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The New York Islanders now have their opponent set for the first round of the playoffs.
On Monday, the Islanders will open the postseason against the Carolina Hurricanes. It essentially came down to either the Hurricanes or Boston Bruins, but a Hurricanes' win over the Florida Panthers yesterday secured Carolina as the top seed in the Metropolitan Division.
This season, the matchup between the teams did not go well for the Islanders. After defeating the Hurricanes 6-2 in October, the Islanders went on to lose the next three games of the year in December, January and April.
However, it’s interesting because as much as I believe this was maybe the best possible matchup for the Hurricanes, I also believe it’s probably the best possible matchup for the Islanders as well, of the possible options available.
I’ll go more in-depth into how the teams stack up against one another over the next few days, but long story short: the Hurricanes have struggled lately. The injuries to Max Pacioretty, then Andrei Svechnikov have left them with a huge lack of scoring at the top of their lineup.
That said, they’re also a very consistent team. They’ll put a lot of pressure on New York’s defense with their forecheck and their own defense group is top-notch. However, the goaltending matchup favours New York in a massive way and with Ilya Sorokin facing a team who already can’t score much, there’s reason to believe the Islanders could be the favourite here.
This will obviously be an exciting series for me, given I cover both teams. As I noted in my Hurricanes’ article today, I’ll do my best to keep the content fresh for both teams throughout the series.
Games 1 and 2 will take place on Monday and Wednesday in Raleigh.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM APRIL
Islanders lose both games of weekend back-to-back as playoff race tightens Islanders keep playoff fate in their own hands with big win over Lightning Islanders’ playoff fate comes down to final two games after win over Flyers Islanders’ playoff hopes take a huge hit with loss to Capitals Islanders luck out with Penguins’ loss, can clinch playoff spot tonight Islanders clinch final playoff spot with win over Canadiens