Jeff Carter Goodbye After a long and winding road to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the New York Islanders [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-york-islanders/latest-news/new-york-islanders-2024-stanley-cup-playoffs-hurricanes-barzal-lee-pulock-roy] (39-27-15, third in the Metropolitan Division) will face a familiar foe. For the second straight season, they will face the Carolina Hurricanes (52-23-7, second in the Metropolitan Division) in the First Round of postseason play. The series begins at PNC Arena on Saturday at 5:00 p.m. With the teams set to collide in a rematch, here's your tale of the tape. REGULAR SEASON MATCHUPS: The two teams split their meetings in the regular season. Carolina took the first game on Nov. 4 at UBS Arena, coming back from a 3-0 deficit for a 4-3 overtime win. The next two games saw the Islanders win on the road, with a pair of 5-4 wins on Nov. 30 and Dec. 23, the former being in overtime. However, Carolina salvaged the split on Mar. 19, with a 4-1 win in Elmont. KEY PERFORMERS: Three different players top the Islanders in each offensive category. Brock Nelson is the team's leading goal-scorer with 34 red lights, while Noah Dobson leads the team in helpers with 60. The Islanders' All-Star nominee, Mathew Barzal, tops the team in points with 80. Barzal topped the Islanders in scoring against Carolina this season, totaling eight points (two goals and six assists). He had a four-point night against them on Nov. 30. Bo Horvat had points in all four games against Carolina this season, with two goals and four assists. Kyle Palmieri tallied a point in the final three matchups, tallying two goals and two assists in that span. In addition to his lead in goals for the regular season, Nelson has the most goals and points lifetime against Carolina with 14 and 27, respectively. Anders Lee has the most assists against the Hurricanes in his career with 16. Carolina's leading scorer overall this season was Sebastian Aho. The forward had 36 goals and 53 assists for 89 points in the regular season. Jake Guentzel, acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Trade Deadline, has played great hockey down the stretch. In 17 games with Carolina, the forward has eight goals and 17 assists, good for 25 points. The Hurricanes' Aho had the most goals against the Islanders this season with three. He scored the overtime winner in the first matchup and the game-tying goal in the final minute of regulation in the second. Three players, Martin Necas, Brady Skjei, and Andrei Svechnikov, had four assists against New York this season; Necas had the most points among Hurricanes with five. Lifetime against New York, Jordan Staal leads the team across the board on offense with 16 goals, 33 assists, and 49 points. Guentzel has also turned into an Islander-killer, owning 11 goals and 21 assists, 32 points, in 30 games. THE GOALIES: Semyon Varlamov will start Game 1 for New York (14-8-4, 2.60 GAA, .916 SV%). Varlamov has one start against Carolina on Nov. 30, yielding four goals on 43 shots in an overtime win. Against Carolina he is 6-4-4 with a 2.46 GAA and .923 SV%. Carolina has not committed to a starter for the opener, but Frederik Andersen has the most postseason experience (13-2-0, 1.84 GAA, .932 SV%). Against the Islanders, he is 10-4-1 with a 2.78 GAA and .904 SV%, making 21 saves in a 2-1 win on April 2, 2023 in his last regular season start. However, he started for Carolina in their clincher over the Islanders last season, making 33 saves on 34 shots THE SPECIAL TEAMS: The Hurricanes have been dominant this season on both special teams units. They finished the season with a 26.9 percent power play, the second-best in the NHL. Seth Jarvis led all players with 13 power-play goals. Their penalty kill ranked first in the NHL at 86.4 percent. The Islanders power play finished this season at 19.1 percent, which ranked 15th in the NHL. Bo Horvat and Kyle Palmieri were tied for the team lead with 10 goals. The Islanders penalty kill ranked second-worst in the NHL, at 76 percent, something that is going to be the main storyline this series. THE INJURIES: Both teams will be without forwards for Game 1 Saturday. Islanders’ center Jean-Gabriel Pageau is day-to-day with a lower-body injury, while Hurricanes forward Jesper Fast is out with an upper-body injury. THE SCHEDULE: The schedule for the series, per our own Stefen Rosner, is attached below: TOP STORIES
