Werner Pichler <
wpichler@gmail.com> wrote:
Hurricanes (M2) vs Islanders (M3)
A repeat of last year's First Round match-up, and the Islanders, like Washington, are a team that are here mostly not due to own merit, but
because their division rivals have been bad. I'll give them this though
- after having changed coaches from Lane Lambert to Patrick Roy they
have become much less tedious to watch, even if only for Roy's
propensity to pull the goalie ten minutes before the end of a game.
But there's much more to like about Carolina, not the least of which the
way they handled the Trade Deadline, calmly identifying needs and then addressing them - e.g. getting Jake Guentzel from Pittsburgh was an
inspired move, and Guentzel also very quickly silenced those critics who questioned if he could put up numbers without Crosby at his side.
The only reason they didn't win their division (or indeed, the
Presidents' Trophy) was that they somewhat bungled their goaltender situation, but that issue looks resolved now that Frederik Andersen has returned from his health scare (a blood clotting issue) and been
amazing. I'll spill the beans and admit that in my playoff bracket I
have Carolina going very far.
*throwsbracketinthebin*
Ciao,
Werner
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