They were on the verge of saying goodbye to America before they could even properly introduce themselves.
But on this Friday night under the Edmonton bubble and in front of the national audience that obviously had not been especially impressed by the team’s close-up in Games 1 or 2 of the Eastern finals, the Islanders said hello.
Of course they did. What else would you expect?
“All you have to do is look at the amount of time we’ve put into this whole process,” Cal Clutterbuck said after the 5-3 empty-net aided victory. “I just think the way the guys are, the way that we are, I don’t think that packing it in is really a part of this team.”
Easy for No. 15 to say on a night the Islanders played their most assertive and confident hockey of the series, but still gave back the 3-1 lead they’d earned through the second period by allowing a pair of goals within the first 12:04 of the third, Ondrej Palat scoring early on a power play before Tyler Johnson scored the tying goal.
For instead of turtling, the Islanders grabbed the game by the throat and got the victory when Brock Nelson beat Andrei Vasilevskiy on a right-circle one-timer at 16:25 after the Lightning turned it over on what should have been a controlled breakout.
Wednesday, the Lightning had used Nelson’s head like a beach ball against the glass, and more than once. Friday, it was time for some sweet revenge. Nelson not only recorded the winner, but he had set up Anthony Beauvillier for the 3-1 lead at 13:50 of the second after circling the net.
Brock Nelson scores the winning goal for the Islanders.Getty Images“He’s a pro, and he’s an elite hockey player and I’m not sure he gets enough credit for what he does out there,” Clutterbuck said. “He just displayed a level of character in the way he responded to the other night.
“Obviously it was a dirty play, sometimes you’re on the receiving end of those and there’s nothing you can do, but he fought through it. To his credit, he continues to grow and rise to the moment.”
Top-six winger Alex Killorn was suspended for this game for the late hit from behind he laid on Nelson early in the first period of Game 2. The Lightning were also without first-line center Brayden Point, sidelined by an unspecified lower-body injury that forced him out of Game 2 early in the second period. So the Lightning were short a couple of important players.
That’s hockey, just as it was hockey in 2015 when the Lightning advanced to the Cup final with a seven-game Eastern finals victory over the Rangers, who went without Mats Zuccarello for the entire round and had defensemen Ryan McDonagh, Marc Staal and Dan Girardi essentially playing on one leg apiece.
Five years later, facing their own 2020 hockey mortality, the Islanders dug in and began to dig out. They carried the play for the most part, getting it in deep and forcing Tampa Bay to contend not only with a ground game but an attack that was able to stretch out the Lightning’s five-man defensive structure.
For the first time, really, the Islanders were able to build momentum from one rolling shift to the next. Skill guys were able to create some time and space. The defense became part of the offense in supporting the attack and the forwards were in turn diligent in getting back and defending at the other end. Semyon Varlamov turned in a confidence-builder in nets.
“We had to get to the inside. We were way too perimeter in the first two — I take the first [8-2] game out, we weren’t even involved at all — but I thought we were a little perimeter last game,” coach Barry Trotz said. “You have to force yourself, you’ve got to come to come to the puck and give yourself some opportunities to have puck possession and then you can do some stuff off that.
“But I thought we had a better will to get into the interior a little bit more.”
With Casey Cizikas sidelined with an undisclosed injury, Jean-Gabriel Pageau slipped into No. 53’s spot between Clutterbuck and Matt Martin on the Identity Line. The team’s identity did not suffer in the least, with GM Lou Lamoriello’s Magnificent Acquisition all but mimicking Cizikas’ hard-edged game while setting up Adam Pelech for the 2-1 goal and then scoring the empty-netter himself with Nikita Kucherov hacking away at him.
That provoked a bit of a tussle. Tampa Bay defenseman Mikhail Sergachev said something about the teams “not liking one another.” Why would they? This is the final four. One of these teams will play for the Cup and the other will go home.
For two games, the Lightning were saying goodbye. On Friday, the Islanders said, hello.
