Braydon Coburn has been in the NHL playoffs 11 times, appearing in 137 games for two teams, enough experience to know that he does not know anything about how to interpret late regular-season results.
"I’ve kind of seen it a number of different ways and it’s worked out a number of different ways," the Islanders defenseman, a former Flyer and Lightning, said after practice on Friday.
"I’ve been on teams that have played unreal toward the end the season, and then lay an egg right away [in the playoffs]."
The Islanders are hoping for the opposite of that, as the only thing "unreal" about their recent performance is that they have lost three games in a row to the two worst teams in the East Division — the Sabres and Devils.