from Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post,

It feels like forever, yes, but it was just 150 days ago. That was the last time the Islanders were truly islanders, the last time they actually played a match on the Island, and it was one of the grandest sporting moments we’ve had around here in so, so long.

There were 12,000 true believers in the old house, the Old Barn, Nassau Coliseum, desperate to keep hockey season alive for another few days. That was June 23. The Islanders were two wins away from the Stanley Cup Finals but also only one loss away from their first tee times of summer.

Fort Neverlose was asked to rise to one more occasion.

And did. It took a little extra work. It took Anthony Beauvillier beating Andrei Vasilevskiy 68 seconds into overtime to give the locals a 3-2 win over the Lightning, to send the Old Barn into one last frenzy. In the moment, there was hope there might be still more hockey games at the old address — 1255 Hempstead Turnpike, Uniondale, 11553 — but that dream died on a steamy St. Petersburg night two days on.

One-hundred-fifty days later, at last, the lads come back home.

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