By Matt Vensel
April 11, 2019
UNIONDALE, N.Y. — Put yourself in the skates of a Penguins defenseman for a few seconds.
Why only a few? Well, that’s how much time the New York Islanders give you to sprint from your blue line into the corner, retrieve a skittering puck then snap it onto an open teammate’s blade before getting clobbered by one of the two forwards being deployed as Penguin-seeking missiles.
As you get back onto your feet, try to ignore those New Yorkers pounding the glass.
“I think that’s probably the biggest thing … making the decision quicker,” Nick Bjugstad said. “They’re going to want to bump you. That’s their game. Obviously, they have a good forecheck and that was visible [in Wednesday’s 4-3 overtime loss].”
Added Bryan Rust: “We just need to simplify. … They had a lot of energy. The crowd is roaring. They’re flying around and hitting everything. It’s nothing that we haven’t seen before.”
No, what the Islanders did to pester and punish them in a Game 1 was not some schematic breakthrough scribbled on a whiteboard in the wee hours Wednesday, leading a sleepy-eyed Barry Trotz to deliriously shout “Eureka!” at a desk plant. Their forecheck need not be clever to be effective.
“It’s exactly what you see,” Rust said. “They come hard, they come fast and they come together.”
It starts with the Islanders crossing the red line then lobbing a puck into a corner. Then two speedy forwards charge in as a defenseman digs the puck out. The forecheckers are about a stick’s length apart, forcing that defenseman to quickly move the puck up the wall or behind his net.
Whether or not he makes the right decision and a good pass, that guy is probably going to get drilled. Islanders forwards threw 32 hits Wednesday, many of them coming in their offensive zone.
“They come hard. They’re always in the right position. They’re very disciplined. It’s tough to beat,” Justin Schultz said. “We’ve got to get back quick and move the puck up to our forwards.”
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