When it’s close to a mirror image looking back from the other bench, it could be the smallest things that end up making the biggest difference.
From all accounts, the Islanders and Hurricanes are very similar teams about to take each other on in the second-round playoff series that begins with Game 1 on Friday night at Barclays Center. Neither team is loaded with high-end talent — they each disposed of one of those in the first round, with the Islanders sweeping the Penguins and the Hurricanes eking out a double-overtime win in Game 7 against the Capitals on Wednesday night.
Both groups are predicated on a team-first concept. They both play tight defense. They both have offensively capable back ends and both have deep groups of forwards. They have both gotten timely goaltending from unexpected netminders.
So what, then, to make of this matchup between two teams so few people expected to be here? Well, at least one feeling seems to be the consensus.
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“We’re going to expect a very, very hard series,” Islanders goalie Robin Lehner said after Thursday’s practice on Long Island. “It’s going to be hard to suffocate them, and they’re going to have a hard time suffocating us. It’s going to be a lot of physical play. This one is going to be interesting.”
The Islanders will be coming off a 10-day break since they beat the Penguins in Game 4 last Tuesday in Pittsburgh, while the Hurricanes are riding that high of having just dispatched the defending Stanley Cup champions. But how much will the rest help the Islanders, or has it turned to rust? And how burned out exactly are the Hurricanes after what has been pretty much nonstop playoff games for the past three months?
And what will eventually be the difference?
“It’s like every series, it’s going to be small margins of error,” Lehner said. “It’s going to be who’s sticking to the details, who’s making that extra play, and sticking to the system. I feel like this is going to be a very tight, tight series. I think patience, emotions, all those things, everything is going to play a role here.
“The small details, everything is going to count in this series.”
The Islanders were a terrific defensive team this season, the first under head coach Barry Trotz. If they had a deficiency, it was in how much they scored.
But in the four games of the first round, they got outstanding performances from Jordan Eberle (four goals, six points), Mat Barzal (five assists), Josh Bailey (three goals, four points) and Brock Nelson (three goals). With that type of depth scoring, they can continue to focus on playing defense first and being offensively opportunistic.
“I think everybody believes in each other in here,” Nelson said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Jordan or me or Barzy or Anders [Lee], it’s different guys on different nights that step up. I think that’s been one of the biggest reasons we got to this point — all year, we had different guys on different nights step up. Looking for more of the same.”
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The dynamic of this series would have been quite different if it was Trotz facing the Capitals, whom he coached to a Stanley Cup victory last year. Instead, it’s just two hard-working teams flying under the radar, seeing which one can outlast the other.
“I just think [the Hurricanes] have been a really good team all year, especially in the second half, they were grinding it out every night and playing the same way, playing for each other, and doing all those things,” Trotz said. “It doesn’t surprise me. They weren’t going away easy all year, and they weren’t going away [in Game 7]. They did a great job.”
But now it’s on Trotz and his team to make the Hurricanes go away for the summer if they want to be the side of this mirror image that emerges into the conference final.
“It is a grind,” Trotz said of the playoffs. “It’s 2¹/₂-month absolute test of mind and body. If you feel like you have a weakness and you’re not going to be able to do it, you won’t.”