ECQF/MDSF: (M2) New York Islanders vs (M3) Pittsburgh Penguins | NYI leads 2-0

[Chardo]

As an Isles fan, this series terrifies me. Obviously we'd have to go through an offensive juggernaut sooner or later, but I was really hoping for later. Either way, this season has been house money and so much fun. Time to let the chips fall where they may. Hoping for a long, fun, entertaining series. Cheers Pens fans.

Sooner or later? Win this series, and you likely get the defending champs. Win that and you get the president's trophy winners.

 

[Gurglesons]

I see this going a lot like the Philly / Pens series last year.

Penguins at least split in Nassau and they win the series IMO.

 

[Matt24]

Isles have had a great run but I don’t like this match-up for them at all. Pens in 6.

 

[boredmale]

Sooner or later? Win this series, and you likely get the defending champs. Win that and you get the president's trophy winners.

The 4 teams that scare me the most in the east are the Pittsburgh, Tampa, Washington and Boston. Of the 4 the Penguins are probably the less of 4 evils

 

[FunkySeeFunkyDo]

Im curious if Sullivan finally acknowledges that Torts was right and GMJR was wrong and doesnt play JMFJ or at least moves him to the third pair in lieu of Gud. The Malkin/Kessel line has been stifled by the second defensive pair. Making your elite offensive second line carry Jack Johnson against an excellent defensive team is a recipe for penguin tears.

 

[Chardo]

Isles have had a great run but I don’t like this match-up for them at all. Pens in 6.

What matchup would you like for the Isles?

They have been underdogs to everyone all year. Yet here they are, 5th best record in the league.

 

[Mikeshane]

This series has a nice mix of teams that have some history while also having a long enough break that it doesn't seem stale.

 

[Matt24]

What matchup would you like for the Isles?

They have been underdogs to everyone all year. Yet here they are, 5th best record in the league.

Columbus or Carolina? Why do you Isles fans get so indignant about everything? Maybe you’re Vegas reincarnate, but I like Pittsburgh here.

 

[Jester9881]

I expect Trotz to have this team do to the Penguins what his Caps team did to the Isles in the playoffs. There will be a lot of dumping the puck in the corners, then taking Letang, Maatta and Dumoulin to pound town.

 

[KPower]

Pens in 5.

Crosby will light them up for 10 points.

 

[TheAngryHank]

I only have two words.

High glove.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I expect Trotz to have this team do to the Penguins what his Caps team did to the Isles in the playoffs. There will be a lot of dumping the puck in the corners, then taking Letang, Maatta and Dumoulin to pound town.

The Capitals didn't win last year because Trotz had some sort of specific game plan. The Penguins depth just couldn't score and the Capitals had cup caliber depth scoring. It's not like Trotz had some magical idea that changed their luck from the 2016/2017 series to the 2018 series, they just got better depth scoring than the Penguins did.

 

[LightningStorm]

Based on how the Isles played towards the end of the season, Pens in 5.

 

[Night Shift]

Ny daily news headline after game 1

"Gudzilla eats 3 Islanders players, 3 Islanders players missing"

 

[lostinwarsaw]

Isles in 4, based solely on how horendous Matt Murray is to look at

 

[crossicepass]

Feeling like it comes down to which version of the Pens show up
east-west Pens- Isles in 6 or 7
north-south Pens - Pens in 6 or 7

 

[sycamore]

Barry Trotz has been past the second round once in 20 years. And it was with a loaded caps team.

This isn't the second round.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

This isn't the second round.

Point is he's not some playoff guru, and he's lost 2 of the 3 matchups against the pens anyway, and that was with presidents trophy winning teams.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

I expect Trotz to have this team do to the Penguins what his Caps team did to the Isles in the playoffs. There will be a lot of dumping the puck in the corners, then taking Letang, Maatta and Dumoulin to pound town.

That’s a wild strategy no team has ever thought of agt the Pens.

 

[Canes]

Pens in 6. Just think they're a much more complete and battle tested team when healthy.

 

[LucicAndChong]

Islanders in 5.

NYI Offence < PIT Offence

NYI Defence >>>>> PIT Defence

NYI may not be as big of an offensive threat as PIT, but their strong defence/goalie core (see Team GAA) is able to (somewhat) subdue the PIT Offence, which allows the great (but not amazing) NYI offence to run all over PITs poor defense

 

[BMOK33]

I see this going a lot like the Philly / Pens series last year.

Penguins at least split in Nassau and they win the series IMO.

I said today in my opinion this is similar. Isles going in feel like they have more of a chance than the Flyers did but I still would be surprised if they win. The Isles have really looked bad the last month. Their best wins came against bad teams and even down to the last few games they didn’t look good against the average or good team. The likely back to back to start the series also hurts the Isles in that since 1995 we’ve seen 18 back to backs in series in games 1/2 or games 3/4. The loser of game 1 has won the next game 15 times. Statistically it’s very hard to win both ends of a back to back within a series in the postseason

 

[Sam Spade]

The Penguins do exactly what they need to make the playoffs, come mid-week the league will see the real Penguins team.

That being said what is Dumoulin's status because I think he will be missed if he can't go.

If the Isles can keep this to a low scoring, boring series, maybe they have a shot, if they are giving up three goals per game they are done cause they won't out "run and gun" the Pens, or any team for that matter.

 

[Nsjohnson]

Pens do what Pens do. They win this series in 5.

 

[BMOK33]

The winner of this series SHOULD be in better physical shape for the next series in that these two teams just don’t play a physical style and aren’t as big as Washington or Carolina. The Isles as a whole are the more physical team. I think the Pens might be the only team in the 8 playoff teams in the East that the Isles could probably physically bully around