While the goaltending matchup last season was decidedly in the New York Islanders' favor heading into the first-round matchup, it's so much closer, if not more so in the Carolina Hurricanes' favor this year.
There were so many questions surrounding Frederik Andersen, from will he even be available this season after being diagnosed with a blood-clotting issue in November to can he get back to his level of play, but he's returned as an even stronger goaltender than before.
Since returning, Andersen was 9-1-0 with a 0.951 save percentage and three shutouts.
He has been a clear cut top-five goaltender in the league over the past month and he's boosting Carolina to Cup favorite status.
Behind Andersen, Pyotr Kochetkov has been no slouch either as the young Russian emerged with starter potential as well.
It was his first season starting over 50% of the season and he did incredibly well, posting a 23-13-4 record with a 0.911 save percentage and four shutouts.
His fiery and unorthodox style has captivated the local fans and he's been blossoming into a future star in the league.
On the other side of the ice, the Isles goaltending is nearly as expected.
This season hasn't been the strongest for Ilya Sorokin who last year was a Vezina finalist, but he's put together a much stronger resume in the last few games and he always has the ability to turn it around.
But where he maybe slipped a bit, Semyon Varlamov has taken hold of the reins, which is why he will be the Game 1 starter for New York.
Not only has Varlamov been the more steady netminder all season, but he's also been hot as of late, having an 8-1-1 record over his last 10 games along with a 0.930 save percentage.
On paper, goals are not going to be easy to come by in this series because of how good the goaltending is for each team and there may be a scenario where all four goalies see ice time in this series as both coaches have stated it could be a possibility to rotate netminders.
Goaltending is perhaps the make or break stat for the postseason and with both teams having two tremendous netminders, it makes it a lot harder to be able to predict just how this series might go.