You gotta love it when the team in dead last place comes into town playing a totally meaningless game and decides to play it as if their lives depended on it. Was it simply sheer luck? (I'd call Red Wings clanging off the post FIVE times pretty damn LUCKY for Joey.) Or was it sheer tenacity. That Barry Melrose adage that I love to quote all the time. "Some times WILL beats SKILL." It did. It not only beat it, it shut it out.
I didn't get to watch too much of this game as I was entertaining family members and my brat girl's friends. I had been calling for a goal for Bailey in the first period and completely missed seeing him score it in the second. But I did get to sit on the couch with my mother and brother and watched the entire third period.
They got a good laugh out of me biting my nails and yelling for Joey's shut out and cringing in sympathy pain watching returning veteran Doug Weight wincing in pain over his hand on the bench.
I had said at least three times yesterday that the Islanders only function right now is to show the teams they play that they can't be dismissed. They are not a push-over or a guaranteed win. As Scott Gordon said in the pre-game show, they are playing for each other now and it's a beautiful thing to watch.
I'll watch it tonight from the top of 201 for one of the few games left this season. As bad as the standings are, let's look at all the 'firsts' these team members will walk away with from this lack-luster season. At the top of the list will probably be Joey MacDonald's first NHL shut out.
Congrats boys. You pulled a proverbial rabbit out of a hat.
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