New York Islanders NHL Playoff Guide: Dont Cheer These Teams

Washington Capitals

It’s easy to root against the Caps for how they play the game. There’s a gritty dirtiness to them that straddles the line of legal. What’s worse is that when they cross the line, they get away with it.

Of course the immediate finger points to Tom Wilson and we’ll never forget his hit on Lubomir Visnovsky.

There isn’t a game that goes by that Wilson isn’t doing something stupid, dirty, and unpunished. He is a true danger to most players on the ice and our frustration isn’t just with him, but the league for allowing him to continue.

It isn’t just Wilson, though. Alex Ovechkin rides the coattails of his name and stardom to consistently throw his body around in dangerous ways.

If nothing else, Ovie dissed the Coliseum crowd and that won’t be something we forget.

Toronto Maple Leafs

One point. It start with that one stinking point that put the Leafs in the playoffs over the Islanders. That one point sent the media into a frenzy and without even winning a game, the hockey world went crazy with this young Leafs team.

Clearly, the way to get anyone to root against you is to garner too much excited attention.

If these are things you can overlook, then as an Isles fan there is one reason and one reason alone to root against the Leafs. His name is Brian Boyle.

If nothing else, his three degrees of separation from the Rangers makes him an Isles public enemy. After that, though, there’s strangle job he put on John Tavares in last year’s playoffs that should leave a bad taste in every Isles fans’ mouth.

And if the job he did on Tavares doesn’t do it, the hit on Thomas Hickey should.

It’s sad to say but we should want Brian Boyle to lose more than we want Matt Martin to win.