The other side: From Islanders, no trash talk necessary after sweeping Penguins

Some of the quotes coming out the Penguins locker room were illuminating. The same could be said about comments in the Islanders room. New York finished off a sweep of the Penguins last night. And trash talk was minimal because when you beat a team that easily, is it necessary?

But there was a level of self-fulfilling truth and simplicity to some of what the Islanders had to say after the series-clinching 3-1 win over the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena Tuesday night.

Take in some of these quotes via Andrew Gross of Newsday.

Goaltender Robin Lehner: “We have a good team and we’ve been overlooked a little bit because we have a lot of high-end skill on this team and we showed that this series.”

Indeed. That’s the song I have been singing for four games. Coming into this series, the Islanders (particularly the forwards) have far more skill than those of us in Pittsburgh — and across many NHL markets — suggested.

Who is most to blame for the Penguins' first-round playoff sweep?

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And that skill manages to blossom often enough to win frequently despite the fact it is corralled by a defense-first approach.

Captain Anders Lee on the series victory: “It probably happened a little bit quicker than most people thought.”

No. It happened a helluva lot faster than everyone thought it would.

Brett Cyrgalis of the New York Post summed it up this way: “As the Islanders head home with soft smirks on their collective faces, they can look in the rearview mirror and see the rest of the NHL left slack-jawed. … Under the stewardship of first-year head coach Barry Trotz, they played a defensive game that sucked the life out of the Penguins, utterly frustrating a team lined with championship pedigree. The Islanders suffered very few down moments, very few weak spots, and showed nothing but more group resolve.”

Ick. Even the New York self-satisfied dismissiveness hurts because it’s just so darned accurate.

Here’s one from New York coach Barry Trotz after the game, in NHL.com: “If this was Game 7, I wouldn’t be surprised. We just found ways to keep the puck out of our net when it was all said and done.”

He’s right. They were up 3-0, and after giving up an early goal in Game 4, they treated the rest of the game like it was do-or-die, and they did everything the right way, all the time.

Trotz also put a bow on the 2019 turnaround for the Islanders. And it’s a perspective the Penguins could absorb.

“We knew that we could fix the goals against (the Islanders went from worst-to-first in that category this season); that’s commitment and that’s work ethic and that’s detail and structure. We could fix that, that probably was the easiest thing. But getting everybody to play for each other is the hard thing.”

No kidding. Tell us about it, Barry.