Carolina Hurricanes vs New York Islanders Prediction: Famous Desire to Play in Defense

Prediction for the NHL Carolina Hurricanes vs New York Islanders match which will take place on April 18th. Who will turn out to be stronger? Check the team conditions! Several betting options are available. 

Carolina continues to progress under Rod Brind'Amour's leadership. He got the team in a bad state when it was a hopeless outsider of the league, but in a few years, the Hurricanes turned into one of the genuine candidates for the Stanley Cup. In the regular season that ended, the Hurricanes looked very good. In the last two meetings, Carolina won over Detroit and Florida – 4:1 and 6:4, which made it possible to guarantee second place in the Eastern Conference standings.

The completed regular season was challenging for the Islanders, but they could not afford to stay without the playoffs for the second year. The New York team was outside the cup eight for a long time but fixed the situation. They played especially strongly, starting from the second half of March. In the last 13 meetings, Lane Lambert's wards have won eight times with five defeats, enough to finish in seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings, while the Islanders should thank Pittsburgh, which gave them a chance for the playoffs.

Carolina and the Islanders will play in different forms. The Hurricanes have solved all the tasks for a long time. Therefore, at the finish of the regular season, they could afford to rotate the lineup, systematically preparing for the start of cup battles. The Islanders did not have anything like this until the last games they fought for the playoffs so they may lack strength already in the series debut. Moreover, the Hurricanes have won the previous three games with a total score of 10:3.

Do not expect a high-scoring performance from the upcoming match. Carolina and the Islanders are two teams famous for their desire to play reliably in defense, achieving a positive result in a highly pragmatic manner. According to the regular season results, the Hurricanes and the Islanders joined the top 5 regarding the number of goals.