It's down to a one game series for the Islanders, do or die today. The right outcome gets them to another one game series, but that isn't anything to think about today.These 60 minutes are the only thing on the Islanders' minds. Backs to the wall. Are we used to any other way?
They're saying the right things:
| “At some point it was going to come to this, right?” Head Coach Jack Capuano said. “We have a chance in our building to take it to a Game 7. Our backs were up against the wall a lot this year. We’ve responded really well and I think we’ll do the same.” |
Hickey:
| “We know what it means to our fans. That can’t be the last game there, it can’t be the last game for them. We’re going to come with our heads on and be ready to play and make sure that it’s not the last game there. We have to find a way.” |
Kyle Okposo:
| We need to keep our emotions in check and make sure that we are focusing on the right things,” Okposo said. “We’re a little bit banged up, but it gives other guys an opportunity to step up. You’re going to have to deal with injuries as a team and we have to find a way to put together a full team and get a big win.” |
John Tavares:
| “We’ve had injuries during the year,” Tavares said. “We’ve found a way to win hockey games and play well. At this time of year it gets heightened and we’re missing some defensive guys, some big presence, but we just have to be better. Individually we still believe in our group. We’ve responded to adversity well, we’ve overcome a lot this year and it’s another chance for that if we want to keep playing.” |
Another ally should be the raucous home crowd, who surely are not ready for this to potentially be NVMC's swan song. Cappy also knows this:
| “There’s going to be a lot of emotion in the building,” Capuano said. “The fans have been great. We work as a unit of one here. We’ve built a lot of energy off them.” |
I'm not ready for this to be over and I know you're not, either. We work as a unit of one...despite the challenges we know - will we field the best combo of forwards? The reality of having 3 d-men in there that in a perfect world would not be on the ice? - this game presents the chance to even things up with an all-out assault. Let's be good fans. Let's all row in the same direction here. Let's give the boys our support. Let's all be Islanders today.
Let's Go Islanders!
Commit to Grace Under Pressure
All that we can do is just survive
All that we can do to help ourselves
Is stay alive... 
But whatever...who calls the game doesn't matter. Getting the right result on the board is all that matters.
I actually thought the whistle was for a penalty for holding Martins stick. What was it for? Holtby holding the puck. If that was it that's a huge difference over the last game.
Hey! Refs blew the whistle on a shot Jaro covered....progress!
Exactly
Hey! Refs blew the whistle on a shot Jaro covered....progress!
Yup
Wildly inconsistent officiating.
Yep. He didn't see him.
Played well in he first. Need to keep it up
BUT...I cannot sit there, especially in light of the whole series so far, and accept that in this period - the rest of the series notwithstanding - that you can tell me there wasn't anything to call against the Caps. The quick whistle for Holtby earlier (which, by the way, Halak didn't benefit from in game 5) must have negated the very obvious holding of the stick by Carlson earlier against Martin. And if they call JT for the slash as they did, there should have been at a minimum a roughing call on Ovechkin for checking JT from behind by the benches.
It sure seems like a double standard. And wildly inconsistent. It says a lot that the ref shoo-ed Okposo away after the whistle because he didn't want to hear from him. Is it "chirping" when there's a legitimate gripe?
Only way to overcome all this is to get more goals, plain and simple.
BUT...I cannot sit there, especially in light of the whole series so far, and accept that in this period - the rest of the series notwithstanding - that you can tell me there wasn't anything to call against the Caps. The quick whistle for Holtby earlier (which, by the way, Halak didn't benefit from in game 5) must have negated the very obvious holding of the stick by Carlson earlier against Martin. And if they call JT for the slash as they did, there should have been at a minimum a roughing call on Ovechkin for checking JT from behind by the benches.
It sure seems like a double standard. And wildly inconsistent. It says a lot that the ref shoo-ed Okposo away after the whistle because he didn't want to hear from him. Is it "chirping" when there's a legitimate gripe?
Only way to overcome all this is to get more goals, plain and simple.
The Isles can't let the Caps get into their heads. First 5 minutes of second period will be interesting.
I know, right? God these guys suck as announcers
Haha.