There was a snow storm outside, but inside there was a full house of 16,170 on Thanksgiving eve at the Nassau Coliseum to watch the Islanders take on the Washington Capitals. New York basically went with the same lineup as Monday's game against the Flyers with the only difference being the re-insertion of de Haan and Hickey on defense. Halak was in net again looking for his 8th straight win facing Brandon Holtby of the Capitals.
New York played a strong first period and out shot the Capitals 12–9. The Islanders got on the board first, shortly after the five-minute mark, with a goal from the “kid line”. Anders Lee camped out in front of the goalie and jammed home the first goal of the game after getting passes from Strome and Nelson. It was Lee's 4th goal of the year, all coming at home. All three kids played together in Bridgeport last year and as a result have developed some very good chemistry. The Islanders dictated play for most of the period until Alexander Ovechkin blistered a slap shot during a power-play to even the score 1-1. That really wasn't unexpected, as Ovechkin seems to always score against New York. Then with a couple of minutes left in the period, Travis Hamonic got a great screen from Matt Martin to get the one goal lead back. It was Hamonic's 3rd goal of the year from Clutterbuck and Czikas.
The second was a pretty even period as evidenced by the fact that both teams had 10 shots on goal. However, with only a few minutes left, the game was even once again. Lee got into a scrap and took a two-minute penalty. Another penalty led to another goal and a tie game. It was Ovechkin again, who tallied the 89th multi-goal game of his career. It was basically the same play as the first goal. The Capitals swung the puck around to the left side where Ovechkin was waiting to slap it home. Lee would fall one assist short of the “Gordie Howe hat trick.”
What what was really impressive about the game, was that the Islanders were not giving the Capitals anything during five on five. It was a pretty even game for the first half of the third period.then the fans started to get into it. It was the loudest “Let's go Islanders "chant that I've heard on television in quite some time. Almost immediately the Islanders picked up the pace and started putting a lot more pressure on Holtby. But for the second game in a row the opposing goalie stole a point on the road. An extra session was needed.
In the overtime, the Islanders had the better of the play. Then with about 2 ½ minutes left Brock Nelson had his stick held and New York went on the 4 on 3 power play. The Isles were able to keep the puck in the Capitals zone. Tavares took the puck from the right dot and made a nifty move to get to the center of the ice and slapped one past a Boychuk screen and more importantly past Holtby for the win. It was Tavares' 9th goal of the year from assist-machine Ryan Strome and Johnny Boychuk. The Islanders out shot Washington 5-0 in the extra period and 35-27 for the game. Halak did indeed win his 8th game in a row and in those games has only allowed 10 goals.
With the 3-2 win the Islanders improved to 16-6 and have won 10 of their past 12 games. They are a very confident group and as a fan I have as much confidence as they do that they can beat almost anybody they face. Instead of figuring out how to make a comeback or hoping for a miracle win, I find myself just trying to figure out how are they going to win. That is the expectation now. The ole barn was rocking once again. It has taken 30 years, but both the crowd and the play of the Islanders were back. I guess that is the best evidence that it is indeed the 1980s all over once again. That is fine with me as long as I don't have to wear a Member's Only jacket on the weekend.
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