New York Islanders: With playoffs clinched, what happens next? – 3 things

Everyone is 0-0.

For the playoffs, as you might already know, it is being able to overcome the unpredictable. Being well prepared for the un-preparable. While the Islanders do have actual competent coaches and players, there is almost no standard to go off for the playoffs.

What I mean by this is let’s say the Islanders play the Hurricanes in the first round, which they could. Yeah, the Islanders played them well all season and seem to have their number this year since the Opening Day win against them. However, the best the Hurricanes have been is right now.

They are scorching hot, having seven wins in their last 12 games. But, since the last time the Hurricanes played the Isles on January 8, which was an Isles loss, the Hurricanes also had a stretch where they won eight of 10. So, they are not the same team that were dropping games to the Islanders before the new year.

That applies to any team the Islanders could be facing in the first round. The Islanders also had moderate regular season success against the Penguins, but if they were to meet in the playoffs, which is likely, that hardly matters as well.

Entering the playoffs, everyone starts from scratch, essentially. While the regular season matters in terms of seeding and seeing who earns home ice, stuff like that, every team enters the playoffs with an 0-0 record. Teams can be who they are, or they can change their style. There is no way of knowing until the games are played.

And while I happen to like the Islanders style, great defense and efficient scoring is a great formula, they need to do all those things times 1,000. The intensity, and everything needs to be even better.

Barry Trotz is still the most recent head coach to conquer the Stanley Cup playoffs, so I am confident he will have his boys tuned up and ready to go, however, now that we know they will be going, it is time to prepare for chaos. There are some things and flaws teams can have the Isles can expose, but every series is like a new best of seven season.

No matter who they play, they should really try to do it one home ice. A large reason for their lack of playoff success is that they are often doing so on the road, as will be noted below.

Control the uncontrollable, stay on the gas pedal. Hopefully, this Islanders team is gritty and resilient that the rest will take care of itself once we do know their opponent.