In an exhilarating contest to open their Stanley Cup playoff series, the New York Islanders took home-ice advantage away from the Florida Panthers with a thrilling 5-4 victory.
It was a game that had it all, or at least everything except plastic rats.
It had heroes and goats and beautiful goals and physics-defying, victory-preserving saves. When Jaromir Jagr broke in all alone on a breakaway in the first period, it seemed like the game even had a time machine.
Ultimately the game was decided by great performances, especially those from New York Islanders forward John Tavares and goaltender Thomas Greiss. Hockey fans can’t reasonably ask for any more than that.
Tavares, the Islanders’ captain, put his team on his back with a three-point performance. It was more than just the points though; it was how Tavares produced them.
It was as dynamic a playoff performance as you’ll witness. First Tavares assisted on Frans Nielsen’s power-play goal, turning Panthers defenceman Alex Petrovic inside out with a jaw-dropping deke and a convincing shot fake. Late in a second frame in which his team was completely flat, Tavares made no mistake with a pinpoint finish off of a Kyle Okposo pass into the slot. Then he managed to seagull the puck from one of the most proficient puck movers of his generation, Brian Campbell, to set up Okposo for a goal that gave New York an early third period lead. It was a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
As good as Tavares’ performance was, it was easy to forget that he was playing through pain. The Islanders’ captain was hit by a puck in the second frame and appeared to be in enormous pain – he received treatment immediately after talking with the press – but he played through it, turning in a superstar performance. No matter how many times the Panthers retook the lead, Tavares kept coming.
“He wears the C for a reason,” said Tavares’ linemate Kyle Okposo after the game. “He showed it tonight. He’s been doing it for a long time and he’s going to continue to lead us here.”
The fact is that the Islanders needed an opportunistic performance from their top scorers, because they really had no answer for Florida’s top six. Shift after shift, Aleksander Barkov dissected the Islanders’ defensive structure with an uncanny combination of speed and pinpoint passing. Reilly Smith, meanwhile, had the puck on a string all night. Smith didn’t fail to score the tying goal so much as he ran out of time.
“I thought our forwards were outstanding,” Panthers coach Gerrard Gallant said after the game. “They did their job, all our lines did a real good job, created a lot of scoring chances and four goals. The other side of the puck… I thought we turned over pucks and gave them scoring chances and the wrong guys got them. Their skilled guys got them and buried them.”
It’s hard to argue with that assessment. As much as the Panthers generated and as ably as they controlled the run of play, the breakdowns – when they occurred – were glaring and costly.
Though hockey fans are, for whatever reason, perpetually eager to blame Roberto Luongo exclusively for his team’s losses in the postseason; the fact is that careless Panthers errors and lapses in coverage allowed the Islanders’ skill players to steal this game. And the Islanders also got a lot of help from goaltender Greiss.
Starting his first career playoff game Greiss, a dependable career backup, was stupendous stopping 42 of 46 shots faced. His biggest save came late in the game, when he sprawled across his crease and just got the back of his leg on a Jagr deflection.
“I felt it hit me,” Greiss said, “but I had no clue where it went afterwards, but our own guy was first to the puck and… You know…”
That’s the margin that decides an exhilarating, fast-paced playoff game. The back of a goalie’s leg, thrown across the crease in desperation.
It’s easy to overreact to the result of a single game in the playoffs, but this is just getting started. It was a closely contested game and one in which the Panthers outplayed the Islanders by a decent margin overall. The Islanders know that they need to find a way to neutralize some of the looks Florida’s top-six forward group generated.
“This time of the year defence wins championships,” said Okposo. “So we’ll watch some film tomorrow and shore up some things in the defensive zone and definitely try to close quicker, execute better coming out of our zone – not letting them have that much speed coming into our zone.”
And the Panthers know that they need to do more to clean up their defensive game and, yes, they need to get more from their starter. Luongo will be the first to tell you that.
“We had some breakdowns, but sometimes when there’s breakdowns I have to come up with a big save,” Luongo said. “Obviously tonight I didn’t have enough of those. Just need to come back with the same attitude tomorrow, maybe try and tighten up a bit more, and I have to be better and make saves.”
Luongo was receiving treatment for an extended period after the game, but confirmed that it was recovery-related. He’s still likely to start Game 2 on Friday night. Though Gallant wouldn’t confirm it, the Panthers head coach did say that it wasn’t a tough decision. That can only mean Luongo will go again.
“I’ve been around a long time,” Luongo said. “I know how to prepare myself. Especially in a series like this, the first game didn’t go your way, you put it behind you and come back for the second one.”
