Islanders To Take On Washington Capitals In Round 1 Of Playoffs

With the Washington Capitals win over Boston, they will take on the New York Islanders in Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Since the New York Islanders took care of business in Game 4 on Friday, they’ve been playing a waiting game to see who they will take on in round one. Today, the Isles watched closely as the winner of the Capitals and Bruins game would play host to the Islanders.

Well, after a 2-1 win by the Caps, it’s all locked in for round one. The Islanders will be taking on Barry Trotz’s old team the Washington Capitals in a Round One best of seven series.

Since Barry Trotz became the coach of the Islanders, they are 4-4 against the division rival Caps including a 2-2 performance this year. Their first matchup was on opening night back on October 4 at the Coliseum.

The Caps would take this one 2-1, in a low scoring affair that included the lone goal coming from the Islanders defensemen Devon Toews.

New Year’s Eve would be the next time these two teams met, this time it was the Islanders who got the better of the Capitals in a 4-3 matinee win. After the Isles jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead, the Caps would score the next three goals to take a 3-2 lead. Goals from Casey Cizikas and Tom Kuhnhackl would tie and win the game for the Isles.

January 18 would be the most memorable matchup between these two teams. It was all Islanders through the first two periods as the team would jump out to a 4-1 lead. As Devon Toews scored to make it 4-1, he used the Evgeny Kuznetsov celebration, the Caps didn’t like that.

They would storm back with five unanswered goals in the third period to beat the Isles 6-4 in the most embarrassing loss of the season.

In the team’s final matchup of the season on February 10, the Isles would get a big-time performance from their offense. They would win 5-3 as Anthony Beauvillier would score two goals in the first six minutes of the game.

According to Natural Stat Trick, the Islanders had a 40.43 Corsi-For percentage, a 47.9 Scoring Chances For Percentage, and a 52.94 High Danger Chances For Percentage against the Capitals this year at 5-on-5.

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Both teams had 14 goals in the four games, and the Isles had 12 even-strength goals to the Capitals 11. This looks to be a pretty even matchup for the two division rivals and should yield an exciting series.