TORONTO – If the adage is true and defence does win championships, beware the New York Islanders.
While the other Eastern Conference semifinal bristles with future Hall of Famers, fierce grudges and combustible offences, the first playoff showdown between the Isles and Philadelphia Flyers in 33 years brings such must-see elements as discipline, organization and consistency.
There is a path for a seasoned coach to run the distance without the bracket of super-high-end playmaking that commands anything above a $7-million cap hit. And Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher saw it firsthand every time he’d strap on a mask, enter the Scotiabank Arena and take in one of the nine Islanders games he has scouted this month.
[snippet id=4931344]
“They played as well as any team in our bubble here in Toronto,” Fletcher said. “They play with purpose and structure and identity.”
No, it’s certainly not all flash, dash and creativity. But when every skater yanks the same rope, and the starting goaltender stands on his head, a defence-first, -second and -third formula can yield results.
Just ask Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello, architect of some of the most clogging and claustrophobic, patient and persistent rosters to ever hoist Lord Stanley’s Mug.
The Islanders’ relatively easy ouster of high-event, top-six-heavy squads the Florida Panthers and Washington Capitals felt methodical. Precision-like.
So, too, did their 4-0 Game 1 victory over Philly Monday in the series opener, in which Semyon Varlamov withstood a second-period push to set a new franchise mark for consecutive shutouts and defenceman Nick Leddy got hemmed in for a 3:10 shift without a minus (or a collapse from exhaustion).
“If you can establish your game and get results from it, what it does is reinforce what you are preaching,” Isles coach Barry Trotz said.
“What you’re trying to establish and the commitment level and the understanding of it goes up, and it gets galvanized. When you are able to do that and get results, then you don’t have anybody going, ‘Oh, well, let’s try, this let’s try that, because it’s not working.’ They see the results. They get the results. And they buy in.”
Captain Anders Lee provides the players’ perspective.
“We have a phenomenal room with good people, and I think it goes a long way,” Lee says. “Guys playing for each other and checking themselves at the door and not worrying about the things that can pull you away from the ultimate goal.
“That has to start at the top, but you also have to live it and feel it.”
Scarce have been New York’s feelings of playoff panic, and that calmness has given Trotz’s squad steely confidence in its even-strength play and strategic dump-and-chase attack as technical underdogs to the No. 1 seeded Flyers.
The Islanders (8-2) are now outscoring their opposition 21-6 at 5-on-5.
Protecting the house and coming out on the bright side of tight — if frequently boring — hockey games is becoming embedded in the group’s DNA, the coach explains.
“We just trust it. We know what works for us,” Trotz said. “We understand how you win in the playoffs.”
What this best-of-seven lacks in breathtaking Nathan MacKinnon rushes, Ryan Reaves chicken clucks, and controversial medieval portrait tweets, it makes up for in smart, safe tactical play.
The Islanders (1.67 goals against per game) and Flyers (1.78) entered Round 2 with the two stingiest defences and sharpest starting goalies still alive in the tournament.
Makes sense, then, that the more structured of the two sides drew first blood, getting its jump from the blueline.
An Andy Greene slapshot from the point and through a crowd opened the scoring in Period 1, but it was the rental acquisition’s blind leg-kick block on Travis Konecny that made for a superior highlight:
Andy Greene has scored a goal in the 1st and also prevented one. #NHLonSN pic.twitter.com/4ZmCX8oZGl
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) August 24, 2020
“The Islanders under Barry Trotz are going to be very sound defensively. They’re going to play hard,” said Flyers defender Matt Niskanen, who sipped from the same Cup as Trotz when they went all the way with Washington in 2018. He knows what he’s in for.
“They’re going to just feast on turnovers if we turn it over in the neutral zone, so that’ll be a big part of the series.”
In a game of mistakes, the Isles don’t make a ton.
They linger around and force you to make them when opportunity strikes, then leap through those tiny windows. In Monday’s case, Philly turned the puck over 15 times, often as a result of the Isles’ swarming forecheck.
Rookie Philadelphia goalie Carter Hart can work wonders. But much like his hero, Carey Price, he hasn’t figured out how to score goals.
So, when a frustrated Flyers group failed to execute on their mid-game burst and again let off the gas in the third, the Islanders built an indestructible lead by committee.
Goals by Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Devon Toews and Lee put Game 1 out of reach. Nine Islanders registered a point, but none more than one.
“We win as a group,” Matt Martin asserted. “We don’t rely on anyone, really.”
Why rely on anyone when you can rely on everyone?
[relatedlinks]
