The Islanders do not have too decorated a history when faced with the situation they are currently in.
Fourteen times since their inception in 1972 have the Islanders gone down 2-0 in a best-of-seven playoff series. They’ve come back to win just three times, the last of which came in 1984.
You can add a fourth playoff comeback to the pile if you include best-of-five, courtesy of the 1985 first-round victory over Washington, but since then, the Islanders have only even forced a winner-take-all Game 7 (or Game 5) once after dropping the first two games of a series. That was all the way back in 2002, when Kip Miller and Mariusz Czerkawski scored 38 seconds apart in the third period to seal Game 6 against against the Maple Leafs and send the series back to Toronto, where heartbreak awaited.
These Islanders, who face a 2-0 deficit against Carolina after letting a superior Game 1 performance and a 3-0 Game 2 lead go to waste in Raleigh, do not look on paper as if they are going to break a streak that now spans 40 springs.
