Greiss had Carolina’s number all season, but Lehner got final call for Isles

New York Islanders coach Barry Trotz entered Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Friday night facing a difficult decision on his goaltending.

Robin Lehner, who lost Games 1, 2 and 3 to the Hurricanes, is one of the favorites to win the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s most outstanding goaltender. But he also entered the game with no wins in seven career games against Carolina.

Trotz stuck with Lehner, whose .930 save percentage during the regular season set a franchise record for goalies who played at least 21 games. And Lehner couldn’t break his winless streak against the Hurricanes, who completed the best-of-seven series sweep of the Islanders with a 5-2 win at PNC Arena.

The success Thomas Greiss had during the regular season against the Hurricanes made Trotz’s decision more difficult. Greiss was 3-1 against Carolina, which was held to one goal in each of the three losses to the Islanders. Greiss also had an excellent season in his own right with a 23-14-2 record while setting career bests in goals-against average (2.28), save percentage (.927) and shutouts (five).

“It was a really tough decision,” Trotz said. “In this series, goaltending really wasn’t the problem. It was goal scoring. I understand Greiss’s record. You guys (reporters) wrote about it. We knew about it. We just felt that I’m not going to put the blame on the goaltending because it wasn’t the problem in this series at all.”

There’s no easy way to explain why some teams have success against certain goaltenders in the playoffs. New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur is the NHL’s all-time regular-season wins leader, but the Hurricanes posted a 14-10 playoff record against him, including an epic finish with two late goals in a 4-3 Carolina win in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals in 2009. They even chased him from the net in Game 1 of the second round in 2006.

Sometimes, good goaltenders just can’t beat good opponents at the most important times. For the most part, Lehner had played well in the series. Carolina’s only goal in Game 1 came in overtime, and the Hurricanes scored just twice in Game 2. Lehner took responsibility for Justin Williams’ tiebreaking, third-period goal in Game 3 because his clearing pass was intercepted by Sebastian Aho.

But that was Lehner’s only serious mistake through three games in the series. And while he gave up three goals in 11 shots before being replaced in the second period, none of Carolina’s Game 4 goals could be blamed on Lehner.

Trotz replaced Lehner with Greiss after Carolina’s third goal with 8:43 remaining in the second period. But that was an effort to create a change in Lehner’s teammates rather than to blame the goalie.

“Those changes are for the team, not for Robin,” said Islanders forward Anders Lee. “He had nothing to do with that. It was more to find a fire, find a spark.”

The Islanders gained energy for a few minutes after the change, but Greiss ultimately didn’t fare much better than Lehner, as he gave up two goals on 10 shots. Lehner said there was no great secret to why the Hurricanes won.

He said Carolina was the better team.

“One of the best hockey teams in the league from Christmas moving forward,” he said. “Really hard to play against. They were really detailed. They work really hard. Obviously their leadership, Williams and [Jordan] Staal and [Justin] Faulk, and the high-end skill they have with Aho and [Teuvo] Teravainen and all those guys, they’re a [heck] of a hockey team. They beat us fair and square.”

Trotz said Carolina swept the series with the same tactics the Islanders used against Pittsburgh in a first-round series sweep. In each series, the winning team was able to frustrate the opponent with disciplined defense, hard work, and opportunistic five-on-five play.

Like Carolina, the Islanders overachieved after coming into this season as an underdog under a new coach. Their success caused the Islanders to recalibrate their expectations, which rose dramatically after the sweep of the Penguins.

After the loss, it wasn’t easy for them to accept that it was over after all they had accomplished as the best defensive team in the league during the regular season.

“It’s a long journey to this point,” Lee said. “You work so hard to get in this position and give yourself an opportunity to keep playing, and to have it end like this, it’s hard.”

This story was originally published May 3, 2019 at 11:21 PM.