3 reasons the New York Islanders didn't win the Stanley Cup

The New York Islanders are not going to be the Stanley Cup champions this season. They deserve a lot of praise for even getting into the playoffs but it didn't get them beyond round number one.

They took on the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round and were defeated in five games. To their credit, they played well early in their series but the talent of the Hurricanes played a big role in New York's demise.

Now, they will have to head into the off-season thinking about why they didn't win and address those needs. It isn't always an easy task as 31 teams end up wondering what could have been different.

These are the three biggest reasons that the Islanders won't be hoisting the Stanley Cup later in June:

The New York Islanders don't have enough offensive game-breakers

Mat Barzal is a very good player that can change a game. The Islanders have other good offensive players and goal scorers like Anders Lee, Kyle Palmieri, and Bo Horvat amongst others but none of them is elite.

The Hurricanes, and every other Cup contender, have elite offensive players who can make big-time plays at five-on-five at any point in time.

Even a few of the teams that didn't make the playoffs (Pittsburgh Penguins, Buffalo Sabres, and New Jersey Devils) have more offensive firepower than the Islanders.

This problem came out in the series against Carolina. With some of the chances that the Islanders were able to create, they didn't have enough skill to finish them off.

If New Jersey or Pittsburgh were in their shoes, Carolina might have had a tough start to the series but the Islanders weren't able to make them pay.