage from Feb. 8 to the end of the regular season. The stats weren’t quite there in the seven games against the Capitals (2.54, .899), but he did make some timely saves.

Edge: Islanders

Defense

The Islanders lost veteran leader Johnny Boychuk to a lower-body injury suffered while blocking a shot in Game 4 against the Penguins. His timeline was three-to-four weeks, and three weeks exactly would be Game 6. Yet the club is confident in the ability of replacement Thomas Hickey, who had been a regular in the top-four before he suffered a concussion Dec. 17 that kept him out almost three months.

The young duo of Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock was a catalyst in shutting down Sidney Crosby’s line in the first round, while Devon Toews can skate like the wind and Scott Mayfield is a sturdy stay-at-home righty-shot to solidify the third pair.

Carolina’s blueline is still centered around Justin Faulk, while 24-year-old Jaccob Slavin has turned into a top-pair minutes eater, putting up nine assists in the opening round. The puck-movers continue with the offensively dynamic Dougie Hamilton and young Trevor van Riemsdyk, while Tarrytown native Brett Pesce and former Islander Calvin de Haan hold down the fort.

Edge: Even

Forwards
Reigning Calder Trophy winner Mat Barzal showed he is not afraid of the big stage in the first round, and it’s been a good mix with him skating alongside Jordan Eberle, who is brimming with confidence after scoring in each game against Pittsburgh. Mixed with big-bodied captain Anders Lee, the Islanders have a legit top line.

Second-line center Brock Nelson has also stepped up, paired with Josh Bailey to each put up three goals. With a steady third line centered by postseason savant Valtteri Filppula, and the famous fourth line of Matt Martin, Casey Cizikas and Cal Clutterbuck — what coach Barry Trotz likes to call the “identity line” — there is depth in place of any superior high-end talent.

The Canes aren’t too different, with the most skill up-front coming from their two young Finnish forwards: 21-year-old Sebastian Aho, who had a career year with 30 goals, along with Teuvo Teravainen, the 24-year-old former first-round pick of the Blackhawks. Jordan Staal missed almost three months after suffering a concussion in December, but returned to form and was terrific in the first round. And what more needs to be said about 37-year-old captain Justin Williams beside the fact his name is on the Stanley Cups three times and his nickname is “Mr. Game 7.”

Some good depth is added by former Islanders first-round pick Nino Niederreiter, who had 30 points in 36 games for the Canes since getting traded from the Wild in January, along with steady two-way games from Warren Foegele, Brock McGinn and Jordan Martinook.

Edge: Even

Special Teams

The only power play worse than the Islanders (15.4%) in the first round among the eight teams remaining was the Hurricanes (12.0%). But the man-advantage has been a problem for the Isles all season, finishing third-worst in the league while Carolina finished 20th.

That could be pivotal in such a tight series.

The penalty kill is an absolute strength for the Canes, finishing eighth during the regular season (81.6%) and one of the biggest reasons why they were able to hang with the Capitals and their world-class power play in the first round.

Yet the Isles’ penalty kill was even better in the first round, allowing the dynamic Penguins man-advantage (even if they were a bit disinterested) only one goal on 11 tries (90.9%).

Edge: Hurricanes

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Coaching
It is no surprise that two front-runners for the Jack Adams Award meet in the second round with two teams that overachieved according to most observers.

Barry Trotz came to the Islanders and took them from last in the league in goals-against to first. Rod Brind’Amour was promoted from assistant to head coach after last season, and he has his players inspired and ready to go to battle for him.

Yet it’s Trotz who has 20 years experience behind the NHL bench, and he won the Stanley Cup just a year ago with the Capitals.

Edge: Islanders

Prediction

The Islanders have been excellent in close games all season, and if they keep getting offensive production up-front, they’re the better team. Islanders in six.

Things are different, no matter much the Islanders want to downplay it.

They’re no longer the underdogs. They’re no longer playing home games at the Coliseum. They’re no longer immune to bad breaks.

And they are no longer undefeated in this postseason after losing Game 1 of their second-round series against the Hurricanes in a 1-0 overtime defeat on Friday night at Barclays Center.

This game was sloppy but tight the entire time, with the Islanders back in action after a 10-day layoff following their first-round sweep of the Penguins and the Hurricanes coming off a dramatic double-overtime Game 7 series win Wednesday night in Washington.

Then, after a bad Islanders turnover in the neutral zone, a bungled odd-man rush for Carolina and a bank off the back wall — there was Jordan Staal, sending one toward the net from a sharp angle. The puck hit the skate of Islanders goalie Robin Lehner and went in at 4:04 of the extra period, giving Carolina an edge in the best-of-seven contest going into Game 2 back at Barclays on Sunday afternoon.

“They win on a s–t bounce. It is what it is,” Lehner said. “We just have to win on Sunday. It’s not a big deal.”

There was another way to interpret it, that being the mistake from Cal Clutterbuck as the Islanders were preparing to rush up the ice. Seemingly looking for the trailer, Clutterbuck’s errant pass went to former Islanders first-round pick Nino Niederreiter, who couldn’t get a shot off on the ensuing 2-on-1, but did get it back and sent a smart pass off the end boards. And Staal was there for a heads-up one-timer that won the game.

“I made a bad play at the end and they score 30 seconds later,” Clutterbuck said. “That one is on me.”

Thus far during this postseason — really, for much of the season as a whole — things had gone well for the Islanders. They deserved to be in this position, just as they deserved all four of the convincing wins over the Penguins.

But now the venue has switched back to Barclays center, a reminder of their imperfect recent history that preceded an organizational turnaround brought on by the first years for team president Lou Lamoriello and head coach Barry Trotz. The 15,795 in attendance were energetic, but were housed in an arena and location with a far different feel from the club’s crumbling birthplace on Long Island.

The ice didn’t seem to hold skate edges well, and the puck rolled and bounced all over. When it seemed like the Islanders finally had scored with Mat Barzal burying a rebound into an open net at 10:37 of the third, it was called a no-goal due to Anders Lee’s goalie interference.

“First look at it, I felt Lee got pushed in there,” Trotz said. “Those are hard. You can’t really challenge the penalty because they didn’t call it a goal. I haven’t seen a lot of those.”

What the Islanders haven’t seen a lot of lately are losses. They were predictably a little rusty early on, but they found their legs after six or seven minutes. Yet they could never solve goalie Petr Mrazek, who made 31 saves while recording his second shutout of this postseason.

Valtteri Filppula had a great chance from in front about seven minutes into the first period, and Josh Bailey probably had the best chance on a breakaway late in the first that Mrazek snagged with a glove.

Lehner answered with a sprawling left-pad save on Greg McKegg midway through the second, reinforcing how evenly matched these two teams are.

Both of them have surprised by getting into the playoffs, and both have surprised by moving on. Now the Islanders have to deal with a bit of adversity, but they don’t seem too flustered. If things around them have changed, they’re trying to remain the same.

“It’s Game 1. They didn’t win the series,” Trotz said. “We lost a game. We’re going to have to respond right back.”

RALEIGH , N.C. — The template of success under Lou Lamoriello and Barry Trotz has been established, the baseline of accountability and work ethic etched now into the logo made famous by the dynasty teams.

But even though there is so much of which to be proud, the Islanders lost not only a series when they were swept out of Round Two with Friday’s 5-2 defeat to the Rock Candy Canes, they lost a massive opportunity to, you know, actually compete for the Stanley Cup in this year when it is possible that four wild cards will advance to the conference finals.

Scenarios like this don’t necessarily come around every year.

“When you work so hard to get to this position and have it end like this, it’s hard,” said an emotional Anders Lee, who did not have an especially good series. “There were a lot of things nobody expected us to do, but you get this far, expectations change.”

No longer a laughingstock. No longer the NHL’s Shipwreck Franchise. The Islanders will be taken seriously. This all represents a quantum leap in credibility. But though their progress was as incontrovertible as it was dramatic and unexpected, it is not as if the team can count on being back in the same place next year.

If for no other reason — and there are other reasons, manifest among them a lack of upper-echelon, high-octane offensive talent beyond Mat Barzal — that it is impossible to project what the roster will look like next season.

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It is a Lamoriello team, so therefore little smoke surrounded the pending free agency of the core of the team. Lee, the captain, can go to market on July 1. Robin Lehner, the goaltender who reversed his life and career, can go free. Brock Nelson, the senior Islander, is a pending free agent and so is Jordan Eberle, the sniper who is essentially out the door.

The Islanders have oodles of cap space, perhaps up to $34 million, but available money has never necessarily been known to burn a hole in this general manager’s pockets. How much will he ante up in order to prevent a well-respected captain from defecting for a second straight season? How much will he throw in the pot to keep Lehner, pulled through no fault of his own at 3:17 of the second period after Carolina scored twice in 66 seconds to grab a 3-1 lead and essentially put away the series. Will the GM go all in on Nelson, who had little in this series after an impressive performance against Pittsburgh?

And how will the team add more elite skill and additional polish to the grind? Will Lamoriello commit to a bidding war for the Blue Jackets’ impending free agent winger Artemi Panarin that will surely include the Rangers and Panthers?

Could he, would he, pull a loo-loo and offer-sheet Toronto’s Mitch Marner?

Another question: Will the players, so willing to sacrifice for the greater good following the defensive follies of the previous season, be as keen on grinding when the big bucks still go to people who can put numbers on the board?

Picking up where they left off may not be so simple given the volatility of the roster. This, too, of course, with newly established respectability, comes a burden. The Islanders won’t sneak up on anybody next time around.

That’s the circle of life in the NHL.

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The Islanders were beaten at their own game, and increasingly decisively so as the series moved from Brooklyn to ACC country. Their top guys were outclassed by the Hurricanes’ Justin Williams, Jordan Staal and Sebastian Aho, the latter a marquee talent in the making. The Islanders never were able to apply more than modest pressure against Curtis McElhinney, the journeyman backup who was pressed into action when Petr Mrazek went down 6:27 into the second period of Game 2.

The fact is the Islanders scored all of two goals at five-on-five (the second recorded by Nelson with 1:09 remaining in the series) in the series while notching three on the power-play. They were chasing the faster Canes just as they chased the series from the moment Staal scored in overtime for a 1-0 Game 1 victory.

“I think it was the trigger moments,” said Barzal, who did create a bit of time and space through the first half of this one. “If we’d score, they’d score. Carolina did to us what we did to Pittsburgh. We just never could get a hold of it.”

The season was a smashing success. It is insane to frame it any other way.

“I’m disappointed we didn’t go further,” said Trotz, who worked wonders. “But you have to start somewhere.”

And when next season starts, the Islanders will have to start all over again. But with who, nobody can quite know.