New York Islanders 2019 NHL Playoffs: They Need a Hero

The New York Islanders have surprised everyone and are headed to the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in three years. Even more surprisingly, they will have home ice advantage in the first round, but who’s going to play the hero?

Now, ladies and gentlemen, it’s star time. Or is it? The New York Islanders are not a star-studded roster. They have put up W’s using a team mentality. However, you can’t deny that the playoffs make superstars.

Players become stories, lore, the things that we tell our children to wow them and compel them to become fans. So the question is, who on the Isles roster has it, the ability to become bigger than life, a legend in Islanders lore?

Is it big bodied, Anders Lee, perhaps working through some undisclosed injury and tapping in a pivotal goal? Is it the Brothers B, Barzal and Beauvillier skating circles around a battle-tested Penguins roster, becoming the difference makers that we all suspect they can be?

Will the likes of Ryan Pulock, Scott Mayfield, and Nick Leddy shut down one of the most high powered offenses, blocking shot after shot? Or will it once again be the Isles

Jennings Trophy-winning goaltenders

, Thomas Greiss and Robin Lehner stepping it up a notch and shutting out an unstoppable offense?

The New York Islanders Play as a Team

It all remains to be seen, but the best thing about the Islanders is that it won’t come down to a single guy. No single player on the roster has been tasked with carrying the team on his back, and that is a good thing.

This team has potential. I think every Islanders fan who’s watched the games this year can feel it.  So away we go Isles fans. We’ll count on our boys in orange and blue to move their feet, and put some pucks on net (because you never know what might happen,) and maybe they’ll even put some up in the toy department.

And when the fat lady has sung, and the Zamboni zig-zags up and down the ice for the last time, maybe we’ll all have a new hero. I wonder who it’ll be.  Playoffs baby. Let’s go, Isles