Islanders Playoff Gameday News: Opportunity beckons in Game 2

We are warming up for Game 2, and as Dan said on the latest Islanders Anxiety podcast, it starts at a normal kind of hockey time. Friday night, 8 p.m. Libations shall flow.

Among the many reasons to love the playoffs there is this: Entering the second intermission on Wednesday things could’ve felt lousy for the next two days. Instead, the Islanders rallied, things went their way, and all has felt grand for the last 36 hours or so.

So go the playoffs. We’ll do it again, in one direction or the other, tonight.

Islanders News

• Is the series already physical? Yes. Is that a surprise with how much these teams have battled each over the years? No. Cal Clutterbuck and friends elaborate in yesterday’s media availability. [Isles video]
• Your official site Game 2 preview here. [Isles]
• Mike and Dan recap the Islanders win over the Capitals in Game 1 of their series, the NHL lottery and the awfulness of Mike Milbury. [Islanders Anxiety podcast]
• The Isles took too many penalties. Their PK had too much work to do. [Isles]
• Will the Islanders have any lineup changes for Game 2? Yeah, um, Barry’s not gonna tell you that. [Newsday]
• Rough, emotional, violent, simmering. It “sure felt like Game 8” of the 2015 series. [Newsday]
• Seven takeaways from Game 1: Need more discipline, but keep up that action at even strength, and thank you, Braden. Also: “Wilson needed to be a player, not Liam Neeson in ‘Taken.’” [Athletic]
• Nicklas Backstrom will not play tonight. I love Backstrom, but the only people who truly think Anders Lee was “predatory” are the kinds of people who think Tom Wilson is just an innocent, well-meaning guy. [Sportsnet]
• “What else can you ask from a leader and what he brings to our hockey club.” [Isles]
• “The Caps are now a very unimpressive 2-2 when leading after two periods in the playoffs under Todd Reirden... after posting a 24-2 mark under Barry Trotz (you knew that was coming, didn’t you?).” [Japers’ Rink]
• Lots of cool charts from all the Games 1 here. [On the Forecheck]

More narrowly from the media availability, Trotz:

ICYMI: Let’s not be in the penalty box so much!:

It’s pretty funny how some of the Capitals bubble reacted to Lee-Backstrom like it was Wilson-Visnovsky. Will the Caps dress another dirty player like Radko Gudas? Will the Islanders anticipate and respond? Will any of us care if Tom Wilson, for one brief misfiring synapse of a moment, be moved by the sight of an innocent fallen teammate to to ponder whether his seven years of dirty play was wrong? Nah.

Speaking of 2015, I apologize for the personal tangent, but talk of that series reminded me where I was during Game 7: At an event celebrating my spouse for receiving Teacher of the Year, while she was carrying our boy in her womb. Damn, time flies. Five years later he’s trying to tell me what I’m missing during Islanders playoff games. Not gonna lie, in moments I’m tempted to shout at him: “You never even saw Lubomir Visnovsky! Your brain is still tinier than Tom Wilson’s!”

Elsewhere

Yesterday’s NHL scores include the Blue Jackets, Hurricanes and Stars (in an absolutely crazy finish) even their series at 1-1. Vegas beat Chicago in OT to take a 2-0 lead.

• Scary and shocking: Claude Julien is hospitalized after chest pains, likely “unfit to coach” for the series. [NHL | HEOTP]
• Jason Spezza would really like to remain with the Leafs for some reason. [Sportsnet]
• Dan Hamhuis has retired after 16 seasons. I regret that I remember him more for his unrestricted free agency season and debates on whether a team should bid heavily on a guy. [NHL]
• Auston Mathews is “embarrassed” and John Tavares says “it starts with me.” Rinse, repeat. [NHL]
• There was some buzz and #hottakery after Tuukka Rask called the atmosphere in the Toronto bubble games “dull” and “doesn’t feel like playoff hockey.” Here are his full comments. It’s not that crazy but #HaggsGottaHack: