The takes are rolling in behind the Islanders’ First Round sweep of the Penguins, and most of them are surprisingly complimentary of the Islanders.
Maybe I shouldn’t say surprisingly, but I was half expecting most of them to read as blaming the Penguins and not supporting the Islanders, but there’s a lot of respect for the way the Islanders played.
Also, New York lit up in Islanders colors for a night:
The @EmpireStateBldg last night. #YesYesYes pic.twitter.com/eSKTqAlTwP
— x - New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) April 17, 2019
Islanders News
- The Islanders shut down the Penguins once again, as they had done for much of the series, to finish the sweep. [PHT]
- The Islanders’ sweep of the Penguins sends a message to the rest of the league that makes them a scary team to face. [Newsday]
- And it has proved definitively that their success this season has been real and not a mirage. [AP News]
- Here are 5 reasons the Islanders were able to advance to the second round to play the Capitals or the Hurricanes. [NHL]
- 5 aren’t enough? Okay, here are 10 of them, instead! We’ve got reasons, baby! [The Athletic]
- Robin Lehner is a big lad. I would stay away from his crease, if I was you. [Newsday]
- From the Pittsburgh side of things: there was no trash talk, and it wasn’t even necessary after that series win for the Islanders. [TribLIVE]
- However, the Penguins do say they need to be more like the Islanders if they want to succeed. What a stunning turn of events, I’d say. [TribLIVE]
- Now that we’re headed toward the second round, we must accept that the Barclays Center is going to hold the rest of the games. It’s alright, it’ll fill up and it gets loud in there. Islanders fans, in general, are a rowdy bunch. [Newsday]
- We’ve got some time to mentally prepare for it — the second round likely won’t begin for at least a week. [Newsday]
- The youth movement on the Islanders is dominated by quality, not quantity. [NY Post]
- Captain Anders Lee is the Islanders’ nominee for the King Clancy award for the player that “best exemplifies leadership on and off the ice.” [Newsday]
- The Islanders signed their three veterans for moments like these. “You can’t buy their experience.” [The Athletic]
- GM Lou Lamoriello went on a couple radio shows yesterday and admitted that he’d prefer to play the rest of the playoffs at the Coliseum, and also admits that if John Tavares was here, he’d be an asset, “but that didn’t work out.” [Newsday]
- MEANT TO ADD: Torgo went back and checked on how everyone did in their preseason predictions. [LHH]
Elsewhere
Yesterday’s playoff scores include a 10-goal affair between the Bruins and Maple Leafs that Boston took 6-4 to even the series at 2-2; the Stars had Game 4 wrapped up before the first period was over in their 5-1 win over the Predators to bring that series to 2-2; and the Avalanche have put the West’s top seeded Flames on the brink after Mikko Rantanen tied the game late in the third and then scored the OT winner — the series is 3-1 Colorado heading back to Calgary.
- Okay, seriously: what the hell happened to the Lightning? How does one of the best teams in history not win a single playoff game? [ESPN]
- They don’t have any answers right now; I’m not even sure they know how this is possible. They looked shell-shocked after the game two nights ago. [The Athletic]
- The Penguins’ merciless playoff exit was two years in the making. [PHT]
- Is Brad Marchand less of a pain in the ass now? Or should I say, he’s gotten more serious and less troll-y. [ESPN]
- A man’s dental practice is suffering because his brother sent Sean Avery a racist comment about Nazem Kadri and Avery assumed the practice was the brother’s. [The Star]