Nearly every Islander who was on the ice against the Lightning reunited “Triplets” line looked slow in Game 2.
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Playing more aggressively could help against the Lightning’s speedy forwards, including Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, Nikita Kucherov and Jonathan Drouin. Victor Hedman rebounded to play a superb Game 2, logging 27:35 on the ice and neutralizing powerhouse Islanders star John Tavares.
I think that’s a huge reason why you saw a slow start from the Lightning in Game 1, and then a slow start from the Islanders in Game 2. He added another assist in Game 1 versus NY, and then Saturday, he recorded his first career playoff goal. Last year, he was an important factor in the Islanders Game 7 loss to the Washington Capitals.
Johnson scored the only goal of the period into an empty net after Greiss left. He added a goal and another assist to his already impressive playoff performance, making his goal total six with a solid eleven points through just seven games. Out for nearly two months, with a lower-body injury, Halak has been out of sight, out of mind, thanks to strong play from Thomas Greiss, who was outstanding in the first-round win over Florida.
“We use the word ‘slippery.’ He is slippery”, Cooper said.
“Watching that game tape again and going through it, there are periods in that game, for whatever reason, we were just reluctant to get net presence or shoot pucks to the net”, Capuano said. “As the game went on we started to do the right things but at the end of the day, for me, he’s a great goaltender and I don’t think we went to the paint as often as we could to take away his eyes”.
Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Andrej Sustr (62), of the Czech Republic, takes control of the puck from New York Islanders center Shane Prince (11) as Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov (86), of Russian Federation, defends, du. “Absolutely, it’s one of the things we’re looking at, the success of the team and being a top player on a squad like that”. They have generated 59 scoring chances to New York’s 41 (44-33 at even strength). “That’s something that we’ve just got to concentrate on doing a little bit more of and know what makes us successful. He’s definitely one of the guys I thought played well before the injury”.
This essentially amounts to a must-win situation for Tampa Bay, and we expect the Atlantic Division runner-up to treat it as such.
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“They’re a quick team”, Capuano said of the Lightning. “We needed this one”. Game four will be Wednesday, April 20, in Brooklyn. If they can’t, an interesting summer awaits for a team that might look markedly different when training camp begins in September. Had it not been for some shoddy defending and a couple of soft goals allowed by Ben Bishop in the opener, in addition to some strong goaltending by Thomas Greiss, this is easily a 2-0 series for Tampa. They’re coming hard and we have to execute better. The Islanders only managed five shots on goal as the Lightning constantly drilled the net and never let the puck leave the zone.
