A look at a key matchup in the first-round playoff series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders.
Even as they’ve squared off in each of the past four postseasons, coaches Mike Sullivan and Barry Trotz have routinely professed respect for each other.
We’ll see how well that holds up over the next two weeks as the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders square off in a first-round series that begins Wednesday night.
“I think we have a good respect for each other,” Trotz said earlier this season. “The rivalry is you want your team to beat the other team. There’s no ill will or anything like that. He’s a fantastic coach. He’s won a couple of rings with this group, and they play hard every night.”
Trotz is a candidate for the Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year. He left Washington after leading the Capitals to a championship, took over an Islanders team that had the worst defense in the league and turned it into the best.
Sullivan has earned his paycheck this season, as well. He took a team turning in maddeningly inconsistent performances throughout much of the season and got it to clamp down defensively in the last six weeks.
When the coaches met last season, Trotz pushed all the right buttons for the Capitals. With Tom Wilson suspended, he needed to try to slot in different wingers on his team’s top line. He settled on Jakub Vrana, who had a three-point night in a pivotal Game 5, including the tiebreaking goal in the third period.
Sullivan tried different wingers alongside Jake Guentzel and Sidney Crosby in an effort to squeeze another goal or two out of his team’s top line but never found a combination that clicked.
Trotz and Sullivan are two of five NHL coaches in the playoff hunt with a Stanley Cup championship on their resume. The others are Nashville’s Peter Laviolette, Columbus’ John Tortorella and Toronto’s Mike Babcock.
