More Good Than Bad - Caps 3 - Isles 2

I'll admit, I was guarded about tonight's game. After all, Alexander Ovechkin is a leader in the league and when you look at the stat sheets between the teams, there's a bunch of pluses on their side of the sheet and only three players on the Isles team without a minus.

But the Islanders managed to play a good game... again for almost 60 minutes. I was hoping that maybe Ovie was a little lazy tonight and truthfully he was held to only two shots on goal (He had 5 blocked shots and 3 missed shots.)

I was actually impressed that the Isles managed to keep the puck in the Caps zone for a good chunk of the first period. Sean Bergenheim had 3 shots on goal, but he also had 3 blocked. I almost screamed at one of them because he came so close to scoring. He's working so hard, but all he came away with was one assist point for the night.

After the first period, I ran down to gate 12 to see Democrat Candidate for Town of Hempstead Supervisor, Kristen McElroy. She had been there since 6 am meeting the fans and talking about the Lighthouse. Also joining her was Matt Hynes, Democrat candidate for ToH Council District Six.

There was even an impromptu press conference with NY Islanders owner Charles Wang. They were surrounded by fans and media alike. "We're here to show our support for the Lighthouse project and the Islanders as well. We're out here trying to spread the word." Kristen said to the reporters. She also said that her website is getting a lot of support. "People are really supportive of the campaign and of the Lighthouse as well." Kristen has also been hitting a lot of civic group meetings, "There have been a lot of individual issues, but there has also been a lot of support for the Lighthouse. I have to say that 99% of the questions to me as a candidate are about the Lighthouse."

Mr. Wang did not want to talk about anything but hockey, and he didn't. He wasn't there to be anything but supportive of Ms. McElroy. She will be there on Wednesday as well.

So when the second period started I wasn't yet back in the press box. But when I got back there, I got to watch Radek Martinek take down Alexander Ovechkin. I had to make sure I read the number right. But the momentum of that hit didn't last long since Andy Sutton took a hooking penalty.

Thompson laid a hit on Mike Green and the Caps decided to take offense. Nate got to go spend time with Andy in the box. The Islanders were left having to kill off a 5 on 3 against the Washington Caps, and finally a 5 on 4. Roloson came up big and so did the defense. Things were looking good.

When I came back from wandering around meeting up with @dani3boyz and @Katrina_Doell, Jeff Tambellini, (yes, Jeff Tambellini) added to Radek Martinek's earlier goal and it was 2 - 0 Isles.

And then the bottom fell out when Mike Green made it a 2 - 1 game followed pretty quickly by an additional goal by Keith Aucoin that I really didn't think should have counted considering that there was a tussle going on on top of the net. But the refs didn't see it my way and they let the goal stand.

Once again, the Islanders let up a 2 goal lead in the third. Once again the game went to overtime. This time, overtime lasted about 60 seconds before Brooks Laich gave the Capitals their first win of the season over the NY Islanders.

So many good things happened during the game that Scott Gordon was pleasant in the press room. Dwayne Roloson didn't see it that way. He explained it that they want to win so bad that they were just trying too hard. They did play a great game, but didn't come away with the win.

Tomorrow they have to get back on a plane and head back to Montreal. Who came up with this stupid schedule? I think the computer had a few hiccups this year.

More tomorrow.. it's WAAAAAYYY past my bedtime.