New York Islanders (34-36-11, 79 pts) at
Columbus Blue Jackets (28-46-7, 63 pts)
Nationwide Arena, Columbus, OH
Saturday, April 7, 2012 – 7:00 PM EDT
This is the end / my only friend, the end. (I swear I typed that before Porty posted his blog. Trust me.)
Ahh, The Doors. How cliche. But, if you read the preview today, you know that it is the end in oh so many ways. A brutal season mercifully comes to an end, though fittingly enough right when the Jackets started playing like a decent team. A win tonight would give them 11 wins in their last 19 games. Either way, you have to hand it to Todd Richards and the guys in the room; it’d have been easy to pack it in a long time ago. They’ve fought all the way to this point, and have even conspired to play spoiler for some other teams.
The other long pall cast over tonight’s game is the fate of Rick Nash. His back is acting up, and though he skated this morning and plans to see whether or not he can go tonight during pre-game warm-ups, even if he plays there’s the lump in our collective throat that this is probably his last hurrah with the team. Nash hasn’t spoken with the media in awhile, but we’ve been told he’ll be available tonight after the game. It will be interesting, to say the least.
For all of you fans, it’s one last chance to see The Captain, as well as all of the other guys who have donned the Union Blue. Regardless of how you feel about this season, give ’em all a nice big hand. The last four or five weeks have actually not been too bad.
Don’t forget: if you’re at Nationwide tonight, come see Matt and I during the first intermission in the concourse outside of where the Cannon sits. We’d love to say hi and to say thanks!
Enjoy the game, and thanks again for a great season here at The Cannon!