Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Islanders keeping the wild-card race interesting

The Eastern Conference wild card race has been an entertaining one down the stretch, even if we haven’t seen as many teams in it as it initially seemed with the likes of the Buffalo Sabres, the Ottawa Senators, the Detroit Red Wings, or even the Washington Capitals.

The New York Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Florida Panthers have still made it interesting, all within a point of each other with only three games left on their schedules. All three got into action on Thursday night, and all three came out on top with a victory to keep them in the hunt.

Matt Larkin and Steven Ellis talked about which of those three teams’ wins were more important and more about this playoff race on Daily Faceoff Live.

Steven Ellis: Just from a statistical standpoint, Pittsburgh, because they’re slightly lower in the standings there. But, I think for the Islanders because that was a team that we’ve talked about and we’ve said that it’s a group that could give the top teams some issues when the playoffs kick off. It’s a team that can shut you down and has good goaltending, and if one of those two teams make the playoffs, I feel more confident in the Islanders going farther, and a lot of that goes down to goaltending, and earlier in the week, there was the topic of Pittsburgh’s goaltending being an issue.

So, I think for the Islanders to go out there and beat Tampa Bay like that, that shows that that’s a tough playoff opponent, and that’s one that they’re going to have to deal with if they’re going to go far in the playoffs, or at least a team of that caliber. I think that was a good measuring stick, but you look at Pittsburgh, they kind of just need to win every single game at this point, both teams do. It’s been a rough go for the Penguins this year, and this could be their last real chance at it.

I know just from a “who makes it to being competitive” standpoint, I just think for the Islanders that was a good measuring stick, and they needed that, I just feel more confident anyways.

Matt Larkin: Yeah, I think we’re on the same page there. It was a big statement for the Islanders, especially because the knock on this team is supposedly is that they’re very boring and have trouble scoring, so the fact that they could put a six-spot up on Tampa Bay is encouraging. Like you said, the Penguins with one fewer point, they’re really up against it, they have to win out.

Interestingly, both teams have really easy schedules the rest of the way. The Islanders host Philly, at Washington, host Montreal, the Penguins host Detroit, Chicago, and at Columbus, so you can’t really look at one team’s schedule and say it’s going to be an easier road than the other. They’re both in good shape there.

But I agree as well about the Penguins looking like they’re not as exciting of a Wild Card team to get in. I’m just not confident, especially with that goaltending. It’s funny, I’ve had a lot of Penguins fans say to me “Hey, who knows where we could’ve gone last year if Tristan Jarry was healthy”, and I say “Did you see Tristan Jarry the year before against the Islanders in the playoffs?” I wouldn’t call him reliable, so no matter who’s in the net, whether it’s going to be Jarry assuming he can stay healthy, whether it’s Casey DeSmith, it’s a shaky situation for the Penguins. To me, it’s a lot more interesting if the Islanders do get in because of the Ilya Sorokin factor.

You can watch the full episode here…