NEW YORK — The Islanders are still geographically on Long Island, if not spiritually so, but what awaits them in their new postseason home is mystery that will be solved on Sunday.
“We’ll learn once we get (to the Barclays Center, but we hope it’s something similar, because (the Nassau Coliseum atmosphere) was something special,” said John Tavares, Islanders captain, leading scorer and face of the franchise. “It’s no secret that was an amazing experience with great memories, and really helped to push us in two series that I thought we could’ve won, and hopefully this time can push us over the edge.”
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Since the Islanders’ return to playoff contention in 2013, the Coliseum had become known as one of the league’s rowdiest arenas in the postseason in the tradition of the Fort Neverlose moniker, as it came to be known in the 1980s.
“It was a great atmosphere here," Islanders coach Jack Capuano said after Game 2 versus the Panthers. "I don’t know if the Panthers know what Brooklyn and New York is all about when they get into that barn and its packed, it’s going to be a lot of fun. I know we’re looking forward to the first playoff game there in its history and it’s going to be exciting.”
In the playoffs for a second straight year for the first time since 2004, the Islanders are trying to do something beyond just winning a playoff series for the first time since 1993. They want to establish a new era of success for what has long been New York’s secondary team.
“Every year is different,” says Islanders captain, leading scorer and face of the franchise John Tavares. “There’s different hurdles, different challenges, and it’s always a new group with a few new faces. We’re trying to do something special.”
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What the atmosphere will be like in Brooklyn is a question that will be answered Sunday in Game 3 of the Islanders’ first-round series against the Panthers, another team with a long drought of playoff success, having last won a round in 1996. The series is tied 1-1.
The Islanders lost in seven games to the Capitals last year, and in six games to the Penguins in 2013. In those series, New York went a combined 3-3 at home, with all three losses coming in overtime. Succeeding in the playoffs, though, will require more than just riding waves of emotion from the crowd, because as a wild-card team in the Eastern Conference, New York again comes into the playoffs without home-ice advantage.
The thing that really will determine the Islanders’ fate is something that has a massive role for all 16 clubs chasing the Stanley Cup: goaltending. In New York’s case, it’s an open question, as Jaroslav Halak’s groin injury means that the playoff starter is 30-year-old German journeyman Thomas Greiss, the owner of 40 minutes of career playoff experience, in a relief appearance for the Sharks in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals in Detroit.
Starting has turned out to agree with Greiss. He played 41 games this season, surpassing his previous career high of 25, and posted a career-best .925 save percentage. In his last four regular season starts, Greiss had a .943 save percentage, leading the Islanders to wins in all four games. It was a marked rebound from Greiss’ four-start losing streak in mid-March that led Capuano to briefly bench him.
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“I just think that he went through a stretch where, I don’t want to say fatigue, but he’s played a lot of hockey, and I think he needed to get away from the game for a few days, and he did,” Capuano said ahead of the playoffs. “I don’t worry about him. He’s the guy that’s given us a chance when Jaro went down.”
It’s not only Halak who’s gone down. The Islanders lost Travis Hamonic, their top defenseman by minutes played, to a knee injury, though he returned in time for the playoffs. Anders Lee, a valuable complementary scorer with 15 goals this season, broke his leg in a game against the Rangers in the final week of the season. Mikhail Grabovski is out with a concussion, while physical forwards Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Martin were limited down the stretch.
While losing players, the Islanders kept winning games. They were victorious in six out of eight before dropping their last two –— neither of which Greiss started — to set up a first-round matchup with the Panthers rather than a Penguins team that finished with a better record. Not that the Islanders were dumping those last two games, but they knew that losing wasn’t the end of the world.
“We’ve got confidence,” said forward Frans Nielsen, who had his second career 20-goal season to go with his usual backchecking excellence. “We’ve had some injuries, and hopefully we can get healthy going in there, but at the same time, we’ve showed that we have good young players and depth that can play minutes.”
The reason that the Islanders have been able to thrive in the face of injuries is simply put by the goaltender who assumed his place as a result of injury, and thrived.
“We know our game,” Greiss says. “We know how to be successful and play that way.”