Five years later, Islanders vs. Capitals begins as intensely as 2015 series ended
Matt Martin of the New York Islanders checks Nick Jensen of the Washington Capitals during the first period in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference First Round playoffs at Scotiabank Arena on August 12, 2020 in Toronto. Credit: Getty Images/Elsa
Officially, it merely was the first game of a first-round playoff series in 2020, but it sure felt like Game 8 of a first-round series from 2015.
Such was the level of rough play and harsh words between the Islanders and Capitals, both during and after the Islanders’ 4-2 victory in Toronto on Wednesday and into Thursday’s off day.
But still, 2015?!?
Having playoff bad blood last five years in modern sports is not normal. It is something out of the 20th century, when players moved less and the Islanders could win four Stanley Cups in a row with 16 players around for all four.
Anyway, about 2015: Barry Trotz was in his first season as Washington’s coach after 15 in Nashville when the Islanders faced him in what many involved regard as the most bruising experience of their careers.
“It was the most physical series that I’d been involved in as a coach,” Trotz said in 2018.
On Thursday, the Islanders’ Cal Clutterbuck said of Game 1, which featured not one but two first-period scraps involving captain Anders Lee after Lee sidelined the Caps’ Nicklas Backstrom with a hard check:
“I think it started in that 2015 series. That was and still might be the most physical series I’ve been a part of. It would be tough to top that one, especially with the atmosphere in both buildings and the way it was going down.”
Clutterbuck said the current series has the potential to match that one, based on early evidence. And part of the reason is the continuity of big names for both teams.
As Clutterbuck said, “A lot of the usual suspects are still involved.”
Nine Islanders remain on the roster from the lineup for the Capitals’ 2-1 victory in Game 7 in 2015. So do six Capitals, including Backstrom, Alex Ovechkin, goalie Braden Holtby and Tom Wilson, who was Lee’s opponent in Game 2’s second bout.
It also was Wilson who in Game 4 in 2015 took out Islanders defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky with a devastating hit behind the goal. Visnovsky, who had missed 58 games with a concussion the season before, suffered a head injury and never played in the NHL again.
That Islanders-Capitals series marked the end of the Islanders’ original run at Nassau Coliseum, when they were supposed to be moving to Brooklyn for good.
So their fans were extra-intense for the games on Long Island, including the Islanders’ 3-1 victory in Game 6.
The Islanders finally won their first playoff series since 1993 the following spring, then did it again in 2019 under Trotz, who in 2018 had won the Stanley Cup with the Caps.
After the Capitals ousted the Islanders in ’15, they lost in seven to the Rangers, for whom current Islander Derick Brassard then was playing.
“I remember when Barry got the job in Washington, he put structure in the team,” Brassard said. “They became a lot harder to play against. They’re a tough team, a tough opponent. Their coach [Todd Reirden], he was on Barry’s staff so, basically, it’s like we’re playing ourselves.”
Said Wilson, “I think it’s no secret that the physical play is going to be there in this series . . . It’s the hockey that people love to watch; it’s the hockey that we love to play.”
This is the teams’ first playoff meeting since 2015, and no one seems to have forgotten it.
“I think that was kind of the spark that kind of ignited the flame,” Clutterbuck said. “Obviously, we’ve been able to have success, both teams, since, and when you have two good teams that are deep and physical and talented playing each other as many times as we have over the last five, six years since then, that’s what you get.
“So it’s a good rivalry.”
Game 9 is Friday night.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
