Young stars shine, goaltending and officiating was an afterthought, and "structure" was the word of the night.
We covered the game details and turning points of the New York Islanders' 4-1 Game 1 win over the Washington Capitals in the earlier post. Now here are some themes -- narratives if you will -- and underlying currents that were noticeable in Game 1 and could become a thing as the series goes on.
"The story" of any series is quite subjective and turns on, well, the sequence of things: A guy who scores two game-winning goals but goes scoreless in the other five games is still a "clutch" or at least memorable hero.