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Playoff Preview 2019
We have what you need to be ready for the best time of the year with our Playoff Preview! We break down every team with analysis, predictions, projected line combos and fantasy player rankings. Also, we've got features on what the 2004 Lightning Cup champs can teach this year's squad, why our 2019 Cup pick was four years in the making, how the Capitals plan to repeat, and profiles on Mark Giordano, Frederik Andersen and Mark Stone, and much more.
NEW YORK ISLANDERS
UNDER THE NEW leadership of GM Lou Lamoriello, coach Barry Trotz and goalie guru Mitch Korn, the Islanders have made a remarkable about-face in just one season. Last year, New York was the worst defensive team in the league; this season, it’s been the best. Netminders Robin Lehner and Thomas Greiss put up some of the NHL’s best save percentages, with both contributing shutouts, so it’s not just about the guys in front of them (though they’ve been good, too). Trotz’s structure has been the guiding light defensively, while Korn has helped unlock something special in the goalies. Far from relying on one player or line for offense, the Islanders have spread the love around. The famous fourth line of Casey Cizikas between Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck continues to contribute,…
PICK YOUR PLAYOFF POISON
IT’S TEMPTING TO CALL the Southern Professional League’s first-round playoff format a gimmick. The Challenge Round, in which the top four seeds draft or “challenge” opponents from the bottom four seeds to a best-of-three series, is a gimmick in that’s a lot of fun. But Year 1 of the idea also showed it’s deceptively complicated for every team awarded the power to pick. Last year, after the regular season ended, the SPHL broadcast a live Challenge Round selection show, complete with teams sealing their opponent picks in envelopes and then-commissioner Jim Combs enduring a playful chorus of boos from the fans before each reveal. Top-seeded Peoria played it safe picking No. 8 seed Roanoke, but No. 2 seed Macon chose the team against which it had the best season record: No.…
HOMETOWN HERO
IT’S AN INFECTIOUS, EXCITED chuckle, exuding a happiness reserved for the recounting of a truly special memory, and it escapes from Hayley Scamurra as she relives the moment a dream came true. It was after Game 3 of the Canada-USA Rivalry Series, Scamurra recalls, that she made her way to the front of Team USA’s charter bus after she was summoned by coach Bob Corkum. She knew she had played well during the three-game exhibition, some of the best hockey of her life, each shift as if she had nothing to lose. So, as she moved along the narrow walkway towards Corkum, she was hopeful that he was about to deliver good news. And that he did. No further deliberation necessary. The staff had seen enough. Scamurra was World Championship-bound, a…
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
THE MOST SUCCESSFUL period in the Preds’ 20-season history continues. They nabbed their first berth in the Cup final in 2016-17 and their first Presidents’ Trophy in 2017-18. This season marks their first five-year playoff streak. Few teams have a more consistent and defined identity. We know the many things they do well and the few things they don’t. Defense remains the hallmark. The team boasts one of the five lowest goals-against averages for a second straight year and still ices the NHL’s best top four on ‘D.’ No one can trump Roman Josi and Ryan Ellis plus Mattias Ekholm and P.K. Subban. The quartet is so dominant that even its least flashy guy, Ekholm, has a strong Norris Trophy case, swallowing up opposing forwards with his massive wingspan and generating…
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