The Islanders have beaten the Florida Panthers in their qualifying round series.
Now, they wait to see who they will play in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.
After all the Stanley Cup Qualifier rounds are finished, teams in each conference are re-seeded.
The Islanders would play one of the four round-robin teams, and we’ll take a look at two of the teams that they would have the best and worst chances against in the ECQF.
Best-Case Scenario: Philadelphia Flyers
The Islanders went undefeated against the Flyers in three games. However, the Flyers’ new goalie Carter Hart has proven a worthy starter, and Brian Elliot is no slouch either.
The Broad Street Bullies have been spreading the puck around, and that resulted in dominating wins over the Bruins and the Capitals, two Eastern Conference powerhouses. Their performance in the round-robin could make this seem like a tall task, but the Islanders always play the Flyers tough, and they could take this series in 6 or 7 games.
Worst Case Scenario: Tampa Bay Lightning
Although the Islanders beat the Lightning in both regular-season match-ups, they are by far the toughest team coming out of the Qualifiers. Beating both Washington and Boston, Tampa has four 20-goal scorers (Nikita Kucherov scored 33), and a Vezina winner in net with Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The Islanders would be looking for revenge against Tampa for knocking them out of the 2016 Conference Semifinals in five games, but the Lightning have the better team statistically and it would be quite difficult for the Isles to come out victorious.
In any case, some of the quieter Islanders’ players (Anders Lee, Nick Leddy, etc.) must step up and start producing. It would be best if they stay out of the penalty box as much as possible too.
The journey to the Stanley Cup isn’t over yet.
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