from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

They took the semifinals and the defending champs to the limit, to Game 7, to the final frenzied minute, in which the Islanders swarmed around and in front of Andrei Vasilevskiy’s net, desperately looking for the puck and the bounce that could extend their magic carpet ride into one more overtime.

But the puck never came, neither did the bounce, nor did the goal. For the second straight season, a loss in the semifinals. For the second straight season, a loss to the Lightning. For the second straight year, heartache on the Island.

It was 1-0 in this Game 7, perhaps the cruelest score of all, which was manufactured in the cruelest way imaginable. Because it was a Yanni Gourde shorthanded goal in the second minute of the second period that did the Islanders dirty, Tampa Bay exploiting their one significant weakness.

That weakness? The Islanders’ power play, which went 1-for-17 in the series and thus finished the seven-game joust no more than even for its 24:15 of work. It always finds you, doesn’t it?

Of course, the Islanders should be proud of themselves.

continued