For the second straight year, the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Islanders will meet in the first round of the post-season. The latter will once again hope for the upset, while the former will look to repeat history, Rod Brind’Amour’s squad having bounced the Islanders in six games last year to kick off a run that ended in the Conference Final.
The two clubs arrive at the Round 1 reunion having navigated opposing paths to the playoffs. Rewind a month and these Isles sat outside the playoff picture, with teams to leap if even a wild-card spot would be grabbed. The Canes, meanwhile, sat right where they are now, locked into the Metro’s No. 2 spot, trying to move up and take the crown.
For Lou Lamoriello’s Islanders, it’s been a tumultuous campaign, one that brought a mid-season coaching change, the arrival of the ever-entertaining Patrick Roy at the helm, and a late surge that saw the Isles collect the sixth-most points in the league over the past month.
On the other side of the ring, there’s Carolina. Fresh off that Conference Final run, and three straight years of being crowned division champs, the Canes roll into the 2024 playoffs once again looking to make good on their elite contender potential. Some shrewd additions at the trade deadline have them primed for progress, which means the Islanders figure to have their hands full come Round 1.
Case in point: Over that same month-long stretch that saw the Isles rack up points and march back into the playoff picture, no one won more, or collected more points, than the red-hot Hurricanes.
Hurricanes Outlook: The Hurricanes are half a decade into being considered a bona fide top-tier contender, and are hungry to finally earn their first trip to the Stanley Cup Final since they lifted the thing back in ’06. Brind’Amour needs no reminder of what it would mean for the Canes faithful to get there again, having captained the squad that last made the leap.
But these Hurricanes feel different, more offensively dynamic. Their best have gotten better, and a group that already had some impressive depth has had two blue-chip talents in Jake Guentzel and Evgeny Kuznetsov dropped into the mix. The team they’re going up against is built around incredible goaltending depth, with Semyon Varlamov rolling at the moment, and the elite Ilya Sorokin waiting behind him. But these Canes seem to have enough firepower to nullify that advantage. And, let’s not forget, they’re getting some grade-A goaltending themselves, with Frederik Andersen sporting a .951 save percentage, with three shutouts, in the 10 games since he returned to the cage.
Carolina looks primed for another deep run, particularly after loading up at the deadline, and should have all they need to get by the Islanders and back into Round 2.
Islanders Outlook: The Islanders were going to have an uphill battle in the first round no matter where they ended up finishing, but drawing the Canes should feel especially unlucky. They’re going up against a team that’s seemingly put it all together of late, a team getting elite performances all over their lineup, and sporting one of the league’s best goal differentials as a result.
Still, we need only look back to last year’s post-season to get a reminder of the perils of overlooking the underdogs, the 2023 Florida Panthers proving that once you claw your way into the playoffs, anything can happen. Anybody has a puncher’s chance. These Islanders don’t have quite the pedigree those Panthers did, but they do have one thing in common: they’ve spent the past few weeks playing desperate, playoff-style hockey as they’ve fought to lock up a spot in the dance.
If they have any chance against Carolina, it’ll come down to that momentum, and their elite goaltending holding the Hurricanes at bay.
ADVANCED STATS
(5-on-5 totals via Natural Stat Trick)
REGULAR SEASON TEAM STATS
Hurricanes X-Factor: Few deadline acquisitions pan out as well as Guentzel joining the Hurricanes. The long-time Pittsburgh Penguin has fit like a dream since arriving in Raleigh. In 17 games as a member of the Canes, the 29-year-old has put up eight goals and 25 points, thriving on a line with Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis. Not only has he been a perfect fit, he’s in fact been Carolina’s best forward since his debut on March 12 — in the month since, Guentzel’s led all Hurricanes skaters in scoring, and stitched together an eight-game point streak, the longest by any Canes player this season.
That quick offensive success aside, it’s in the playoffs where Carolina will get their money’s worth, as that's where Guentzel truly thrives. The 2017 Cup champ has 34 goals to his name in 58 career playoff tilts, and he’s a point-per-game player in the post-season overall. The last time he went on a deep run, he paced the league with 13 goals in 25 games as his Pens lifted the Cup.
Islanders X-Factor: For the past two seasons, and much of this one, the Islanders’ net has been Sorokin’s to lose. The 28-year-old has established himself as one of the premier netminders in the game, and entered this season fresh off a sterling 2022-23 campaign that saw him lead the league in shutouts, put up a .924 save percentage, and earn a Vezina nomination. But 2023-24 has been a more uneven season for the Isles stalwart, Sorokin heading into the final stretch with a .908 save percentage, his fewest shutouts since joining the Islanders, and his fewest wins.
In his place, Varlamov has emerged as New York’s game-changer. While the cage was Sorokin’s for much of the year, it’s largely been all Varlamov for the past month, with the veteran starting eight of the team’s past 12 games. He’s gone 8-3-1 with a .922 save percentage in his most recent stretch of games, earning wins over playoff-bound clubs like Winnipeg, Florida, Nashville and the Presidents' Trophy-winning New York Rangers. And Varlamov’s been particularly hot over the first couple weeks of April — in his past five games, the netminder’s unbeaten, has a shutout to his name (against the Preds) and is sporting a .945 save percentage, having allowed just eight goals on 146 shots.
POSSIBLE GAME 1 LINEUPS
Carolina Hurricanes
Jake Guentzel-Sebastian Aho-Seth Jarvis
Andrei Svechnikov-Evgeny Kuznetsov-Marty Necas
Jordan Martinook-Jordan Staal-Stefan Noesen
Jack Drury-Jesperi Kotkaniemi-Teuvo Teravainen
Jaccob Slavin-Brent Burns
Brady Skjei-Brett Pesce
Dmitry Orlov-Jalen Chatfield
Frederik Andersen
NY Islanders
Casey Cizikas-Bo Horvat-Mathew Barzal
Simon Holmstrom-Brock Nelson-Kyle Palmieri
Anders Lee-J.G. Pageau-Pierre Engvall
Matt Martin-Kyle MacLean-Cal Clutterbuck
Alexander Romanov-Noah Dobson
Adam Pelech-Ryan Pulock
Mike Reilly-Robert Bortuzzo
Semyon Varlamov
COMMENTS
When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.