Be sure to 'like' Hockeybuzz on Facebook!
For the second spring in a row, postseason play comes with a tilt against a New York club for the Tampa Bay Lightning. But this time, it’s not the Rangers that will fly down to Amalie Arena, but rather the Islanders, who have advanced to the second round for the first time since 1993 after last night’s thrilling, series-clinching Game 6 double-overtime win over the Florida Panthers.
And though the Eastern Conference is down to its final four, the start time of this series is still completely unknown, but could and should become a bit clearer following tonight’s Game 7 showdown between the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues (NBC needs to plan out their optimal schedule).
So, while we wait, here are some opening (and completely random) thoughts on this series.
- This series really begins with the hope that Anton Stralman, out since Mar. 25 with a non-displaced fracture in his left fibula, will be back in action before it’s over. The 29-year-old is really the Lightning’s 1B on the top-pairing opposite Victor Hedman, and the club will undoubtedly need him when it comes to slowing down an Islander attack that’s sneaky good around the net. Stralman, who actually suffered this injury in a game against the Isles, has yet to resume skating, but his return would obviously help the Lightning’s defensive depth and ability to compete with N.Y.’s up-tempo game.
- The New York attack is of course headlined by captain John Tavares, who finished the first round with five goals and nine points in six contests, and came through with the game-tying and game-winning goal in the club’s Game 6 victory. But when I talk about New York’s quick-moving offensive attack, I’m talking about more than No. 91 in blue and orange.
The Isles’ fourth-line -- Casey Cizikas, Cal Clutterbuck, and the always entertaining Matt Martin -- really has a unique ability to change the momentum of a period (or game) with their style of play. They come in hard, fast, and hit everything in their sight. And at a certain point, the Bolts will need to find a way to match their effort and intensity. And this is where you miss a guy like the injured J.T. Brown, who’s probably not expected to return this series, at least based on the silence from Tampa.
It’s a series where ex-Rangers like Brian Boyle and Ryan Callahan -- familiar with most of the main pieces of the Isles’ roster -- need to come up huge for the Tampa bottom six.
- This new format is weird. Need proof? The Lighting, with 97 points, have home-ice advantage in this series against the 100-point Islanders, who finished the season as the league’s first wild card whereas the Lightning were the No. 2 seed in the Atlantic Division bracket. The Lightning won’t complain, of course, but this format just makes absolutely no sense and in five to ten years time, almost every team is going to find themselves on the wrong end of such a scenario at least once. Rivalries though!
- The big matchup in this series comes in net, where Ben Bishop will go head-to-head with New York’s de facto No. 1 netminder, the 30-year-old Thomas Griess, on the heels of a straight-up dominant first-round showing from the German goaltender. Greiss really played better as the round progressed, too, and he’ll need more of the same if he’s to duel with Bishop in round two.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.