Well, if Ovechkin thought that the Phone Booth in DC was loud, he may need new eardrums after today. The Old Barn will be rocking, and fans have been honking the familiar "Let's Go Islanders" on their car horns since 8am. Playoff hockey at NVMC is back.
No lineups announced yet; expect Halak against Holtby. Cappy has hinted there could be some changes to the forwards. Hamonic not back and doesn't appear to be close. And then while Capuano said Grabbo is close, 84 himself said:
| "I still feel not great," Grabovski said Friday. "My conditioning is better. But I don't play for two months and I'm still not 100 percent. It's very hard to just jump in for the playoffs." |
Expect the Isles to come out aggressively.
| "I just thought for whatever reason . . . that we're a little too passive," Jack Capuano said. "As I told our guys, our identity hasn't been that all year. We're not a team that plays safe or sits back. We're a team that obviously wants to play on our toes. We want to dictate the pace." |
We'll close with Cal Clutterbuck's thoughts:
| We’re going to come with some pretty serious intensity in Nassau. It’ll be up to them to match us. |
To those of you attending today...bring it, loud and proud.
Let's Go Islanders!
Follow men's eyes
As they look to the skies
The shifting shafts of shining
Weave the fabric of their dreams... 
Cappy gameplanned well (so far)...Caps strategy Friday was to dump the puck into the Isles zone, let our dmen field the puck and hammer them in the corners.Today, we're getting to those pucks first and making sharp, quick passes to lessen the forecheck and reduce the physicality effect of the Caps' hits.
Nut up and find a way to win this.
Nut up and find a way to win this.
x2