East
3RD Boston vs New York I 4TH
Preview
This is the third meeting between the two teams in playoff history as the Islanders have won the previous two series including the last time in 1983. Each teams record vs each other in the regular season: New York I 5-2-1, Boston 3-3-2. The Bruins top line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and David Pastrnak took two games to get going but in Games 3,4 and 5 the top line came alive and that was what pushed the Bruins to defeat the Capitals in just 5 Games and I would like to see how that great top six fares against the six defensemen of New York and rookie goalie Sorokin. Even though the Islanders beat the Penguins in 6 games Ilya Sorokin won all four games he started for the Islanders and I would suspect that he would start and that Islanders back end which has been the backbone of their team only let in 9 goals in the four games Sorokin started.
Stats from first round
Goals for to Goals against
Boston 16-10+6 New York I 21-16+5
Power play
Boston 5/19 New York I 3/16
Penalty Kill
Boston 18/21 New York I 9/12
Hits
Boston 191 New York I 273
Shots
Boston 173 New York I 187
Boston has advantage offensively: Boston’s top six is lethal when clicking on all cylinders and the Islanders don’t have that type of fire power.
New York I has advantage defensively: the Islanders pride themselves on being a defensive team as it is their identity and Boston’s defense is still very young.
Boston has advantage on goaltending: this is purely on experience as Sorokin is a great young goaltender but Rask has more experience in the playoffs.
Prediction: New York I in 6 games
Now I got both my predictions from the East wrong as I thought Washington in 7 and Pittsburgh in 6 but I have a good feeling that New York can pull this off. The Islanders were able to shut down the best offense in the regular season from the East in Pittsburgh and bring their East best defense into Boston. The Second lines production combined with Ilya Sorokin shouting the door lead to the series win over Pittsburgh. But Boston did what the Islanders did to as they shutdown Washington’s top six only allowing one goal, and Rask and their young defense shut Washington down but in this series the Islanders should win thanks to timely goals and a big effort from Sorokin.
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