CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Barry Trotz has coached teams to the Stanley Cup playoffs in 14 of the past 17 seasons.
He led one of them, the 2018 Washington Capitals, all the way to a championship.
And while Trotz has plied his trade in several NHL locations -- he started in Nashville, then moved on to Washington and eventually to Long Island -- at least one thing has remained constant: His approach to his work.
Trotz has preached sound team defense throughout his career, and did it again in 2020-21, when his New York Islanders allowed an average of 2.23 goals per game. That's just .01 more than league-leading Vegas has given up heading into the Golden Knights' regular-season finale.
That means the Penguins have a pretty good idea of what they'll be up against when they take on the Islanders in a first-round series that's expected to get underway this weekend.
"(Trotz's) teams are always very sound, defensively," Mike Sullivan said after the Penguins' practice at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex Tuesday. "They play with a lot of structure and there's a defense-first mindset. We're going to have be prepared to play in low-scoring games. We're going to have to be prepared for numbers back all the time."
Trotz's formula features several layers of defense in front of a quality goaltender.
It was Pekka Rinne with the Predators. In Washington, Braden Holtby, Semyon Varlamov is the man on Long Island, at least until Ilya Sorokin grows into the No. 1 job.
Of course, with the way Trotz's teams play in front of their goalies, simply making visual contact with him, let along generating a dangerous scoring chance, can be a challenge.
"They work really hard," Bryan Rust said. "They always have guys working back, back-checking hard. You're never going through maybe one or two. You're going through three or four or five guys.
"Anytime you play a team like the Islanders, that's structured so well and plays so well defensively, it's always going to be kind of a playoff-type game. You have to have some patience. You have to do those little things. You have to pay attention to details, because any little mistake that could go wrong ... could end up in the back of your net."
The Penguins made it through the Islanders often enough in 2020-21 to win six of their eight meetings, although one of those victories came in overtime and another in a shootout.
Their average of 3.25 goals per game against New York was far above the Islanders' number versus the league, so the Penguins have reason to believe they can solve New York's stifling defense during Round 1.
Kasperi Kapanen suggested that the key to generate offense against New York will be to "just play our game," but in reality, the Penguins -- who averaged a league-best 3.45 goals per game during the regular season -- likely will have to be adept at a variety of styles to counter what the Islanders throw at them.
"We're going to have to find ways to create offense different ways," Sullivan said. "If there's an opportunity to create offense off the rush, we have to take what the game gives us. If there isn't, we have to be willing to put pucks deep and create offense through our grind game.
"The one thing that's encouraging from our standpoint is, we believe our team is capable of creating offense different ways. We've shown that throughout the course of this season, consistently. ... The most important thing is that we take what the game gives us, and that we have an element of patience associated with it."
The Penguins didn't have nearly enough of that -- or anything else -- when the Islanders swept them in Round 1 in 2019.
That series probably left a few psychological scars, but Sullivan cautioned against assuming there will be a repeat this time.
"Every season is a new season, and this is a new team," Sullivan said. "We have a fair amount of the core players who are still ... here. These guys have played in those environments against teams that are stingy defensively. You don't win Stanley Cups unless you understand how to play in those environments."
The Islanders have most of their core players from that club back, too, but a key one is missing: Left winger Anders Lee suffered a season-ending injury after scoring 12 goals in 27 games.
New York general manager Lou Lamoriello tried to offset the loss of Lee by bringing in Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac from New Jersey before the trade deadline, although neither has had the impact New York was hoping for.
Still, whatever success New York has generally has more to do with the system Trotz has installed than with the players who are executing it.
"They play a certain style that has brought them success," Sullivan said. "As far as personnel is concerned, my experience from playing against them has been that it really doesn't matter who gets plugged into their lineup."
MORE FROM THE PRACTICE
• Sullivan, on news that state regulations are being eased to allow more than 9,000 fans to attend games at PPG Paints Arena, effective next Monday: "Anytime we can put more fans in the building, we think that helps to create the environment, the energy that our players have to feed off."
• Defenseman Mike Matheson wore a full face shield for the second consecutive day.
• No. 1 goalie Tristan Jarry participated, but backup Casey DeSmith did not.
• Sullivan, on center Evgeni Malkin's recovery from a late-season injury: "We think he's only going to get better with each game that he gets under his belt. He's such a talented player. He works extremely hard."
• Personnel combinations:
Guentzel–Crosby–Rust
Zucker–Malkin–Kapanen
McCann–Carter-Gaudreau
Aston-Reese-Blueger-Tanev
Dumoulin–Letang
Matheson–Ceci
Pettersson–Marino
Friedman–Ruhwedel
