Game 7 is for Islanders fans
Islanders fans before Game 4 of the Stanley Cup semifinals against the Lightning at Nassau Coliseum on Saturday, June 19, 2021. Credit: Getty Images/Bruce Bennett
This one is for Islanders fans.
Oh, sure, the players, coaches, executives and support staff share in the excitement of a Game 7 for the right to advance to the Stanley Cup Final, which is where the Islanders find themselves in Tampa on Friday night.
They are the ones who have done the actual work. So good for you, Lou Lamoriello, Barry Trotz and the others who draw paychecks for getting the team this far. Well done.
But those of us who have been following this drama for a few decades know the showdown with the Lightning really is about the folks in the stands and beyond.
Other franchises have long-suffering supporters, of course. Over the past 44 years, the Rangers, Knicks, Nets, Mets and Jets have combined for half as many championships as the Islanders’ four.
Since my birth during the waning days of the Eisenhower administration, the only New York-area pro team with more championships than the Islanders is the Yankees.
Since the appearance of intelligent life on Earth, the only current New York-area pro teams with more championships than the Islanders are the Giants and Yankees.
But never mind all that. It ignores a more salient reality: Islanders fans are not like those of other teams.
It is not that they are more passionate or dedicated. Every team has plenty of those. (This is no time to note the Nets as a possible exception. Those people are suffering enough right now.)
The difference is respect and its twin: attention.
There are more baseball, football and basketball fans in the metropolitan area than hockey fans, and there are more Rangers fans than Islanders fans.
That’s fine. It has not stopped Islanders fans from hanging around through bad hockey, incompetent (and/or corrupt) management and geographical discombobulation since the end of the dynasty era.
But sometimes it is nice to be noticed, and that has been the biggest treat for diehards on the long playoff ride — other than the winning, naturally.
After the Islanders won Game 6 of the Stanley Cup semifinals over the Lightning with an overtime goal by Anthony Beauvillier, it was as if local sports talk radio hosts rummaged through a dusty corner of the basement and found a box labeled: Islanders talk.
It went on for a solid two hours at the start of ESPN New York’s afternoon show on Thursday.
WFAN’s morning co-host, Boomer Esiason, is an avid Rangers fan but also has had plenty to say about the Isles, having conveniently embedded a son-in-law, Matt Martin, on their fourth line.
Newsday has covered the Islanders thoroughly throughout, as it has done since 1972, but other local publications suddenly have taken notice, too.
Beyond media, there is a broader buzz about the team.
Across the Hudson, even Devils fans have gotten into the act, in part because of their feelings for Lamoriello, Travis Zajac, Kyle Palmieri and Andy Greene, in part because the Islanders are not the Rangers.
On Long Island, it has had the galvanizing effect promised from Day One. In a Feb. 10, 1972, story about the new Coliseum, Newsday quoted Nassau County Executive Ralph Caso saying this:
"[It will be] a cohesive force that will give the community a sense of place, a sense of identity, that it heretofore lacked."
Pretty much.
The throwing of debris onto the ice after Beauvillier’s game-winner widely was criticized outside Long Island, and it should definitely not become a tradition after big wins.
But in context, as a one-off that combined delirious excitement with decades of agita with the potential end of an era, it was understandable.
Islanders fans are loving all of this, and should. Game 7 against the Lightning brought with it the tantalizing notion of hosting Game 1 of the Final against the Montreal Canadiens on Monday. The Canadiens!
But win or lose, the biggest winners already have been identified. They’re you.
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.
