The New York Islanders will look to jump ahead 2-0 in their first round series, as they face the Washington Capitals in Game 2 tonight.
The Islanders had a really strong first game of the series and did a great job limiting chances for Washington’s high-powered offense. New York was the better team, creating turnovers on the forecheck and capitalizing on their opportunities. Every player in the top-six was involved and the Islanders’ blue line was rock solid.
Semyon Varlamov was good in Game 1 and has been really strong throughout the playoffs so far. While the Islanders aren’t giving up a ton of chances, he has yet to have a bad game and has quietly managed a .930 save percentage in his five games so far.
The first game against Washington was a great team effort and everything was clicking. That said, we know that’s not the best the Capitals have to offer and we can assume they’ll come out hard tonight. We can expect the lineup to look the same on the Islanders’ side, however, the Capitals will be without Nicklas Backstrom, who didn’t finish Game 1 after taking a hit from Anders Lee in the first period.
Not trying to do too much worked for the Islanders in Game 1 and they gave up very few chances on the rush. One area where they’ll need to be careful, however, is getting into penalty trouble. The Capitals had seven power play opportunities in the first game of the series and converted on two of them, which accounted for both of their goals. New York took some undisciplined penalties and can’t afford to do so as the series goes on.
Already up 1-0 in the series and with Washington missing one of their top players, this is a huge opportunity for the Islanders and they need to capitalize.
Puck drop is at 8 p.m.
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Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
Who would you rather see playing on the third line?
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