I don’t care if Bettman’s blue,
Football’s dull and basketball too
Baseball, I don’t care about you
It’s hockey, I’m in love
Thursday night was crazy and fun and so modern-era Islanders. After struggling to score all homestand, they rang up goals against the top team in the league with everything from a Kyle MacLean goal that most expected to be overturned, to an Adam freaking Pelech goal, to a Mat Barzal backhand classic. They welcomed back a longtime Islander in style, and even Brock Nelson’s wife did a long intermission interview with Shannon Hogan, the four cute Nelson kids climbing around the intermission desk in Cal Clutterbuck’s stead.
Say what we will about the wisdom of keeping so many players together for so long, there’s something very old school and fun about it, as affirmed by Mrs. Nelson discussing how the players and eight or nine wives basically grew up together on the Island. As a bonus, we had Thomas Hickey and Clutterbuck on the broadcast sharing impressions of even-keel, do-anything Nelson that we all suspected but heard confirmed by his longtime teammates.
Lose to the Blues and Capitals, then salvage the homestand with wins over the Lightning and Avalanche? Sure, of course. For a transitional season where little is expected, this continues to be fun.
Ten games in the NHL Thursday night, with wins for the Bruins, Smurfs, Penguins, among others. All those teams and the Isles have 32 or 33 points.