It was Saturday April 25th, 2015. It was Game#6 of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It was the New York Islanders vs. the Washington Capitals. However, there is one thing that it was not. It was not going to be the last hockey game in the Nassau Coliseum. It just couldn't be.
Leading up to the game many a journalist asked the Islanders about finding themselves in a do or die situation. They had to win to advance, but everyone wanted to know if there was added pressure because it could have been the last game in the Nassau Coliseum. It must have been hard for the players to not rip the throat out of every person that asked that very same question.
The fact is that the Islanders played this game for their playoff lives. They wanted to continue the dream of the Stanley Cup. The building called "Fort Neverlose" was not going to add any more pressure. In fact, all it did was add a bit of urgency to the task at hand. It was a sub-conscious motivator that the team could use to their advantage. This was no time for a eulogy. This was a time to go out and win a damn hockey game.
The Islanders were battered and bruised. They lost Travis Hamonic, their best shutdown defenseman earlier in the series. Then they lost Lubomir Visnovsky due to a vicious, targeted, and intentional hit from Tom Wilson, and then they lost Calvin deHaan on another borderline hit that landed him squarely on his twice surgically repaired shoulder. Into the line-up came Matt Donovan, who was a healthy scratch for most of the year, and Scott Mayfield, who had a grand total of five NHL team. It was not going to be easy. But it was going to get done.
As expected, the Islanders came out hitting everything that moved. It was an electric atmosphere. It was important for the Islanders to get on the board first and that is what they did. John Tavares came across the blue line and made his way to the slot. He fired up past Braden Holtby for a 1-0 lead. It was the Captain's 2nd goal of the playoffs. Ryan Strome and Nick Leddy had the assists.
The Islanders played well during the period, but all of a sudden penalties started to get the best of them. That is not what you want to do when you're going against the NHL's best power play. The Islanders did a good job killing off the first two power plays with Jaroslav Halak coming up very big. However the last penalty, which occurred when John Tavares got called for a weak slash, gave the Capitals a man advantage with about half a minute at the end of the period.
A long outlet pass with about five seconds left found the stick of John Carlson who fired a puck on net. It looked like it deflected off something in front of Halak and into the goal to tie the game at one apiece. Overall, the Islanders played very well during the period. However, they played with fire by committing three straight penalties. The Capitals outshot the Isles 16-9 thanks to three power plays. The Islanders out hit the Capitals 25–12 thanks to the adrenaline created from being in an elimination game.
The second period was scoreless, but still included plenty of hitting. The Islanders did get a powerless play opportunity, but could not keep the puck in the Washington zone long enough to get set up. It is almost to the point now where the only thing to look forward to when there is a powerless play is that two minutes are taken off of the game clock. I have theory that the Islanders are just waiting for a real big moment in this series, so that they can break out and start making the Capitals pay for their indiscretions.
At the end of the period, Matt Donovan got called for a ten minute misconduct for doing absolutely nothing. It was a curious call. After the game Donovan said that he never got an explanation as to why he was sent off the ice. That would put the Islanders down a defenseman for a good part of the third period for the third straight game. Hate to say it, but the referees were having a direct impact on the game. Shots were all even after two periods, however the Islanders still had a huge advantage in hits 38–22.
As the third period started, the realization started to hit that one bad bounce and the season would be over. The Islanders came out hitting everything once again. As the mid-point of the period passed, it felt like the tension was at its highest level. There was a huge scrum that involved four players by the bench. The referees did not stop play and John Tavares did not give up.
Tavares grabbed the puck and chipped it into the Washington zone. As he followed the puck into the corner, he was checked hard by Alexander Ovechkin Tavares slumped to the ice and it looked like he was hurt. The puck squirted free and was corralled by Nick Leddy who fed Nickolay Kulemin in front of Holtby. Kulemin was able to navigate the puck around Holby for the 2-1 lead.
With the lead in hand, the Islanders maintained the pressure. The Capitals nearly tied the game on a couple of occasions. Then with a little less than two minutes left the Capitals pulled Holtby and Cal Clutterbuck iced the 3-1 win with an empty net goal. It was Clutterbuck's 2nd goal of the playoffs assisted by Johnny Boychuk. As the final horn sounded, there was a huge scrum in the Islanders zone as the Capitals fired a late shot in on Halak. The bad blood between these teams will have to wait to Game#7 on Monday.
The Islanders played a great game. They had energy and a ton of scoring chances. All four lines produced, but the one player that really stood out was Mikhail Grabovski. He was fast, made plays, and created a lot of offense with his buddy Kulemin. The young defensemen, Donovan and Mayfield, played extremely well and did not make any glaring mistakes even though they only saw about ten minutes of ice time each. Halak ended up making 38 saves and seemed to be in control throughout.
Now it is on to Game#7 on Monday night at the Verizon Center. The crowd will be a factor, but in a "win or go home" game it might not make too much of a difference. Each team has won on the road. The Islanders will need to come out with another great effort at the drop of the puck and it will be imperative to get on the board first. Maybe, dare I say, they will even finally get a power play goal. At some point you would think that the odds would be in their favor to do just that.
This could have been the final game of the season, but it wasn't. The Islanders could have given up, but they didn't. The barn doors could have been closed forever, but they weren't. This team wants to play in the Nassau Coliseum again and they want to stay in this thing. Now all they need to do Monday is go win another damn hockey game.
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