Round 3 Preview: Tampa Bay Lightning vs. New York Islanders

Halfway through a post-season filled with upsets, it’s almost fitting that we wind up in an identical position as last year. Not a lot has changed for the two teams facing off in (what amounts to) the Eastern Conference Finals in the past season; despite overwhelming cap crunches for both teams, a bit of creativity has kept their lineups mostly intact and both squads face off at mostly full strength.

The Lightning have shrugged off an underwhelming regular season sans Nikita Kucherov to power through two of the more exciting upstart teams in the league without ever facing elimination, while the Islanders have twice casually knocked off a heavily favoured opponent in six games. Where do these two teams stand entering this rematch? How do they match up stylistically? What might be some x-fact