Pretty much out of coincidence, the third line constructed by Patrick Roy 20 days ago, which has stayed intact through the playoffs, just so happened to be made up of players who had been the object of frustration this season.
Anders Lee and Jean-Gabriel Pageau both struggled to get going at the start of the year — the captain’s game looking a little slow and Pageau taking 21 games to score.
Pierre Engvall’s battle level has been inconsistent enough that he was a healthy scratch three times by two different coaches who were trying to get him to apply his 6-foot-5 frame into a weapon on the ice.
So wouldn’t you know it, the Frustration Line jelled quickly upon being put together and has been the Islanders’ best trio of the postseason, with a 63.45 expected goals percentage and 11-2 margin on high-danger chances buttressed by an utterly dominant Game 4 performance.
“Did I look pumped?” Pageau said afterwards of his third-period power-play goal.
Yes, in fact, he did.
“My game’s not always scoring goals or making points,” he said. “It’s more to that than winning my battles, winning my faceoffs, be strong with the puck, but it’s definitely fun. I was happy to score that goal. That puck doesn’t go in if Engvall doesn’t win his battle on the faceoff, Leesy jumped and won his battle. [Noah Dobson] puts the puck on net. I just had to put it in.”
Pageau, who notched his first playoff goal since Game 4 against Boston in 2021, was an absurd 19 of 23 at the dots.
Lee, who has led the Islanders in battle level during the playoffs, notched a secondary assist and got in Dmitry Orlov’s face after the defenseman tossed an elbow at the end of the first overtime period.
Engvall, who beat out two icings that the referees missed early in the game, put in an excellent 24:23 of ice time, winning puck after puck along the walls and in dirty areas.
“I feel like they’ve probably been our most consistent line the entire series,” Mat Barzal said. “Pierre and Leesy on the wings being down low and holding on to the puck and making plays, I feel like they’ve been our most consistent line. Last night giving us lots of energy on the bench with them holding the puck down low, playing their cycle game and whatnot. They’ve been awesome in every game.”
The Islanders have talked of Pageau’s line for much of the year as a matchup unit and it has yet to happen. Roy compared them to Carolina’s third line, centered by Jordan Staal, on Sunday but even with home ice, the Islanders’ coach did not play a matchup game. In the 3-2 double-overtime victory in Game 4, Pageau saw 6:04 of ice against Staal, 6:40 against Jesperi Kotkaniemi, 4:54 against Sebastian Aho.
Roy was, however, dead on when he called the trio, “a line that can play any situation: having faceoff in your own zone, having key-moment faceoff [at] end of periods or when the other team starts to create a bit of a buzz, make a push. Having them slowing down, winning the draw, that was a huge thing [Saturday] afternoon.”
It is a huge thing going forward as well, with the Islanders looking to extend their season another few days by winning Game 5 on Tuesday and sending the series back to Long Island.
“I don’t know if we can call them the third line,” Roy said. “The way they’ve been playing — Pageau, Lee and Engvall — they’ve been scoring goals and they’ve been playing really well offensively, defensively. They’ve been very reliable.”
How about the Frustration Line? Surely that must be how it feels to play against them right now.
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