Islanders eager for second crack at the Lightning in NHL semifinals

The Islanders got this close last season, so they know how painful it is not to go further and play for the Stanley Cup.

They also always expected to have another shot.

The Islanders will open their NHL semifinal series against the defending Stanley Cup champion Lightning — who ousted them in six games in the Eastern Conference finals in the Edmonton bubble last season — on Sunday afternoon in Tampa, Florida.

The talk was of unfinished business after the Islanders beat the Bruins, 6-2, in the deciding Game 6 of their second-round series on Wednesday night at Nassau Coliseum.

"We think that we have a really good team," Matt Martin said after the Islanders practiced on Friday at Northwell Health Ice Center in East Meadow. "Whether we get the credit for that or not, we believe we have a good team.

"Coming into this season, we expected to be back here. It doesn’t always work out that way, because there’s a lot of good teams in this league. But as much as everyone has made us underdogs and thought last year was fluky, in our minds, we always thought from the beginning that we’re going to have another shot at this. And now, with four teams left, our job is to go out there and finish the finish. Our goal is to win a Stanley Cup, and anything short of that is going to be disappointing."

The Islanders have reached the NHL’s final four for a second straight season for the first time since they went that far from 1979-84. Their last of four straight Cups came in 1983.

"I think the expectations for every team each and every year is to be where we are today," Islanders president and general manager Lou Lamoriello said. "It’s how you approach it throughout the year, and the experience that our players had last year certainly puts that focus just in a little higher direction than it was the year before. So I think that I’m not surprised with that expectation and would be very disappointed if that expectation wasn’t there."

Both this season and last were played in different circumstances forced by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Lightning’s run to the Cup last season came in playoff bubbles in Toronto and Edmonton without fans in the arenas in August and September.

Fans are back in the home arenas now, but the NHL semifinals mark the first time this season that play has not been within the four divisions. The last time the Islanders and Tampa Bay met was the Lightning’s 2-1 overtime win in Game 6.

"I don’t know if it matters that much," Cal Clutterbuck said. "We’ve seen the same teams a lot of the time. But this is a familiar situation for both teams. It wasn’t that long ago that we found ourselves in this spot. There’s still a familiarity there, for sure."

"The first game is a reacquaintance," coach Barry Trotz said. "All the things that you knew about them goes into all those little adjustments. The first game, you’ll have an understanding, you’ll get a feel for the tone. The tone of how they’re playing and the feel of playing against the Tampa Bay Lightning versus the Boston Bruins."

So it is unfinished business with high expectations. But trying to avenge being eliminated by the Lightning last season is not the focus.

"We’re only halfway there," Josh Bailey said. "It wasn’t about Tampa Bay specifically. It’s just unfinished business and a sense of there’s still a long way to go and acknowledging we still see that and we’ve got to keep our foot on the gas."

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.