3 reasons New York Islanders came out on top against the Washington Capitals

Here’s how the New York Islanders managed to upset the Washington Capitals in five games.

After dropping Game 4 to the Washington Capitals, the New York Islanders still hed a commanding 3-1 lead in the series. Last night, the Islanders showcased how difficult they can make it on teams, shutting down Alex Ovechkin and friends to take Game 5 by a score of 4-0 to send the Capitals home.

Here are three reasons why the sixth-seed Islanders were able to take down the three-seed Capitals in Toronto.

1. Secondary Scoring

In this series, the New York Islanders were able to score 17 times in five games (3.4 GPG). Looking up and down the lineup, more than just the top dogs contributed to the scoreboard.

The Islanders saw nine players score goals in this series, with Anthony Beauvillier and Anders Lee both leading the way with three.

Each line contributed. And while the second line of Beauvillier, Brock Nelson, and Josh Bailey combined for six goals of the 17 (35.29%), it was a team effort, as their offense going into the series was not even considered close to the offensive-prowess of their opponent.

For the Capitals, their offense woke up for one game, their lone victory, a 3-2 win in Game 4. Besides that, they seemed rather lifeless the whole series. It did not help that Nicklas Backstrom, one of the premier passers in the NHL, left Game 1 with an injury, returning to the team for their final game, being slotted on the third line rather than the second.

Throughout the series, the Capitals only scored eight goals (1.6 GPG), nowhere close to their regular-season average of 3.42. Unlike the Islanders, who got secondary scoring, the Capitals only saw three players score: T.J. Oshie, Alex Ovechkin, and Evgeni Kuznetsov.

2. Goaltending

Coming into this series, everyone wanted to know which Braden Holtby would show up to this series. Was it going to be the Holtby from the regular season, where he put up a career-worst  3.11 GAA and a .897 SV% or the one that showed up during the team’s round-robin games, in which he played significantly better, with a .918 SV% and a GAA of 2.00?

Once this series came to a close, Holtby owned a .891 SV% and a GAA of 2.8. So his team got a mix of the good and the bad.

There were plenty of mistakes made in this series by Holtby and it started in Game 1 after not being smart with the puck on his stick.

This goal changed the trajectory of this series. What looked to be a Game 1 win turned into a stunning loss.

Holtby’s rebound control was rather weak the entire series, with the Islander capitalizing on that immensely.

We also did not see the Holtby we are used to seeing in the postseason. He was unable to come up with that big save, saves his team desperately needed.

Barzal’s overtime winner in Game 3 was an incredible move do not get me wrong. But Holtby, a veteran, needs to know that Barzal only had one play being that in-tight. That being said, he needed to go for the poke check, but he stayed in his net and let Barzal do his thing.

For the Islanders, they could not ask for a better performance from veteran Semyon Varlamov, who had not played in a postseason game since 2014. After a strong series against the Florida Panthers in the Qualifying Rounds (.929 SV%, 1.75 GAA), Varlamov remained red-hot performing to a 1.6 GAA and a .938 SV% when this series was all said and done.

His confidence was as strong as ever, as he was aggressive on most shots, controlling his rebounds nicely while tracking the puck with ease.

Because of the defense he did not have to make brilliant save after brilliant save. But when called upon, he was there to shut the door more often than not, and that is all you can ask for.

3. Defensive Structure

Under head coach Barry Trotz the Islanders have flourished in the defensive-system that he has put in place. Back to back years, the Islanders were top-five in the league in goals-allowed because of this style of play.

In this series, the Islanders were able to shut down the Capitals and any game plan that their head coach Todd Reirden drew up (Besides Game 4 but that was a hiccup).

It was pure dominance.

What this defense does for this Islander team is a lot more than what people think. Because of how strong they were in their own zone, this gave Varlamov the chance to be successful. If he was being peppered with 30 plus shots per game, with scrambles in front of the net over and over again, I doubt we would be seeing the results we did from him and the team.

The ability to push shooters to the outside and block shots allowed Varlamov to stay calm in net and not have to make acrobatic saves each game.

Also what this defensive structure did was create offense. Their transitions were smooth, getting the puck out of their zone quickly in order to generate more offensive zone time.

In the final game of the series, a 4-0 dominance by the Islanders, the team from the island block 31 shots to the Capitals seven. They were able to steal eight pucks off Capitals’ sticks, using their anticipation and positioning to pick off passes. Throughout the series, the Islanders blocked a total of 97 shots, which averages out to 19.4 per game.

The Islanders are deadly when their defense can do what it did in this series. Again, this was against a dominant offensive team. While the team from D.C. was dormant through the first three games, waking up for Game 4, the Islanders were able to put them back to bed and kiss them goodnight, after one of their best defensive performances yet, in the series clincher.

Teams should be nervous to play the Islanders because a known weakness, their offensive, woke up at critical moments, while their defense may be the best in the entire National Hockey League.

They, the infamous they, states that defense wins championships. With their shutdown ability, the Islanders are going to make it tough on whoever they face in the second round, whether it be the Philadelphia Flyers or the Boston Bruins.