Newsday · May 7, 2016
Islanders battle their own dark thoughts facing possible elimination
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, then returned in 1985. His SportsWatch column debuted on Sept.
It was about 11 a.m. Friday, and Matt Martin was talking about bouncing back psychologically from the Islanders’ horrific overtime loss to the Lightning three days earlier.
“I think it’s the reporters’ jobs and the fans’ jobs to get overly emotional about things,” he said after the morning skate in advance of Game 4 of the second-round playoff series. “But we try to take it in stride.”
Less than 12 hours later, there was Martin again, standing by his locker and discussing the need to erase a crushing overtime loss from the team’s collective memory, this time by a score of 2-1.