Mike Sullivan and Barry Trotz have to stop meeting like this.
When the Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins were paired against each other for their first round Stanley Cup playoff series, it marked the fourth consecutive year that the two coaches will have faced off in the postseason. Sullivan’s Penguins beat Trotz’s Washington Capitals in 2016 and 2017, before Trotz’s Caps finally turned things around last spring.
Oh, and for good measure, the winner of each of those series won the Stanley Cup.
Of course, Trotz left the Capitals last summer to take the Islanders job, but even though he doesn’t have an Alexander Ovechkin on his roster with the Isles, the two coaches know each other well enough to know what they are up against in this series.