2 Points, a Minor Heart Attack & a few Thank Yous

So, I said they’d win and they did. Of course they didn’t make it easy as they never, ever do. But they managed two points as I knew (hoped) they would.

The first chest pains came when John Tavares was crumbled against the boards in the corner from a late hit and didn’t get up. I actually didn’t even see the hit. The gentlemen who has the misfortune of sitting next to me said “There goes the season.” And when I looked up, I saw JT in a fetal position on the ice. At first I wondered if Scott Gordon had thrown up and then I held my breath until John finally got up and skated on his own.

The second chest pain came as Carolina first scored to make it 3 – 2 8 seconds after my press box friend Brian said “Here comes a goal.” And the minor coronary occurred when Carolina tied up the game with a handful of minutes left in the third. I gasped, became panicky and packed up my things and headed down to 201.

If this was going to be a loss, I needed to be with the Blog Box boys so I could be emotional. Isles Nation Stephen and I sat lower in the stands for overtime and begged for the game to be won without having to go to a shoot out.

Sorry Dwayne. It seems that most of us didn’t have any confidence in you for a shoot-out. But there it was; a nail biting situation again of who would shoot, who would score and who was going away with two instead of one. “Just put Biron in. I don’t care if he’s cold.” I said towards the ice. Stephen was surprised at my rudeness.

As far as shooters go, this time Gordon chose correctly. Even if I doubted when I saw Jeff Tambellini standing center ice to begin, he was right. Jiffy Jeff scored, the horn blew and we screamed. Samsonov didn’t get his shot passed Roloson. The crowd erupts in to a chant. Then Frans Nielsen took a turn and scored and Stephen and I were positively giddy. Jokinen then scored on Roloson as he does on most goalies and it was left to John Tavares to make it or break it. Not knowing if he was still sore from his late hit, he came out and did what everyone hoped he’d do – score.

Two points finally belong to the NY Islanders. The streak is broken and some momentum (hopefully) will be aboard the plane with them to Montreal.

Thank you to our GM for indulging my request. Thank you to PR Director Seth Sylvan for putting up me. Thank you to Brian from The Fourth Period for great conversation, explanations, warm smiles and a few laughs. Thanks to Howie Rose for stopping to admire my bright orange shoes. Thanks to Brad Kurtzberg from Inside Hockey for helping me navigate so much of this, even if I go off on tangents. Thank you to all those tonight that will have to sign release forms so that chapter 72 of the book in my head won’t get me sued.

More tomorrow, but it’s late and I’m tired.