The Islanders are living in the moment, what with an important playoff task at hand and important free agent matters to come this summer.
But a subplot with longer-range implications also will play out in the coming days and perhaps weeks: How will young Mathew Barzal, their most dynamic young player, take to postseason pressure?
He is 21 and the sort of foundational piece a team might want to build around for many springs to come.
The Penguins have young talent, too, in the teams’ first-round playoffs series, but it was difficult not to notice in Game 1 that their biggest names are closer to their playoff expiration dates than to their playoff debuts.