How Islanders stack up against Lightning in 2021 NHL semifinals

The Islanders and Lightning meet again, this time during another season unlike any other. Their Stanley Cup semifinals series, which begins Sunday in Tampa, Fla., will be a rematch of the playoff battle in the Edmonton bubble last September, in which the Lightning defeated the Islanders in six games on the way to their first Stanley Cup title in 16 years. Head coach Barry Trotz memorably said at the start of this season that he’d have visions of that loss to Tampa Bay on his deathbed, but now he and the Islanders have earned an opportunity to rewrite the script.

“I think we feel like we still have some unfinished business,” Josh Bailey said stoically after the Islanders’ series-clinching win over the Bruins in Game 6 Wednesday night. Let’s not forget, the Lightning soundly defeated the Bruins in five games in Round 2 last postseason, which gave them ample time to rest up as the Islanders were forced into a Game 7 by the Flyers. The Isles had just one day in between Game 7 against Philadelphia and Game 1 against the Lightning to travel to Edmonton.