More NHL Playoffs: | | | | | PITTSBURGH -- Watching Wednesday's Eastern Conference quarterfinal game in Pittsburgh, it wasn't hard to figure out which team had a roster with nearly 1,200 games of collective postseason experience, and which one had fewer JaVale McGee Jersey than 200.The , entering the game with a roster that had 16 players making their postseason debut, looked completely overwhelmed and overmatched during their 5-0 lo s to the at the Consol Energy Center. They looked like a No. 8 seed that snuck in the playoffs on the last day of the season, and the game looked to be every bit as lopsided as a quick look at the two rosters might indicate.And this was a Pittsburgh team still playing without its best player -- and potentially the NHL MVP -- in , and that eventually lost its best goal-scoring winger ( ) during the game. "I didn't think we had the same work ethic and determination that we had over the past month," Islanders coach Jack Capuano said after the game.Coming into this series, Pittsburgh had a huge edge when it came to its forwards going up against New York's defense. For the Islanders to slow down what has been the highest-scoring team in the NHL over the past two years, they were going to need some spectacular play from veteran goalie , and he did not have a particularly fun game. After getting hit in the face by a one-timer early in the first period and appearing to be a little shaken up, he proceeded to give up four goals in le s than 25 minutes of hockey .Capuano insisted that Nabokov was not injured and said that he took him out because he wasn't going to leave him in there to get hung out to dry. Two of the goals weren't great ones, but he was under siege for most of the night as the Penguins came at the Islanders in waves and generated the best of the scoring chances on the night. The game was so lopsided that after two periods, even though the Penguins only had a marginal edge in shot differential, they held a 16-6 edge in scoring chances.There was little Nabokov, or any goalie, could do against that sort of performance."For most of the game we made it pretty easy on them," Islanders forward Matt Martin said. "If you do that theyre just going to run up the score on you." And that's pretty much what the Penguins did.Making matters worse for the Islanders was that their offense, one of the strengths of the team heading into the playoffs, was rarely -- if ever -- a threat to do anything. Most of their shots came from nearly 40 feet away and they couldn't seem to get close to the Pittsburgh net to make life uncomfortable for Penguins goalie .Everything was from the outside and Fleury had a clear view of just about everything the Islanders were able to direct at him.If Pittsburgh has a weakne s on this roster it just might be in net. Fleury entered the season under a bit of scrutiny after last year's dismal postseason showing against the Philadelphia Flyers and has been near the bottom of the NHL in playoff save percentage for each of the past three seasons. The best way to eliminate that weakne s if you're Pittsburgh is to not allow New York to get close to the net, which is exactly what it did on Wednesday night. And that includes completely shutting down one of the NHL's best players and leading MVP contenders, John Tavares. The Penguins managed to get Brandon Sutter's line out against Tavares much of the night and held the Islanders' young superstar Gail Goodrich Jersey to zero shots on goal during the game. Capuano said that games like Wednesday could serve as a good learning experience for a young team that's short on playoff experience."I actually thought we had some guys that played good games tonight," Capuano said. "But with our team, we need all 23 guys."If there's a positive for the Islanders here it's that it was just one game, and the series is a race to four wins, not one. The bad news is if they keep playing like this the series might really only be four games.
https://dallaswjvg19753.designi1.com/41945853/bruins-keen-on-keeping-jarome-iginla-after-strong-season
Click here