With the New York Islanders on the brink of elimination, here are two monster keys to keep their season alive ahead of Game Five.
RALEIGH, NC -- The New York Islanders face off against the Carolina Hurricanes Tuesday night for Game 5, down 3-1 in the series. Puck drop is slated for 7 PM ET at PNC Arena.
The Islanders did not hold serve on home ice, falling 5-2 to the Hurricanes Sunday afternoon. Now, they have to go into a rowdy PNC Arena and find a way to win to keep this first-round series alive.
"We're still extremely positive, high energy," Matt Martin told The Hockey News after Tuesday's morning skate. "Just focus on one game. Just got to find a way to win tonight and then worry about the next one."
Islanders head coach Lane Lambert has decided not to make any lineup changes.
Here are two monster Game Five keys for the Islanders.
It's Now or Never for the Power Play
The New York Islanders are in a 3-1 hole for many reasons, none bigger than their ineffective power play.
Through four games, the Islanders have gone 1-for-12, that one serving as the game-winner in Game 3 back on Friday night.
While Islanders head coach Lane Lambert has had no issues adjusting his lines in the third period back on Sunday, he's shown an unwillingness to change his top power-play unit.
Those five players are Anders Lee, Bo Horvat, Brock Nelson, Mathew Barzal, and Noah Dobson.
"They are the guys that should be on the power play, and those are the guys that have to get it done," Lambert said following the 5-2 loss on Sunday.
During Monday's media availability, The Hockey News asked Lambert why he has no issues changing up his lines to provide a spark but he won't do the same with his top power-play unit.
"Again, I said last night, those five guys are the guys that have to get the job done on the power play," Lambert said. "As we move forward here, we'll see what happens."
The Islanders' power play plays too much on the periphery and has generated 16 shots on those 12 opportunities, with nine high-danger shots, courtesy of NaturalStatrick.com.
As for the top group, they have generated nine of the 16 shots.
"Feels like we've had some looks where you get one chance, and I said that sometimes it feels like you need to find that one where you get the second puck where there's a little bit more chaos and less structure," Brock Nelson told The Hockey News. "You probably find a little bit better local for man."
The Islanders' one power-play goal this series came off a simple point shot from Sebastian Aho, which Kyle Palmieri deflected.
As Nelson stated, they are looking for that second chance, and firing a puck through traffic, rather than passing around the horn, will likely create more of those secondary opportunities.
No Room For Undisciplined Penalties
While the Islanders may feel slighted by the officials so far through four games, there's no question that some, if not most, of their penalties were legitimate.
Although it's tough to play a clean game against a fast, dynamic team like the Carolina Hurricanes, the Islanders have taken some undisciplined penalties and took a few in Sunday's loss.
The Hockey News caught up with Carolina Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal and Jordan Martinook following their morning skate to get their thoughts on how they have been able to use the Islanders' physicality against them a bit.
"I think there are definitely some undisciplined penalties out there. I think when we play at our speed and our pace, you know, it's hard to keep up with, so they're trying to slow the game down a bit, and I thought we stuck to kind of not getting into the scrums and not getting into the mess and really trying to stay at our pace and make them pay when it counts," Staal said.
For Martinook, it's all about taking advantage of those undisciplined penalties.
"They want to kind of be at the line and not cross it, but a couple of times they have, and luckily our power play has come through and given us a boost that we needed," Martinook said. "And I think we still have room to improve on our five-on-five play, and that's something that we can look forward to for tonight.
"But yeah, if they're gonna take penalties, we want our power play to get us going."
The Islanders players understand that they have to limit their emotional expression after whistles.
"We just got to keep our heads out there and play, bad calls or anything that happens in the game. We just got to find a way to fight through it and find a way to win," Matt Martin told The Hockey News.
"I think we've definitely been too emotional, I guess, and some of the calls and things that have gone on in games… they're out of our control, and we just got to keep our heads and find ways to kill penalties when we do get one, finding ways to win games.
"That's that's what it comes down to."
As Noah Dobson said, you don't want to be that guy.
"Obviously, emotions are running high. Intensity is high out there, come this time of year," Dobson told THN. "You gotta walk the line. you can't cross it. You see at times, especially with everything being called pretty tight out there, you don't want to be that guy that takes that extra one that leads to a power-play goal."
The Islanders are where they are for good reason. There's no concern about what's transpired in the previous four games.
It's about one game, but also about learning from past mistakes.
We shall see if they've truly learned in a few hours.
NEW YORK ISLANDERS LINES (PROJECTED)
Anders Lee-Bo Horvat-Mathew Barzal
Pierre Engvall-Brock Nelson-Kyle Palmieri
Zach-Parise-Jean-Gabriel Pageau-Hudson Fasching
Matt Martin-Casey Cizikas-Cal Clutterbuck
Adam Pelech-Scott Mayfield
Sebastian Aho-Ryan Pulock
Samuel Bolduc-Noah Dobson
Ilya Sorokin
Semyon Varlamov
HOW TO WATCH: You can catch the New York Islanders broadcast on MSGSN locally & ESPN nationally.