from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

Now the Islanders exit the bubble. Now the Islanders, two years in a row in the playoffs under the direction of Lou Lamoriello and Barry Trotz — the conference semis last year, the conference finals this year — go into the offseason seeking to bridge the widest gap in pro sports:

That from contender to champion.

“There’s very few teams in any sport that have sort of put a group together and they’ve won a championship right away without, maybe, a little bit of failure along the way,” Trotz said before the contest. “I mean, you look at some of the great dynasties, you like at the dynasties of the Islanders when they won four straight. There was a lot of hardship on the front end before they ran four in a row. The same with the Edmonton dynasty, I look at Detroit of years past, there was a lot of hardship.

“And I just came from my former club [in Washington] that had a lot of heartbreak before we broke through. So there are a lot of lessons on the way and in understanding those lessons and being able to deal with them. Those are invaluable for organizations and individuals within your organization.”

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