3 Keys: Islanders vs. Lightning, Game 1 of Eastern Conference Final

No. 6 Islanders vs. No. 2 Lightning
8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS

The Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Islanders will play Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Monday.
The Lightning eliminated the Boston Bruins in the second round in five games to reach the conference final for the fourth time in six seasons. This will be their first game since Aug. 31. Tampa Bay last reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2015.
The Islanders did not announce whether Semyon Varlamov or Thomas Greiss would start in goal in Game 1. Andrei Vasilevskiy will start for the Lightning.
The Islanders advanced to the conference final for the first time since 1993 with a 4-0 win against the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 7. They last made the Cup Final in 1984.
The team that wins Game 1 is 488-221 (68.8 percent) winning a best-of-7 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff series, including 10-2 in the first two rounds this season.
Here are 3 keys for Game 1:

1. Shake off any rust

It's been a week since the Lightning have played, so they'll need to quickly find that playoff intensity going up against a team coming off an emotional seven-game series.
"I think it's a good thing if you use it the right way," forward Blake Coleman said. "Obviously, we've had some time to rest, but you want to stay mentally engaged and keep that competitive level up and we've tried to do that through practices. Really, it falls on the players to keep yourself ready and in that game mode, so there shouldn't be much rust. Obviously, we've been on the ice and practicing, so I think it's more about using our rest and we should be humming in Game 1."

2. Playing on adrenaline

The Islanders may have some fatigue after playing Game 7 on Saturday in Toronto, the Eastern hub city, then traveling Sunday to Edmonton, the hub city for the conference finals and Cup Final. But a long postseason layoff did not benefit them last season, when they swept the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round, then had nine days off before starting the second round against the Carolina Hurricanes, who swept them.
"We're an excited group, and I think you could feel it in the dressing room this morning," center Casey Cizikas said. "Guys are eager and ready to go and at the drop of that puck, you're going to see a determined team out there."

3. Cooper meets Trotz again

This is the second time in three seasons Lightning coach Jon Cooper and Islanders coach Barry Trotz will meet in the conference final. Trotz and the Washington Capitals rallied to win the series in 2018 after Tampa Bay won Games 3, 4 and 5 to take a 3-2 lead. Washington went on to win the Stanley Cup.
"Barry doesn't play the exact system he used in Washington," Cooper said. "Yes, there's similarities, but he's got a different team. The one common theme with the two teams is that they both win. When you're coaching [against] a Barry Trotz team, you have to be ready to be in the fight for the full 60 minutes. There's no taking times off, there's no for a coach and players having mental lapses during the game or taking your foot off the pedal, because they play a solid, strong game for 60. It took him a little time to get that going in Washington, but when he did, you obviously saw what happened.
"He's a great guy to be in the trenches with and coach against because he keeps you on your toes. I enjoy going up against him just because they're tough games and he does a [heck] of a job with his teams."

Islanders projected lineup

Anders Lee -- Mathew Barzal -- Jordan Eberle
Anthony Beauvillier -- Brock Nelson -- Josh Bailey
Derick Brassard -- Jean-Gabriel Pageau -- Leo Komarov
Matt Martin -- Casey Cizikas -- Cal Clutterbuck
Adam Pelech -- Ryan Pulock
Devon Toews -- Scott Mayfield
Nick Leddy -- Andy Greene
Semyon Varlamov
Thomas Greiss
Scratched:Michael Dal Colle, Ross Johnston, Otto Koivula, Tom Kuhnhackl, Andrew Ladd, Sebastian Aho, Johnny Boychuk, Noah Dobson, Thomas Hickey, Christopher Gibson
Unfit to play: None

Lightning projected lineup

Ondrej Palat -- Brayden Point -- Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn -- Anthony Cirelli -- Tyler Johnson
Barclay Goodrow -- Yanni Gourde -- Blake Coleman
Patrick Maroon -- Mitchell Stephens -- Cedric Paquette
Victor Hedman -- Zach Bogosian
Ryan McDonagh -- Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev -- Kevin Shattenkirk
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Curtis McElhinney
Scratched:Mathieu Joseph, Carter Verhaeghe, Alexander Volkov, Braydon Coburn, Luke Schenn, Scott Wedgewood
Unfit to play:Steven Stamkos, Jan Rutta

Status report

Stamkos, a forward, will not play in this series, Cooper said Sunday. … Trotz said everyone on the Islanders roster is available.