Anthony Beauvillier said the place smelled like cigarettes when overtime began, and like beer when it ended, a weirdly appropriate, time-warping narrative arc for the occasion.
Cigarettes? What is this, 1972?
Well, yeah, kind of, in the sense that if this was the last game the Islanders will play at Nassau Coliseum, it tied a neat bow on a half-century of history with a finale that never will be forgotten.
Of course, that is not the Islanders’ plan.
After a thrilling, come-from-behind, 3-2 overtime victory over the Lightning in Game 6 of a Stanley Cup semifinal on Wednesday night, their aim is to win Game 7 in Tampa on Friday and reach their first Cup Final since 1984.