Month: May 2019

What is the cost of a good fit, for both sides? And when the situation is a little more complicated than just money and performance, is there more value in simply getting a deal done rather than reading and playing the market?

These are the questions to be answered by Islanders team president Lou Lamoriello and goalie Robin Lehner, a pending unrestricted free agent as he enters the summer following a second-round sweep at the hands of the Hurricanes that ended with a 5-2 Game 4 loss in Raleigh, N.C., on Friday night.

Lamoriello made one of the best risk-reward decisions in recent memory when he took a flyer on Lehner and signed the 27-year-old Swede to a one-year, $1.5 million deal this summer. It was well chronicled that Lehner had about eight teams vying for his services — and that dwindled to two when his agents revealed he had just come out of rehab, dealing with substance abuse and mental illness.

The Islanders ended up being the professional beneficiary of his personal revival, as Lehner finished with one of the best goaltending seasons in franchise history — a finalist for the Vezina Trophy, the likely winner of the Masterton Trophy, and co-owner of the Jennings Trophy with fellow netminder Thomas Greiss for backstopping the team to the fewest goals allowed in the league.

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After Lehner came off the ice Friday night, he had a big hug for a team staffer. It was a sign showing this season was far more important for him than the way it ended, with him being pulled in the second period in hopes of waking up an Islanders team that could never find any traction against Carolina.

“It’s been an incredible year,” Lehner said after the game, with break-up day set for Monday. “I really like everyone here. This group is incredible, some of the best people I’ve been around. I’ve been in the league for a while now, so we’ll see what God has in store for me.”

There are a ton of decisions Lamoriello has to make this summer with a roster that could turn over quite a bit. He has three other big-time players also coming up on unrestricted free agency — captain Anders Lee, and fellow forwards Jordan Eberle and Brock Nelson. Useful veteran Valtteri Filppula is also up on his deal.

But one of the biggest reasons this team was able to have the surprising run that they did is because there was stability in nets. Lehner has a higher upside than Greiss, who is an able and consummate professional but not quite at the same talent level as the 6-foot-4, 240-pound Lehner.

But that talent is colored by his checkered past, so other teams might be hesitant to give him a long-term deal. At least the Islanders know what they had this season, have a feel how best to keep him on track, and feel confident he could repeat his performance from what was a turning-point season for the franchise.

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“I’m not regretting anything,” Lehner said. “It’s a good year for the organization, just sucks that it ends. The foundation of this team is really, really strong. There are some things we have to get better at, and we know what we have to get better at.”

The main issue for these Islanders is adding some more high-end talent up front, and Lamoriello will have a bushel of salary-cap space to figure out how he wants to do it. But if Lehner leaves, that will create a big hole at the most important position. Highly touted Russian netminding prospect Ilya Sorokin looks as if he’s going to remain in the KHL for at least another year, and how his game translates to the NHL is still an unknown.

What’s known is that Lehner was a great fit this season, and could continue to be going forward.

“For me, personally, this is step one,” Lehner said. “There are a lot of things left for me to address and fix in my life. I have a long summer to address that. And I truly believe in my core that I’m going to be a better goalie next year.”

RALEIGH, N.C.— It is easy to lament all the things the Islanders could have done better to avoid being on the brink of elimination going into Game 4 of their second-round series against the Hurricanes here on Friday night. But maybe it’s easier to realize just how much the Hurricanes have done well in order to be up 3-0 in this best-of-seven contest.

As equally unheralded as the Islanders coming into the playoffs, Carolina then beat the defending Stanley Cup champion Capitals in double-overtime of Game 7 in the first round. They hardly missed a beat picking up two days later against the Islanders, who were mentally stale after 10 days off following their first-round sweep of the Penguins.

“I’m not taking anything away from Carolina. They played very, very well,” Isles coach Barry Trotz said on Thursday, trying to make a point that his club was not losing to a nobody. “The previous team they played in the first round can answer to that as well.”

Of course, Trotz coached those Capitals to a championship a year ago, so he knows how formidable that Washington team was — and, in turn, how good Carolina had to be to beat them. So maybe the Islanders were the slight favorite going into this series, but it was never going to be easy.

Instead, they’ve run into a team that has grown very close throughout this season. First, they began celebrating home wins with over-the-top choreographed on-ice celebrations that their fanbase loved. In a non-traditional hockey market, the gimmicks sell.

And then Canadian curmudgeon Don Cherry went on national television and called them “a bunch of jerks” for their antics. Someone in the Hurricanes marketing department got themselves a promotion by putting that on T-shirts, and the players even bought into the moniker. It allowed them to grow even closer as a group, and grow closer to the fanbase.

So the slogan was printed on towels that were draped over all the 19,066 seats at a raucous PNC Arena for Games 3 and 4, waved with abandon as the Hurricanes did their best to stifle the Islanders. Just three goals through the first three games for the Isles, and it had them staring the summer in the face.

“Hopefully, eventually, make them believe it’s too hard,” said Carolina captain Justin Williams, who continues to live up to his reputation as one of the most clutch players of his generation. “That’s the whole goal of winning a playoff series, is making the other team think it’s too hard to beat you.”

The Hurricanes came into the series with some major injuries, and it got worse when starting goalie Petr Mrazek was forced to leave Game 2 in Brooklyn early in the second period, keeping him out at least through Game 4. But the Islanders had struggled the rest of that game and in Game 3 to put much pressure on 35-year-old journeyman backup Curtis McElhinney, who was only as steady as he needed to be.

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But that’s because the Hurricanes defensive corps has proved Trotz correct in saying that they are one of the most underrated in the league. Jaccob Slavin has been outstanding in playing upwards of 25 minutes a night, and he has even carried the limited competitiveness of partner Dougie Hamilton.

“This is the best time of the year and it’s a lot of fun playing out there,” Slavin said. “The intensity revs up, the games rev up, and those are the games everyone wants to play in.”

The series has also been a reminder that Jordan Staal is not only still in the league, but he is the same two-way force he was when he won a Stanley Cup with the Penguins in 2009. He was in the face of the Islanders 21-year-old center Mat Barzal the whole series, and it proved a fun — if difficult — matchup.

“Matched up against Staal, and that’s a pretty heavy offensive line,” Barzal said. “Trying to do my part defensively, play him as hard as I can. It’s the playoffs, whether you’re scoring or contributing defensively, you have to find a way to be a difference-maker. I’m trying to do that.”

But the difference-makers had all been on Carolina through the first three games, and it had them on the brink of the conference finals — and the Islanders on the brink of elimination.