PITTSBURGH — The series wasn't gone in 60 seconds, but looking back, it sure feels like it.
When the puck dropped on Game 1 at a raucous Nassau Coliseum in 2019, the Penguins got blitzed. The Long Island crowd roared as the forechecking Islanders plastered Penguins into the glass. Jordan Eberle capitalized on a Brian Dumoulin giveaway to give the Islanders the lead less than two minutes in.
Just like that, the Islanders had seized control of their first-round series.
The Penguins never got it back. The combination of a fierce Islanders forecheck, coach Barry Trotz's famous 1-1-3 alignment in the neutral zone, big goals from guys like Eberle and a few timely saves led to a stunning four-game sweep.
Two years later, the Penguins will again face the Islanders in the first round. These Islanders have some new personnel and a lot more playoff experience after a pair of deep postseason runs. But in many ways, with Trotz still behind the bench, they are very much the same squad — just an upgraded version.
The Penguins also look like a stronger team, in every sense of the word, than they were in 2019. Former general manager Jim Rutherford built a faster and deeper team, and coach Mike Sullivan has maximized the talent he was handed.
They played within themselves while winning six of their eight meetings against the Islanders in 2021, with two of those wins coming after regulation. And the Penguins will enter the playoffs with nine wins in their final 11 games overall.
But the Islanders, despite coasting into the playoffs, pose a significant challenge to the Penguins with their discipline, structure and at times heavy approach.
We will start with the forecheck, because that's where everything starts for them. The Islanders purposefully lob the puck into the offensive zone, preferably targeting the defenseman with slow feet and shaky hands, and will attempt to fluster him with the first forechecker and sometimes a second right behind him.
The third forward typically lurks behind them to pounce on a potential miscue. And their blue-liners are aggressive, pinching to deny easy exits up the walls.
Entering Monday, the Islanders had recovered 39.8% of those dump-ins, according to Sportlogiq. That was the second-best rate in the league. They also rank fourth when it comes to limiting clean exits when they activate their forecheck.
They generate a good chunk of their offense that way. Just 10 teams generate more shots from the slot off the forecheck. They are also above average with their cycle game. Overall, only four teams shoot more often from the inner slot.
When sitting back in the neutral zone, the Islanders use the same 1-1-3 alignment that Trotz used to help the Washington Capitals finally win the Stanley Cup in 2018. Two forwards muck it up in the neutral zone; the other three sit back on the blue line, waiting to pounce on a bad decision and storm the other way.
Two postseasons ago, Kris Letang and the Penguins too easily and too often obliged as the Islanders seemingly made them pay on every odd-man rush.
The Islanders use their forecheck and the 1-1-3 in the neutral zone to force their opponents to exert a bunch of energy just to establish possession inside the offense zone. When that happens, they stack bodies in front of their net.
Their 30% shot-blocking rate ranks third in the league, per Sportlogiq. They allow the second-fewest shots from the inner slot — the most dangerous scoring area on the ice. And they are tops in the league at limiting slot shots off the rush.
Throw in two quality goalies in Semyon Varlamov and Ilya Sorokin — neither was with New York in 2019 — and the NHL's fourth-best penalty kill, and it's no wonder the Islanders were first with a 2.22 goals-against average entering Monday.
All that has helped them earn 65.5% of the high-danger scoring chances at 5-on-5 entering Monday, per Natural Stat Trick. That ranked third in the NHL.
One matchup to watch will be Sidney Crosby's line versus the checking trio of Matt Martin, Casey Cizikas and Cal Clutterbuck. They gave Crosby all he could handle two years ago. He had just one assist and a minus-4 rating in four games.
The problem for Islanders the last few weeks has been nudging the puck over the line. Since the April 7 trade with the New Jersey Devils for Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac, they scored just 35 goals while going 6-7-3 over that span.
The Islanders have just one star in Mathew Barzal — a stick-handling maestro who also happens to be one of the NHL's fastest skaters. And they lost captain Andres Lee, one of the NHL's premier power forwards, for the season. But they have seven forwards with between 10 and 20 goals, which speaks to their depth.
However, don't expect their defensemen to score very often. Adam Pelech leads all Islanders blue-liners with four goals. That's as many as Dumoulin has.
Still, the Islanders should prove to be a tough test for the Penguins, who showed surprisingly little pushback in 2019 and last summer in the playoff bubble, when the Montreal Canadiens stunned them in their best-of-five series.
If the Penguins harness the passion and patience they showed against the Islanders in the regular season, they should be able to advance to the second round.
If not, Trotz's team has shown that structure can trump skill in the playoffs.
