John Tavares and the New York Islanders are coming off a thrilling double overtime win in Game 6 over the Florida Panthers in their first round series.
In Round 2, they’ll take on the Tampa Bay Lightning, who got an impressive opening round from Nikita Kucherov in their five-game win over the Detroit Red Wings.
The Lightning have home-ice advantage in this series.
Here’s a look at how the two teams match up.
ADVANCED STATS:
Lightning: 5on5CF% – 52.2; 5on5Sv% – .929; 5on5Sh% – 7.88; PDO = 100.8
Islanders: 5on5CF% – 49.5; 5on5Sv% – .926; 5on5Sh% – 8.11; PDO = 100.7
(via stats.hockeyanalysis.com)
Head-to-head
Tampa Bay: 1-2-0
New York: 2-1-0
LAST GAME PLAYED HEAD-TO-HEAD:
The Islanders downed Tampa Bay 5-2 on April 4 with Tavares scoring once and adding two assists for New York.
LAST TIME THEY MET IN THE PLAYOFFS:
In 2004, the Lightning were the top seed in the East, with the Islanders qualifying as the No. 8 team. What was interesting, though, was the fact New York won three of the four games played against Tampa Bay in the regular season that year. But Nikolai Khabibulin (aka The Bulin Wall) stole the show, shutting out the Islanders three times. Martin St. Louis scored the Game 5 OT winner and Tampa moved on in five games. They eventually won the Stanley Cup.
TAMPA BAY’S HIGHLIGHT OF ROUND 1:
There were a lot of nice plays to choose from in their Round 1 series, but this set up from Jonathan Drouin to Nikita Kucherov was a thing of beauty. When Steven Stamkos went down with a blood clot, there were legitimate worries of Tampa’s depth and whether they’d be able to survive with the injuries that had hit them. Turns out they’re just fine. Key contributions from Drouin (four assists), Kucherov (five goals, eight points) and Tyler Johnson (two goals, seven points) had the Lightning looking like real Stanley Cup contenders yet again.
NEW YORK’S HIGHLIGHT OF ROUND 1:
Tavares stole the show for New York in its series against the Panthers. The Islanders captain had five goals and four assists including the double overtime winner in Game 6 that propelled New York into the second round. Tavares also averaged 25:16 of ice time in Round 1.
