What Went Wrong: One Game

The Tampa Bay Lightning and the New York Islanders played a very thrilling and very captivating seven game Stanley Cup Semifinal series. It was close, nail-biting, and productive in many, many ways, but when the dust finally settled, it was the Lightning who emerged victorious. For the Islanders, this marked the second straight year that they were ousted by the Lightning in Round 3 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but it took everything the Bolts had to defeat the Islanders.

The only thing that went wrong for the Islanders: they simply ran out of gas. Even that isn't a negative; they had a lot in the tank to get this far, and really played very well in all 19 games they played. The team gave their all in front of their faithful fans in Game Six to win in overtime. The problem? They didn't have much left after that. Only 18 shots on goal in Game Seven. A shorthanded goal by Tampa Bay won the game. The Islanders didn't really start putting pressure on Andrei Vasilevskiy until their 6-on-5 attack. Even so, the Islanders and their fans have nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to be upset over, and should not be disappointed in the least. Not only is this team immensely talented, but their window for a fifth Stanley Cup is very wide open.

Players such as Brock Nelson, Mathew Barzal, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Nick Leddy, Kyle Palmieri, and Anthony Beauvillier (to name a few) will definitely continue to produce for the Islanders in the seasons to come. They also have an amazing one-two punch in net in the form of Semyon Varlamov and Ilya Sorokin, but most of all, they have Barry Trotz at coach. Trotz is basically a legend. He was the Nashville Predators' very first coach for a long time, and they were often playoff bound under him. Trotz managed to win a Stanley Cup as head coach of the Washington Capitals in 2018, but after the Capitals let him go (for some reason), Trotz was hired by the Islanders, and boy, has that team really thrived under him.

The Islanders return to the Metropolitan Division next year, and I'll just say this. I think the Islanders are the best team in the Metropolitan Division. I think they'll be that team who dominates it for a lot of years, even over the Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Islanders are a fascinating team; they don't really score a lot of goals, but their defense keeps them in it. It reminds me of how the Los Angeles Kings operated during that dream 2011-12 season that saw them win the Stanley Cup. Not a lot of goals, but they had Jonathan Quick in net stopping everything. That's basically the Islanders in a nutshell. Plain and simple, this team is not going anywhere. Unless Pittsburgh and Washington fix whatever problems they've been having lately, expect deep Islanders playoff runs like this to continue.

Meanwhile, the Stanley Cup Final is all set, and it will be the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning against the Montréal Canadiens. The Bolts will look for their third Stanley Cup and second straight, while the Canadiens will look to win their 25th Stanley Cup and first for them (as well as any Canadian team) since 1993. Vasilevskiy vs Carey Price. My goodness. That's a goaltender battle for the ages. It still would be had the Islanders advanced, but again, the Islanders' window is wide open and will be for a long time.

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