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Good Morning, Islanders Country.
Playoff hockey. There’s nothing quite like it - and after a season where it too often felt like we wouldn’t see it, it settled in this weekend that tonight starts a new season and a chance for this team to prove people wrong … again.
The Carolina Hurricanes have never seen the New York Islanders team that will take the ice tonight in Raleigh, and neither have we. It’s the first time that Lane Lambert will be able to send out a forward group that includes Bo Horvat, Pierre Engvall, and Mathew Barzal. Collectively, it’s the most balanced and offensively talented group they’ve had all season.
This isn’t the most highly anticipated series in the NHL - playoff matchups with the Islanders never are, but early-round upset potential is there against a Hurricanes team that is without leading scorer Andrei Svechnikov and hasn’t named its Game 1 starter in net.
The Canes are rightly still the favorite to win the series but appear ripe for the taking after narrowly holding on to the Metro Division to close the regular season. It’ll come down to if the Isles can push the play offensively enough against one of the league’s better defensive teams and how big the presumed edge in goal with Ilya Sorokin turns out to be versus the Canes goaltending by committee that served them well throughout the season.
The models, the eye test, and reality said they wouldn’t qualify for the postseason, but after a season of adversity, injuries, and inconsistencies, they finished the final 32 games of the regular season 19-9-4 to earn an opportunity.
This is a team that weathered the storm this season.
“The boys did a heck of a job,” Barzal said on Friday. “They played inspiring hockey, so I'm just coming back now to jump on the train and continue what these guys have done the last 20 games.”
Now we get to see what they can do with him and if the train, riding on some bumpy and crooked tracks, keeps on rolling.
Oh, and if you aren’t where you need to be for tonight’s game yet, let Isles Territory’s “For The Island” hype video, narrated by Bridgeport play-by-play voice, Alan Fuehring, get you going.
Coming up, Mathew Barzal is back and says his legs and lungs are ready to go. Plus, challenges await Samuel Bolduc, prognosticators give the Isles a chance, the 1985 team completes an NHL first, and Offisde is open for business.
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