There is no magic formula to what the New York Islanders are doing. They don’t have fancy players and they don’t play a fancy style.
There is no one on their roster as good as Tampa’s Nikita Kucherov and they don’t wow you with speed like Colorado or Vegas.
They have two main stars in Mathew Barzal and Semyon Varlamov. They are surrounded by blue-collar workers who know their roles. And under coach Barry Trotz, they are the most patient team left in the playoffs. There is no panic in their game at all.
What they have are four solid, hard-working lines, a defense that doesn’t turn the puck over, and a goaltending tandem in Varlamov and Ilya Sorokin that is the best in the business.
Islanders Play Punishing Style
The Islanders routed the Boston Bruins 6-2 Wednesday night at home to take the second-round series in six games and now face Tampa for the second year in a row in the Stanley Cup semifinals.
Overlooked is how heavy-hitting the Islanders are. They don’t have the reputation that the “big bad Bruins” have built up. But these Islanders know how to throw their weight around too.
It might surprise some to learn the Islanders lead the league with 504 hits in the playoffs. And they don’t take a lot of stupid penalties. But they wear down opponents. And they take advantage of weaknesses in goal.
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Prey Upon Goalie Weaknesses
Against Pittsburgh in the first round, the Islanders made Tristan Jarry look foolish at times and they capitalized when Jarry gave the puck away.
The same thing happened Wednesday against Boston. Tuukka Rask was not 100% and you could tell he was battling an injury. He wasn’t moving well and he made a terrible giveaway on Brock Nelson‘s second goal to allow the Islanders to jump into a 3-1 lead in the second period.
Rask finished the series with an unflattering .897 save percentage compared to Varlamov’s superlative .934 save percentage.
The Boston defense was undermanned. Defensemen Brandon Carlo and Kevan Miller were out again, and the Islanders made it a plan to take a run at their best defenseman, Charlie McAvoy, throughout Game 6.
With Boston already weakened on defense, the Islanders made rearguard Matt Grzelcyk pay. He looked lost out there and was a minus-3 on the night.
Top Bruins Line Contained
For the most part, the Islanders shut down the production line of Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand. At least 5-on-5.
Trotz put the checking responsibility on the line of Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac.
At first, it looked like Pastrnak was going to take over the series. He scored three goals in Game 1 as Boston prevailed 5-2. He scored two more in Game 5, but he was quiet most of the rest of the way.
Marchand was easily the best player on the ice for both teams. He scored five goals in the six games, but the Islanders limited the damage 5-on-5. Three of Marchand’s goals came on the power play.
Sharing The Wealth
Look at how the Islanders distributed their scoring. Six different players had multiple goals in the series. Palmieri led the way with four goals. Nelson and Barzal had three each, and Josh Bailey, Pageau and Casey Cizikas had a pair each.
For the Bruins, only three players had multiple goals. Marchand and Pastrnak had five goals apiece while David Krejci chipped in with a pair.
Nelson's goal in SLLLOOOOOOOOOOOW MOTION? Sure. pic.twitter.com/XpcPLo2owr
— x – New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) June 10, 2021
The key to the series was Nelson. He scored in Game 5 and added two more in Game 6 to break open the game and spark the Islanders the rest of the way.
No Sleep For Nelson
Trotz said that Nelson had been dealing with no sleep following the birth of a baby the other day.
“Game 4 (a 4-1 win), he played that night with no sleep,” Trotz said. “He’s been battling through that. I think today, you saw him fresh. He settled in and played a Brock Nelson game.”
His linemate, Bailey, called Nelson an “elite talent.”
“I think (Anthony Beauvillier) and I are fortunate to play with him. Big-game player. I think he probably doesn’t get enough recognition for what he does defensively out there, but really just a complete, 200-foot player, been a real leader for us.”
“Our crowd, what a great atmosphere. I was saying just before we came on here, it was deafening. I couldn’t hear anything out there, I had some white noise for a while. That’s fantastic, what an atmosphere.”
Trotz ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/JaQbf51LoR
— x – New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) June 10, 2021
Varlamov was shaky early in games, but when he got refocused, he was outstanding, and he frustrated the Bruins.
Barzal started to become more effective as the series wore on and he ended up scoring in Games 3, 4 and 5.
Palmieri Rises In Playoffs
And what can you say about Palmieri?
He came to the Islanders at the trade deadline with Zajac and struggled with only two goals and two assists in 17 games during the regular season.
All the talk was about how the Bruins got stronger by getting Taylor Hall and how the Penguins got better by landing Jeff Carter and how the Maple Leafs got better by acquiring Nick Foligno. Those teams are now on the sidelines.
Not too many people were thinking that the Islanders landed something this special in Palmieri.
Palmieri out in front! #Isles lead 4-1. pic.twitter.com/ctv8inlT1b
— x – New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) June 10, 2021
The club showed patience with Palmieri throughout his struggles. GM Lou Lamoriello knew that Palmieri is a playoff performer. The former Devil rewarded that trust by scoring four goals — one each in Game 2, Game 4, Game 5 and Game 6.
You would not have predicted this, but Palmieri is among the leading goal-scorers in the playoffs with seven goals. Only Nathan MacKinnon, Brayden Point and Marchand have more playoff goals than Palmieri.
The Islanders have done well with Palmieri and Pageau at the trade deadline in consecutive years.
Palmieri has the most playoff goals for an in-season acquisition in 2021 with seven and Pageau was that guy in 2020, leading all players acquired at the deadline with eight playoff goals.
Depth Is Key
Going four rounds in the playoffs requires depth scoring. And the Islanders’ depth continues to shine through.
In this year’s playoffs, the Islanders have had different players step up. In the series against Pittsburgh, Beauvillier and Pageau were the leading point-getters. Against Boston, it was Barzal and Palmieri.
Last year, same story. Different players stepped up at different times. Against the Florida Panthers in the first round, Beauvillier was the points leader in that series.
Bailey had the most points against the Washington Capitals in the second round. In the third round against the Philadelphia Flyers, Nelson led the team in points.
And in the Eastern Conference Finals against Tampa, Barzal and Anders Lee were the leading point-getters.
The Islander Formula
The one statistic that flies in the face of the analytics philosophy, but is crucial to understanding how the Islanders play, is shot-attempts differential. The Islanders are last among the playoffs teams with a -192 differential, which is counter-intuitive. You would think the opposite.
But Trotz doesn’t care so much if his team is outshot as long as his club keeps the shots from the outside and out of the high-danger zones.
Against Tampa, it will be your classic case of offense against defense.
Said Boston coach Bruce Cassidy: “They have good defensive players. They’re a little bit underrated in that regard, the Pageaus of the world. He does a good job. There’s a reason why they employ him against Bergeron’s line.”
In these playoffs, we’ve seen defenses prevail. The Montreal Canadiens knocked off the high-flying Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Winnipeg Jets used a tight-checking system to eliminate Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers.
But Tampa should be another test of Islanders’ depth. We’ll soon see whether the Islander depth can overcome Tampa skill.
