The Islanders season rests in the balance this afternoon as they battle the Tampa Bay Lightning at 3PM. Tampa has beaten the islanders in two straight overtime thrillers and this coin flip series keeps coming up Bolts through four games. Tampa is battle tested and experienced however the Islanders could have easily won games three and four with some better execution.
With that being said, the Islanders find themselves down 3-1 entering Sunday’s game five. The difference in this series has been the depth of Tampa’s top nine forwards. While all of them are not stars, they all play a complete game. The likes of Ryan Callahan and Valtteri Filppula make an impact on the game even if they are not scoring. To compliment the complete game of the Bolts’ forwards, Tampa has Tyler Johnson, Jonathan Drouin and Nikita Kucherov playing at all-world levels while John Tavares, Kyle Okposo and Frans Nielsen have combined for two goals in the series.
Add the lack of scoring from Ryan Strome and Brock Nelson and it’s easy to see why the Islanders trail in the series. There is little to no support for the top line and when they do get secondary scoring the team defense coverage breaks down.
The Islanders have tried, they have worked hard but that isn’t good enough this time of the year. They need more. They need Tavares to take a game over. They need Okposo and Nielsen to create. They need ANYTHING from Nelson and Strome and they need their top four dmen to play like top four dmen.
Johnny Boychuk, Travis Hamonic, Nick Leddy and Calvin de Haan have been collectively average at best. The inability to clear or carry the puck out of the defensive zone is so glaring in a tight series and that has to change tonight if the Isles have any chance.
Thomas Greiss will be in net tonight and while he hasn’t been the game changer he was against the Panthers, he is not the reason they face elimination tonight. What I said after Jaroslav Halak was injured remains true today. This season will not be defined by the goaltending. It will be defined by the play of the Isles top nine forwards. Nothing rings truer heading into this afternoon’s matchup.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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