Recap:
The Islanders concluded their regular season schedule with a 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. The team will open Stanley Cup playoffs with a first-round series against the Florida Panthers.
Three Stars
1st Star: Michael Raffl (1G, 2A)
2nd Star: Evgeny Medvedev (1G, 1A)
3rd Star: Calvin de Haan (2A)
Team Notes:
• New York finished the season with a 45-27-10 record (100 points)
• The Islanders finish the regular season 10-3-2 at home since the All-Star Break
• A first-round playoff schedule will be released later tonight. Tickets for Games 3, 4 and 6 at Barclays Center are now on sale at Islanders.nhl.com
Player Notes:
• Ryan Pulock(2A) recorded his first multi-point game.
• Ross Johnston (1A) made his NHL debut.
• Calvin de Haan (2A) recorded his first multi-point game of the season.
• Thomas Greiss made 7 saves in 20 minutes of action; Christopher Gibson made 15 saves in relief.
• Nikolay Kulemin and Matt Martin recorded the goals for New York
• Martin finished the regular season as the NHL hits leader (365)
Jack Capuano:
On the game: “The one thing about that game, it’s a tough game to coach because it’s almost like a preseason game. Granted, we were a little bit gunshy with all the injuries we have. We didn’t penalty kill the guys that we normally penalty kill. Those are decisions that I made as a coach and we make as a staff and we move forward. There are things in our game that we need to revisit and talk about.”
On Hamonic: “We’ll see how he skates tomorrow. He has skated the past couple days. Again, we want to make sure he is 100% and that he is ready to go before we make that decision.”
On Florida: “It’s been such a long week, the 5 in 7. We got prepared in the last two or three days once we found out it was either Pittsburgh or Florida and got all the tape we needed. It was just a matter of time before we knew who we were going to play before we started breaking it down.”
Cal Clutterbuck:
On the playoffs: Obviously it’s just another level and you’re playing one team over the course of seven games, the little things you do in game one can come back and hurt you and help you in game seven. It’s a marathon, not a sprint against this one team, I think the team who wears the other one down the quickest is the one who wins.”
On the team: “I feel like we’ve been playing well in these last couple weeks going in here. We had to win some big games coming down the stretch and we did that. I think we’re treading in the right direction. Always confident in our group.”
Thomas Hickey:
On the Florida Panthers: “There a good team, they won their division. It’s a tough division over there and they found a way to get the most points of any team. A lot of respect for them, good mitts on their back end, good style of puck movers and big bodies.”
Dave Hakstol (PHI Head Coach):
On playing Washington: “We like our group. I’m not here to make any predictions, I never have all year. We feel good about our group and our room. Very very tight knit, competitive group now we have a couple of days to get ourselves ready. First of all to get a day of rest and then to start preparing for the start of the series in the middle of the week.”
On the playoffs: “Every night is so competitive. The parity from one night to the next, there’s a lot of challenges that you face as a team going thorough an 82 game season. From some of the bumps in the road in terms of scheduling that you run into. When you watch what the players go through on a regular basis to stay healthy and to stay in the line up… The parity in the league is tremendous.”
Jakub Voracek (PHI Forward):
On the game: “I think we played a pretty good game. I would say it’s a good win for us, for confidence, and now we have to get prepared for Washington.”
On the playoffs/ playing the Capitals: “We all know who’s the best team in the league (Washington). I think we played them well all four games. We have to make sure we are gonna be checking them well because they get a lot of power-play points.”
