2019 series sweep not on mind of Penguins as they prepare for Islanders

It has been 43 days since the Pittsburgh Penguins faced the New York Islanders and 102 days since the teams completed a stretch of six meetings over a span of about three weeks.

Then again, it has been 756 days since the longtime division rivals met in the postseason. For the Penguins, they would prefer 756 years have passed than to think about that humiliating four-game sweep again.

“Every season is a new season,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “And this is a new team.”

It is, and although the 2021 Penguins are facing a familiar foe when it begins what it hopes is a Stanley Cup run, it is one that tortured them two years ago. The Penguins managed just six goals in losing four straight.

“Any time you play a team like the Islanders that are structured so well and play so well defensively, it’s always going to be the … type of game where you have to have such patience,” said wing Bryan Rust, one of 10 current Penguins players who took part in the 2019 Islanders series. “You’ve got to do those little things, and you’ve got to pay attention to details because any little thing that could go wrong or any mistake you make could end up in the back of your net.

“And there aren’t too many opportunities, too many goals, in games like that.”

Goals have been a little easier to come by for the Penguins this season against New York. They had 26 in eight games, winning six of them.

Then again, the Islanders team the Penguins will host at a yet-to-be-determined time and date for Game 1 aren’t the same ones they saw when they last met March 29 at PPG Paints Arena.

New York was 22-8-4 and in first place before coming to Pittsburgh for a two-game series that final week of March. The Islanders, though, had just four regulation wins among their final 16 games of the season. They finished the season in a 6-7-3 swoon that dropped them from first to fourth place in the East Division.

The Islanders also added a pair of veteran forwards in Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac. The deadline deal that acquired them was made, in part, because of the season-ending loss of captain Anders Lee to injury.

A day after he channeled his inner Mike Tomlin by making a “get on the moving train” reference, Sullivan might as well have used another Tomlinism — “nameless gray faces” — in articulating his reaction to the differences in the Islanders’ lineup since their early-season meetings.

“As far as personnel is concerned,” Sullivan said during a video conference call with media Tuesday, “my experience playing against them is that it really doesn’t matter who gets plugged into their lineup. They have developed a certain identity that they believe in, and it has brought them success.”

It’s an identity that led the Islanders to four series wins over the previous two postseasons. That’s four more than the Penguins have in that time.

“Just in general, I think they are a tough team,” wing Kasperi Kapanen said.

“It’s going to be a tight series.”

Keep up with the Pittsburgh Penguins all season long.