Next foe comes down to waiting game

The Islanders will need to wait and see who they’ll face in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Islanders are the No. 6 seed after their 5-1 win over the Panthers to close out the series and, with the Canadiens finishing off the Penguins on Friday, the Islanders will face the winner of Sunday’s Capitals-Bruins round-robin game.

“We have a lot of confidence in our game,” defenseman Ryan Pulock said on a Zoom call. “The style that we play, we know that if we can play our way and to our identity that it gives us a chance to win every night.

“Our focus was on this series coming in. We got that job done. Now it’s going to be regroup and see who we play.”

➤ Islanders coach Barry Trotz inserted Leo Komarov into the lineup in place of Tom Kuhnhackl for Game 4 to bolster the team’s penalty kill.

It worked.

“Leo is prepared. I think when we were starting this process we figured Leo would be in the lineup and then obviously he got injured in the Phase 2 part of it [restart],” Trotz said. “He’s worked really hard, he feels very confident that he can come back now and play.

“We just felt obviously Florida’s power play is tremendous, it’s all-world, it’s dangerous on every element. We felt that Leo is a veteran guy, he’s a heavier guy than maybe Tommy. He felt like he was ready so we said let’s put him in.”

Komarov’s presence on the penalty kill suppressed Florida’s dynamic power play four-out-offive times Friday.

Komarov didn’t participate with the varsity during Phase 3 training camp 2.0 as he battled through an undisclosed injury that kept him off the ice for the first two days, instead skating with the group of extras toward the end.

➤ As a result of the Islanders moving on to the official playoffs, the Senators receive the team’s first-round pick as part of the Jean-Gabriel Pageau trade.