This is a perennial power against an upstart.
The Penguins have won three Stanley Cups over the past decade, and they surprised this season by struggling to gain any traction until a late push that could have been expected from Sidney Crosby & Co. The Islanders have managed to win just one playoff series going back to 1993, and the most recent of four straight Stanley Cups came in 1983, well before almost everyone on the team was born.
So these two teams meeting in the first round, with Game 1 on Wednesday night at the Coliseum, is not just a played-up storyline of David versus Goliath, but a real one.