Thoughts on the Islanders game

Mercifully, this jersey didn't make an appearance.

Sorry I didn't get much of a chance to write a summary of the Islanders game, but chances are that either a) you've read/seen enough to know what went down yourself, or b) you just don't care. The upshot of it is that there's not much to recap, anyways. It was a sloppy game, a cheap win and most people will agree that Smith's hit in the first was reckless, unnecessary and left us in a terrible place to start the game.

I was in attendance on Thursday night, and the one thing that really hit me, and that I tweeted about unnecessarily on my personal Twitter account, was the sheer amount of Jersey Fouls seen in Scotiabank Place. I guess part of the experience is tackiness and personalized jerseys, but this just left me overwhelmed. I've been to somewhere between 10-15 games since I started following the Sens, and never before have I seen such an array of failure. Jerseys I saw include:

• "Sens R" (number 1)
• Toronto Maple Leafs (to be expected, I guess)
• Chicago Blackhawks
• Manitoba Moose
• Val D'Or Foreurs
• Pittsburgh Penguins
• Team Sweden (Forsberg on the back)
• Calgary Flames
• Not technically a foul, but a Daigle jersey worn unironically
• A "Jim Watson" (number 10) jersey.
• A Kovalev jersey, no number
• A Heatley jersey, no name. I understand taking off Heatley's name, but now that Smith has the same number there's no excuse.
  

It just seemed so asinine at the time, and still does. Where's the logic behind wearing any jersey but the teams who are playing? Would you wear a New England Patriots jersey to a St. Louis Rams vs. Pittsburgh Steelers game? Probably not.

Irritation at the jerseys aside, I particularly enjoyed the fight near the end between Zack Smith and Matt Martin -- not necessarily for the entertainment value, but because there were only a handful of us left in the stands, and it's the perfect reason why you should stay until the end of a game. It astonishes me that people will pay $100+ for a seat in the lower bowl but leave before the final buzzer. I don't know about you, but if I'm shelling out that much money to attend, you'd better believe I intend on getting as much value out of it as I can.

At any rate, we play the Habs tonight in Montreal. We've been pretty bad on Saturdays recently, as detailed by Jeremy Milks at Black Aces. Let's hope that this recent streak-ish thing we've got going (4 wins in our last 6 games) keeps rolling. 7:00 start on CBC, AND we won't have to put up with Cole or Healy.