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.