Since the Islanders dealt for Ondrej Palat last week, the Czech wing’s performance in the 2022 conference finals against the Rangers has been at the front of my mind.
The Rangers had gone up 2-0 in the series at home, and held a 2-1 lead in Tampa entering the third period of Game 3. They lost that game after Palat scored the winner with 42 seconds left, then lost the next three, with Palat accounting for seven points in total over the final four games.
That series was a great case study in what it takes to win deep in the playoffs, as was Palat’s performance, in particular. The Rangers, by the end, just had nothing left in the tank against a team that was built for attritional, physical playoff hockey (and, by the way, similar reasons were behind the Blueshirts’ loss to Florida in the conference final two years later).
I bring this up now because I am not sure the Islanders, as currently constructed, have those elements that are so crucial to win in the postseason.
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