Canes-Isles Series Preview.

 2M Carolina vs New York I 3M 

Going over to the other Metro Series and one that is a rematch of last years first round series and that is between the red hot Carolina Hurricanes who keep on winning and the New York Islanders who had a good finish to the year to just get into the playoffs.  

History of Rivalry between teams in playoffs.

Now this is going to be the third all time meeting between the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Islanders and remember this also includes the Hurricanes when they were in Hartford, so the Canes and Islanders have only played two times previous to this year, and that was when the  Carolina Hurricanes won in 2019 in the second round and the other matchup was last year in the first round where the Hurricanes took down the Isles in 6 so the Carolina Hurricanes have won both matchups these two have played in the playoffs so Carolina's got that going for them.

Season Series record.

Carolina 2-1-1 16-14+2

New York I 2-1-1 14-16-2

James Guillory USA Today Sports

Each teams X-Factors: Varlamov vs Guentzel

Now these are in my opinion the two X-Factors of this series, first with the Islanders the big X-Factor could be guys like Horvat who has had a good season or Dobson who has had one heck of a season, but Varlamov has to be the Islanders X-Factor in this series as he was key to the Islanders making the playoffs as he was stellar down the stretch and if he can replicate that in the playoffs he will give the Islanders a chance to win the series, while Guentzel was acquired at the deadline by the Hurricanes as he fit in extremely well in the Canes top 6 and he is a weapon the Hurricanes haven’t had in years past, so if he keeps up his production then the Hurricanes could easily outscore the Islanders.

Which team is best at 3 Position:

Offense: now as for how the 2 teams matchup positionally, I think the Islanders definitely can't compete with the Carolina Hurricanes offense, I mean the Carolina Hurricanes have a deep offense, have a fantastic offense and can roll lines one through four and really outscore the Islanders so I would definitely say that the more potent and scary offense is the Hurricanes.

Defence: meanwhile defensively I think they stack up pretty well, but I do think that I would give the slight Edge to Carolina given the fact that Scott Mayfield who's a really good third pair defensemen and makes the Isles defence scary is currently out right now so I would definitely give the edge to Carolina defensive Wise with a solid 6 D with guys like Slavin and Burns.

James Guillory USA Today Sports

Goaltending: goaltending wise I would definitely give to the Islanders, Sorokin is a fantastic top five goaltender in the league right now and even if Varlamov starts I would probably say the Isles are much better in Net then Carolina and as much as Anderson's been playing pretty good over the past little while I definitely think the Islanders have the better of the goalies.

Biggest on Ice Matchup: Islanders D and goalies vs Hurricanes offense.

Now in my opinion the biggest matchup in this series has to be the Islanders D and goaltending against the Hurricanes high powered offense, now the Islanders had always been a solid defending team but under Lambert they lost their identity this year so under Roy and with Varlamov they have gotten closer to having their identity again and I think they should be able to shut a game down, but the Hurricanes offense is much more scary then last year with the Kuznetsov and Guentzel in the teams top 6 as their forward group has so many weapons it would be difficult to shut it down and they had the7th best offense this year, so I think the team who wins this battle whether it is Carolina's offense or NYI's defence will be in a good position to take this series.

Predictions:

In my eyes although the Islanders were able to scratch and claw their way in and won eight of their last nine games to make it into the playoffs as the third team in the metro, for the Canes they've been clicking on all cylinders and the Guentzel edition's been fantastic as he has been clicking on all cylinders and in my opinion I see the Carolina Hurricanes winning that series in six games, I think that the Isles will give them a fight and I think that whichever goalie he winds up starting whether it is  Sorokin or Varlamov as both are really good goaltenders they will wind up keeping them in games, but just I can't see the Islanders beating the Hurricanes so I have the Canes taking this series.