My old Long Island home..

Today is Easter Sunday, so Happy Easter to all.

It is also the most important game of the season for my beloved NY Islanders. If they win today, they make the playoffs. It's the last game of the season, do or die.

My stomach is a wreck, I'm so nervous. They are playing the dreaded NJ Devils, who hardly EVER lose.

Me and my Islanders go back a long, long way and seeing films of the days when I was present for all the games, games wherein they won 4 straight Stanley Cups, can reduce me a bucket of tears. I bleed blue and orange, have good luck charms, rituals, you name it. I know, I sound like a nutcase. When they lose in the playoffs I cry and go into hiding, when they win I jump on the furniture. I was present when they won their first Stanley Cup in mundo dramatic fashion, scored in OT at 7:11 by my favorite Islander of all time, I cried for a week, I was so happy.

So, today? Cancer, WHO has cancer? Not me, Im a diehard, live and breathe Islander fan today and I hope my boys come through for me. Gotta go get into ritual good luck gear, 2 hours to go..

LET'S GO ISLANDERS!

UPDATE: 2-0 Isles - 12 minutes to go in the third !

Oh......My.......God..

The most heart stopping, heart attack inducing game I have seen in a long LONG time..

For those of you who know absolutely not one shred of hockey, my beloved Islanders were winning for 90% of the game 2-0. Then somewhere in the 3rd period, it became 2-1. Slight panic set in, but hey we're still winning. 2 minutes to go, 1 minute to go, 40 seconds, 30 seconds, 10 second, 5 seconds. At 00.8 seconds the dreaded, dastardly Devils scored. That is 8 tenths of a second left..

8 tenths of a second. It was now 2-2..

I starting screaming NO NO NO NO NOOOOOOOOOOOOO. It must have echoed through the Adirondacks. My husband came rushing up from the basement stairs, I was in tears, on the floor on one knee, heartbroken..

Even the announcers on the game just kept saying oh no, no, oh no. So now overtime for 5 minutes, no one scored. Then a shootout, Good LORD, my heart was pounding, my palms were sweating, I was a train wreck. But. We won, we won, we won. So goodbye Leafs, we're shufflin' off to Buffalo for the PLAYOFFS!