RALEIGH, N.C. – For the second straight season, the Carolina Hurricanes and the New York Islanders meet in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Last season, the Hurricanes defeated the Islanders in six games before losing to the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Final in four games.
This season, Carolina (52-23-7) finished second in the Metropolitan Division and in the Eastern Conference, three points behind the New York Rangers, winners of the Presidents’ Trophy.
New York (39-27-16) finished third in the Metropolitan, going 8-1-1 in its final 10 games to pull away from the field chasing third place in the division and the second wild card from the East.
In the regular-season series, each team won two games on the road. Carolina won 4-3 in overtime Nov. 4 and 4-1 on March 19; the Islanders won 5-4 in overtime Nov. 30 and 5-4 on Dec. 23.
Now, both teams are champing at the bit to renew the playoff rivalry as they play the first of a possible 105 games in this season’s playoffs.
Here are 3 keys for the series:
1. Block party
Goalie Semyon Varlamov has been really good down the stretch for the Islanders, but he has gotten some serious help from the players in front of him who block shots at a prodigious rate.
The Islanders led the NHL with 1,552 blocked shots during the regular season. With 18.68 blocked shots per game, they were one of four teams to average at least 18.
“This is a team that shoots from everywhere, and that goes with the sacrifice,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said of the Hurricanes. “We’re going to have to block shots. We're going to have to be having good stick on the puck and making sure that we squeeze them on their entry and try to keep them away from the net.”
2. Home cooking
The Hurricanes were 27-10-4 at PNC Arena this season. The Islanders were 18-17-6 on the road but did win both games at Carolina.
And though PNC Arena is loud during the regular season, it is a different animal in the postseason. With a late-afternoon start Saturday, the tailgating scene will help drive the passion of the fans.
“We talked about that from the beginning here. I mean, you want to get home-ice advantage as much as you possibly can, and so the guys have done a great job to earn this,” Carolina general manager Don Waddell said. “And, you know, we know that PNC Arena will be rocking come 5 o'clock tomorrow. There's no doubt about that.”
3. Discipline
The Islanders can't afford to get into a special teams battle in this series. Statistics suggest it will be a road to failure.
Carolina had the second-best power play in the NHL during the regular season at 26.9 percent. Its penalty kill ranked first (86.4 percent).
New York’s power play ranked 19th in the League at 20.4 percent. Its penalty kill was last (71.5 percent).
“You got to stay out of the box on the road in the playoffs, obviously starting there,” Islanders forward Kyle Palmieri said. “You don't want to give them too many opportunities for the fans to get into it and things like that to build momentum. I think for us, it's staying disciplined and when we have to kill some off, we do our best.
“I think we have had a lot of things to build on these last couple of games as far as big kills in big moments. As far as the power play, they pressure a ton, so just know where your next play is and where your outs are and really just keep it simple, trying to outwork their penalty kill.”
Islanders projected lineup
Casey Cizikas -- Bo Horvat -- Mathew Barzal
Hudson Fasching -- Brock Nelson -- Kyle Palmieri
Anders Lee -- Kyle MacLean -- Pierre Engvall
Matt Martin -- Simon Holmstrom -- Cal Clutterbuck
Alexander Romanov -- Noah Dobson
Adam Pelech -- Ryan Pulock
Mike Reilly -- Robert Bortuzzo
Semyon Varlamov
Ilya Sorokin
Scratched: Oliver Wahlstrom, Sebastian Aho, Samuel Bolduc, Ruslan Iskhakov
Injured: Jean-Gabriel Pageau (lower body)
Hurricanes projected lineup
Jake Guentzel -- Sebastian Aho -- Seth Jarvis
Teuvo Teravainen -- Jesperi Kotkaniemi -- Martin Necas
Jordan Martinook -- Jordan Staal -- Andrei Svechnikov
Jack Drury -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- Stefan Noesen
Jaccob Slavin -- Brent Burns
Brady Skjei -- Brett Pesce
Dmitry Orlov -- Jalen Chatfield
Frederik Andersen
Pyotr Kochetkov
Scratched: Brendan Lemieux, Tony DeAngelo, Scott Morrow, Spencer Martin
Injured: Jesper Fast (upper body)
Status report
Dobson, who missed the final three games of the regular season with an upper-body injury, is expected to play Game 1. … Pageau, a center, will be a game-time decision. … Fast did not practice Thursday or Friday and will not play in Game 1. The forward was injured in the second period of a 6-3 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday.
NHL.com independent correspondents Kurt Dusterberg and Stefan Rosner contributed to this report
