WHAT A GAME

Only a few games into this year's NHL season and I just saw one of the best hockey games I've seen in years...

New York Islanders second game of the 2013 season - for it is n't the 2012/13 season as they have only just started the shortened 48 game season due to a labour dispute that nearly saw the entire year wiped out. NYI were playing at home, the Nassau Coliseum, against Tampa Bay Lightning.

In the very first second of the game two players decided to have a fight - strange given they haven't even yet played against each other this year and so no real rivalry could have been built up?

That episode meant that 4 players got sent off within 1 second of the game as the fight escalated - two for the entire match. Then as they all bedded down to the first face off for a second time two other players were at each time ticking off the clock again.. 6 sent off in 1 second could well be a record?


The Islanders went on to storm four goals, three in the second period and another in the third, to make it 4 to 0.

However, Tampa Bay kept coming back and managed to narrow the lead from 4-0 to 4-3 with 12 minutes left in the game. The final seconds saw NYI scrabbling around th Tampa Bay net, minus their netminder, but they couldn't put the puck in and so closed the game at 4-3.





Quick respect photo for Vincent Lecavalier, #4 with Tampa Bay here, as he was playing his 1000th NHL game.

Phew! Much improved from the first game when they lost 2-1 to the New Jersey Devils.

NYI start a five game trip away from home on Thursday, starting in Toronto - good luck and lots of stamina guys..