Other than the round (the first, not the second) and the uniforms (blue-and-orange, not red-and blue), the Penguins' upcoming playoff series against the New York Islanders should seem very familiar.
Barry Trotz might have moved on from our nation's capital, but the likely Jack Adams finalist's defensive-first system is alive and well on Long Island, where the Penguins will begin what they hope is another lengthy playoff run.
This will mark the fourth-straight spring that the Penguins have faced a Trotz-coached team, but the first with his new club, the Islanders. The Penguins went 2-1 against Trotz's Capitals the past three postseasons. You might recall that they beat Washington in six games in 2016 and seven games in 2017 en route to capturing consecutive Stanley Cup championships. Last year, however, the Capitals turned the tables on the Penguins by ending Pittsburgh's reign with a six-game second-round series win.
Along with Evgeny Kuznetsov and Braden Holtby, Trotz was perhaps as responsible for the Penguins' undoing last spring as anyone.
Unquestionably, Trotz is most responsible this season for getting the Islanders back to the playoffs for the first time in three years. After John Tavares bolted for the greener pastures of his hometown of Toronto, most figured the Islanders to be also-rans at best. Instead, the Islanders have been one of the true feel-good stories of the season, going 48-27-7 for 103 points -- a 23-point improvement over 2017-18 -- to earn second-place in the Metropolitan Division and a date with Sidney Crosby and Co.
After playing at the cavernous Barclays Center the past three seasons, the Islanders returned to their Long Island roots this year by splitting home dates between Brooklyn and NYCB Live, the refurbished Nassau County Coliseum, the site of Games 1 and 2 on Wednesday and Friday. The move to the suburbs seems to have fired-up a famished fan base whose team has advanced out of the first round just once since infamously upending the Penguins' dynasty in 1993. Nassau County Mausoleum? Not anymore. The 13,900-seat venue is the NHL's smallest, but among its loudest.
"We don't have home ice, but we can use that energy in the arena, even if it's against us," said Nick Bjugstad, who faced the Islanders in the second round of the 2016 postseason, his only playoff experience.
The Islanders have certainly given New York much to cheer about, even if it's not the most aesthetically-pleasing brand of hockey to watch. In other words, it's vintage Trotz hockey. These Islanders are far more like his Predators teams of the early 2000s — that reached the playoffs seven times in eight years — than recent Capitals teams. Like those Nashville clubs, the Islanders rely on strong goaltending, opportunistic scoring and, yes, stifling defense.
“Now this is the fun part! They've earned everything all year & we'll have to earn the right to keep playing in the playoffs.”
Barry Trotz reflects on tonight's @NYIslanders win in the regular-season finale with our @Shannon_Hogan. #Isles pic.twitter.com/0Q4s36E7cH
— MSG Networks (@MSGNetworks) April 7, 2019
"They're a very stingy team defensively," Mike Sullivan was saying. "They're tight-checking. They're one of the better teams as far as goals-against and that's been their identity this year. A defensive-first mindset. They're a team that's hard to play against. We have to make sure we have an element of patience with our game. We've got to take what they give us. We have to commit every bit as hard and we have to make sure we have a discipline to our game and play within some structure."
In fact, the Islanders allowed the fewest goals-against per game at 2.33 and they rank among the top third in shots-against at 30.9. Good thing too, because the Islanders were 26th with a 47.85 Corsi For percentage and their power play ranked 29th at just 14.5 percent.
Outside of 2018 Calder winner Mathew Barzal, Trotz doesn't have much high-end talent at his disposal up front, but what he does have is a deep team that can roll four lines. The Islanders had eight players score 15-plus goals. That's one more than even the Penguins.
Between Robin Lehner and Thomas Greiss, New York also has a formidable tandem in net. Which goaltender the Penguins will face remains to be seen, but both are capable. Lehner and Greiss won this year's William M. Jennings Trophy by allowing a combined 196 goals, or exactly 100 fewer than a year ago. Clint Benedict -- who can forget him? -- and the 1918-19 Ottawa Senators are the only team to go from worst-to-first in the last century.
That is a testament to Trotz and his structure. It's a system the Penguins should know all-too-well and can expect to see deployed against them again over the next two weeks.
Last spring, Trotz's Capitals collapsed down low and slowly blanketed the Penguins. Outside of Jake Guentzel and Crosby, the Penguins received little contribution from anyone else. Over the final five games, the Penguins were outscored 17-11. More than anything though, the Capitals capitalized on more than a few turnovers at the blueline. Sure, one or two were the result of over-aggressive pinches by Penguins' defensemen, but most were the result of simply not "taking what they're giving" as Sullivan said.
"Getting pucks deep" might be the oldest cliche in hockey, but it's also sage advice at this time of year and particularly against the Islanders, a team that doesn't allow for easy zone entries. For the Penguins, despite their offensive stars, the best course of action is to put the puck behind the defense and win a foot race. Even if you lose the race, you force the Islanders to work 200 feet for scoring chances. Given their opponents' offensive numbers, the Penguins should like their odds.
“It’s about recognizing and making the right decisions,” Sullivan said. “As long as we buy into that, we become harder to play against, we don’t become a high-risk team, we control territory, and we control outcomes, inevitably, because we’re willing to make sure we make the right decisions.”
Obviously, the Penguins have the edge in talent but the playoffs are not a skills competition. Save for Saturday night's performance against the Rangers in the regular-season finale, the Penguins had been playing their best two-way hockey of the season. Whether due to injury or due to circumstance, they've been playing de facto playoff games over the last five weeks. Games have been tight and they've largely avoided making high-risk plays and giving up odd-man breaks. They would be wise to continue that trend.
The Penguins know how to score goals. They were sixth in the NHL this season, averaging 3.30 goals per game. They will come. But they have to be patient. Sometimes the best strategy is to just keep it simple.
"It's going to be a really tough matchup," Justin Schultz was saying. "They've had a great year, so it should be interesting."
