Rob Simpson: Breaking Down Anders Lee’s Play in Game 4 | NYHN+

TORONTO — Finishing off a personal triple-feature of captains, we decided to handle a little Anders Lee Shift Diary after tracking Sidney Crosby and Sasha Barkov in earlier games for other branches of Hockey Now. The Isles top line has run a little hot and cold this series, with Lee being the coolest statistically (zero points, +2). Then again, he’s more of the “body” on the top line, with Matt Barzal and Jordan Eberle being the “talent”. That said, it didn’t stop Lee from cashing in with a 20-goal truncated regular season, following 34, 40, and 28 tallies the previous three years. The workhorse has six years left at $7-million per.

The Islanders showed up energetically to close out this series.

1st Period

0:35-1:30: Fast-moving shift. On an Isles dump-in, he raced in on the forecheck and delivered a gratuitous hit on MacKenzie Weegar after he had moved the puck. Anders Lee raced back to the neutral zone for the regroup off the Florida clear. At it again on the forecheck, he tied up Anton Stralman, knocked a puck loose, and created a mild scoring opportunity.

A lengthy break. With his line coming up, Isles went on the PK. They killed off Ryan Pukock’s tripping penalty.