So the playoffs have started and today the NY Islanders are in Pittsburgh to face the Penguins. The Penguins are heavy favorites to win the whole thing so no analyst will pick the Pens to lose the first round. The Penguins have the highest odds at 7/2 to win it all and the Islanders are the lowest with odds of 40/1. Just to give everyone an idea on what that means, just last years Stanley Cup playoffs the Penguins were again the favorite to win it all only to lose in the first round to the Flyers and the 8th seed LA Kings were the ones to win it all, so there is a reason they play the actual games.
Islander fans like myself are not used to being in the playoffs with haven't played a playoff game in 5 years but with the play from John Tavares and the rest of the team in the month of April I can see most fans are ready and some even confident. With the presence of Sidney Crosby in Game 1 remaining a game time decision, I do however expect Crosby to be in the lineup sometime this series if not for Game 1.
The Islanders would need certain things to happen in order to win. First, this series will be a physical one and with the Penguins stacked roster the Islanders will have to be the more physical team in order to have a chance in winning the series. Second, they would need Nabakov to come up big in goal. Nabby has playoff experience which most of the team lacks with a total of 80 games played with a 40-39 record, 2.29 goals against and a save percentage of .914. And finally they would need to have a better special teams unit. The Islanders were tied for the 10th best power play percentage during the season at 19.1 percent compared to the Penguins who were second in the league at 24.7 percent. If the Islanders can stay out of the box that would be huge considering the Penguins power play could really wear down the Isles penalty kill unit and take them out of games early.
I really would like to see the Islanders give the Pens a run for there money, but it is still good to see the team maturing and getting this chance to gain playoff experience. I really don't pay attention to what most are saying about the series with not giving the Islanders any chance at all to win but then again we all saw what happened last year and whenever an 8th seed upsets a number 1 seed in the first round, that team gets a very high confidence level and if they build on it then they can be very scary to face in the following round.
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