RD1 Preview ECQF 1) NYI vs 8) BUF

[mbeauchamp76]

Islanders win the Presidents trophy for the 2nd year in a row and make it to the playoffs for 3 years straight after looking from the outside for the previous 8 years. What does that mean now? Absolutely nothing. With the Islanders taking an early exit last year at the hands of the Rangers in 7 games nothing is taken for granted. Can Lundy shutdown the Sabres top line? Will Brodeur shine again in the post season for one last time? The Sabres actually match up very well against the Islanders splitting the 4 game series albeit all games being 9 days apart towards the end of the season. Both teams are healthy going in. Last year the Rangers took 4 key players out during the 1st round rivalry match-up so we are hoping to stay healthy. Buffalo showed are marked improvement from last years 12th place finish increasing their point total by 13 points so they will be hungry.

[Da_Chief]

Can the Isles do it 2 years in a row?

[looooob]

Great summary sorry for the delayed reply as we are out of town. While we are certainly big underdogs, we feel we match up well in several ways, including the split of the season series. We have comparable offence, special teams and front line players. alot of it will seem to boil down to defence/goaltending, but we are hopefully Marty can elevate his game in the 2nd season.