I know the Rangers will always be the Isles biggest rival but if you look at the past few years its been the Caps and Pens who have been the Isles biggest rivals. Multiple playoff series against both with another one starting tomorrow against the Caps. The Isles have played big regular season games against them whether it was fighting for the division or a higher seed and home ice. The Isles and Rangers haven't really played a big game against one another in a long time. Anyway one more day and we drop the puck. LGI
those team ping pong balls were moving around in there but it was weird how the rangers looked like it got stuck a bit and then sucked up. LOL. it certainly didn't look as smooth as the lotto balls thats for sure.
Flash back. Doesn't seem that long ago with Hunter cheap shotting Pierre Turgeon. Damn I'm getting old. Should be an interesting series for sure. On a side note, time for the Caps to go back to these uniforms permanently.
Isles survive the first. Despite playing poorly they could be up 1-0 had Nelson got off even a semi-competent shot.
And just like last year against Carolina, Isles look completely pedestrian when a team can match them physically. They are beginning to remind me of Pat Riley’s Knicks — a team that was never as good as their record and whose strength could easily be overcome by talented teams in the playoffs. And as I type this they put one up.
Isles overcome a sloppy first half and some pretty crappy refereeing to score 4 unanswered and win 4-2.
Do you think the Islanders will sign Holtby in the off-season? It looks like he is playing for them already! That was terrible. Lee hurting Backstrom infuriated me, then the Caps took a 2-0 lead and it felt like they could survive without Backstrom and Eller. Then Holtby lets in a weak goal and the floodgates opened. Not all the blame can be put on Holtby though, because the entire team played bad except for Oshie, who scored 2 goals and stopped a goal from occurring for the Islanders. On the Isles side, they were not really impressive either. I thought they looked pretty flat the first 38 minutes. Then the 3rd was all Isles, as the Caps looked pathetic. We will see the status of Backstrom, but the Isles should feel pretty good right now, up 1-0 after an epic Caps collapse.
The Isles looked terrible in the first, but actually looked pretty good to start the second. But in total fan insecure fashion, after missing a few opportunities to take the lead were behind 2-0 and it looked bleak. Eberle’s goal wasn’t anything special, and the Caps just looked like they weren’t ready to skate yet on Lee’s goal to start the third, but they still controlled a lot of the action after that until Bailey’s short handed game winner.
John Carlson looked off in his first game back. Nothing was quite clicking. I see what you mean. That time between the tying goal and the short handed goal the Caps looked okay. I guess so, but it didn't feel like it to me. And I don't know what the hell Holtby was thinking on Bailey's goal. He was rattled for sure. Sucks to see. Before the game, I wondered if the delay would hurt Holtby. He has such a dedicated pre-game routine. He seemed pretty good though before that first Isles goal. Hopefully he can bounce back, or the series will be shorter than I expected. Varlamov looked strong. I was impressed.
Caught the 3rd period when I got home from work. Nice comeback with 4 unanswered goals. But they need to stay out of the box. Playing with fire if they give the Caps that many PP's. They will need to pick it up tomorrow night. You know the Caps will come out with a "backs against the wall" mentality to avoid being down 2-0. Have to figure the rough stuff will pick up since they are pissed about the Lee hit yesterday.
Just saw Anders Lee’s hit on Backstrom. Clearly an intentional hit, but that wasn’t some vicious hit intending to hurt him.
Yeah, I don't know what to make of the hit. It was properly penalized. Backstrom being injured sucks, but I have seen way worse hits. Backstrom still hasn't seen it probably.
Isles totally shut down the Caps in the last 10 minutes and win going away! Amazing effort in the last 5 minutes or so, completely strangling any offense for Washington.
