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New York Islanders ‘@’ Tampa Bay Lightning [Conf. final Game 5 thread]

Enjoy the challenge, don’t let the investment go to waste.

Tampa Bay Lightning v New York Islanders - Game Four
Take us there, big man.
Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

What more can we say at this point? It’s do or die now.

The New York Islanders face elimination for the first time since Game 7 against the Philadelphia Flyers, when they soundly dispatched their opponents.

Of course, that was their third chance to also advance themselves, and it came against a team they had pretty well outplayed for most of the series.

Not so similar, this one. To escape elimination and keep this series going, it will take more of the same effort — yet even more of it, with fewer lapses — plus improved luck up and down the lineup.

A tall order, but we can expect them to be swinging, whether they go down or keep keeping on. Barry Trotz is confident his guys will be ready, come what may.

Will there be lineup intrigue? That was the general expectation between games...that Trotz would change something. (Presumably, it’s not breaking the Ladd Gladd again.)

Monitoring the league’s drone footage inside the bubble, Arthur Staple speculated some possibilities:

Game time is 8 p.m. EDT. May it not be their last.