Hi, my names Connor, and I am an Islanders fan.
In all the years I have supported this godforsaken team, I have never been so emotionally invested in a season, than I was this year. Maybe it was the first half of the season being cancelled, or knowing that the forever ongoing rebuild had shown some minor success at the end of last season, but whatever it was, I was hooked from the moment the puck dropped on January 19th.
I’m proud to say I missed only 20, of the all 3240 minutes, played this season (Dinner with the girlfriends family) and in all that time of keeping an above-average heart rate, I fell back in love with a team that had once cheated on me, ditched me, spent all my money, and even took the dog, but for the first time in a long time, they gave something back.
Any real Islander fan can say, with confidence, that this season has been a long time coming, whether it was former first round picks Kyle Okposo and Josh Bailey finally showing that they can hang with the best in the NHL, John Tavares taking that step from being a great player, to one of the league’s most elite, or just seeing this team never give up and keep playing THEIR game until the last whistle of the season. It was truly magic.
My turning point of the season came during Colin McDonald’s 2 goal night in Philly. Something about that win made me feel like I was watching the greatest team to ever whack a piece of rubber into a net with a stick. I remember throwing my beer in the air as Bailey scored on Bryz to win it in the 4th round of the shootout. The mixture of excitement, a half dozen Pabst Blue Ribbons, and my heart rate finally coming under 200BPM for the first time in 3 hours, made for an ecstatic realization; this team was the real deal, and something us die-hards have been waiting for, for a long.. long time.
To say that this season wasn’t a success would be a flat out lie, as only the obtuse (Ranger fans) are unable see the major strides this team took over the past 5 months and the ceiling for improvement rising tenfold. This 2013 season, the year of the lockout, was THE turning point for this organization, we fans see it, the league sees it, and most importantly this club sees it. They showed tremendous amounts of heart, determination and brotherhood all year long and you could see that, with every win, they grew stronger, and more confident in themselves. They enjoyed all their success just as much as we fans did. They saw how much we supported them, and they gave us their all, in return. I’ve never been more proud of this team in the 15 years I’ve called myself a fan and I can hardly wait for October to come. Let’s go Islanders.
– @IslesBlog
IslesBlog 