If there's any particular area in which the Carolina Hurricanes are the strongest, it's on defense.
The Canes have the deepest 1-6 blueline in the entire NHL, bar none.
The sheer amount of top-end talent on the Hurricanes blueline is crazy and every player can defend, skate, move the puck and they all play well in all three zones.
There's no weakness among that lineup and the team's not afraid to roll all three pairs against any opponent.
The Islanders don't pack quite the same defensive punch as they were once known for, although they're a lot better under Patrick Roy than they were under Lane Lambert.
But still, it's not the same Islanders defense many are familiar with, just look at that 32nd ranked PK.
The Canes have the edge in talent, depth and ability, although the Islanders have a higher scorer in Noah Dobson as well as a group much more willing to lay the body.
Top Pair
Jaccob Slavin (6g, 37pts) - Brent Burns (10g, 43pts)
60.6% CF, 57% xGF, 58% GF
Alexander Romanov (7g, 22pts) - Noah Dobson (10g, 70pt)
48.9% CF, 50.7 xGF%, 63.6% GF
The Canes have one of the strongest two-way top pairs in the entire league with future Hall-of-Famer Brent Burns and defensive wizard Jaccob Slavin.
The pair can do everything they're asked of and can deliver even better results.
The pairing of Dobson and Romanov has clicked for New York offensively, provided a great scoring touch, however they have struggled to control their minutes.
The Canes really rattled Dobson last season, and perhaps they may try to do the same this year, but it's clear he's taken a big step so it may not be as easy a task.
Second Pair
Brady Skjei (13g, 47pts) - Brett Pesce (3g, 13pts)
58.2% CF, 52.5% xGF, 47.4% GF
Adam Pelech (1g, 16pts) - Ryan Pulock (5g, 19pts)
46.6% CF, 46.8% xGF, 50% GF
At one point in time, Pelech and Pulock were among the very best in the league defensively. That has not been the case this year as the pair has really struggled.
On the other side, Skjei and Pesce are Carolina's go-to defensive pairing, but while they normally control their minutes, they haven't been on the right side of the score sheet as often season.
Pesce has struggled at times with the man-on-man defense and fast skaters have been able to take advantage of him this season which doesn't bode as well with speedy skaters like Mat Barzal and Pierre Engvall on the other side.
Third Pair
Dmitry Orlov (6g, 26pts) - Jalen Chatfield (8g, 22pts)
61.3% CF, 59.4% xGF%, 60.6% GF
Mike Reilly (6g, 24pts) - Robert Bortuzzo (0g, 0pts)
50.5% CF, 51.5% xGF, 75% GF
Orlov is probably a top pairing defenseman on over half the teams in the league, but in Carolina he's a third-pairing dman, and damn what a luxury that is.
His pairing with Chatfield has been among the best in the entire league and they've been very good for the last two months especially.
The Isles will be rolling out a bottom pairing that consists of two depth players that they signed to cover for a plethora of injuries earlier in the season.
However, Reilly has done well in New York and provided a bit of depth scoring and Bortuzzo has been solid as of late too.
But again, fairly solid versus one of the best pairings in the league.
Extras
Tony DeAngelo (3g, 11pts) - Scott Morrow (0g, 0pts)
Samuel Bolduc (2g, 5pts) - Sebastian Aho (2g, 9pts)
Penalty Kill
There literally couldn't be any more distance between the penalty kills of these two teams.
The Hurricanes have the league's best PK (86.4%) while the Islanders have the league's worst (71.5%).
One pressures opponents, shuts down entries and denies chances like crazy.
The other is pitiful and flat our embarrassing.
The playoffs is a completely new season, so what happens in the regular season doesn't matter, but if the trends continue... then yikes.
