The New York Islanders will have their second chance to advance to the first round of the playoffs, as they face the Florida Panthers in Game 4 of their qualifying round series today.
New York missed out on a great opportunity to end the series in Game 3 and they can’t let this series go to Game 5, where anything could happen.
One key is that the Islanders can’t take penalties like they did in Game 3. Florida capitalized on two of five chances and have scored on three of nine chances so far in the series. New York was the better team at 5-on-5 in Game 3 but if they take penalties against the Panthers in Game 4, it’s not going to go well.
As I said in the last game review, a dump and chase style works against the Panthers and New York just needs to keep it simple. The majority of New York’s forwards aren’t going to fly into the offensive zone with the puck and make a play and instead, it’s often a matter of forechecking. We’ve seen that Florida’s defense turns the puck over under pressure and the Islanders need to capitalize on that.
Puck drop is at noon.
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Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
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