Frans Nielsen played coy in the afternoon, but come game time, he knew exactly what was going to happen.
“There was no way I wasn’t going to play,” Nielsen said, distraught after the Islanders’ 4-3 overtime loss the Penguins at the Coliseum that ended their season in Game 6 of the opening round of the playoffs.
“I felt pretty good,” he said, speaking about the lower-body injury took him out in the second period of Game 5 and made him questionable going into Saturday night. “It was good enough.”
Nielsen said before the game he still needed clearance from the doctors, and admitted he still felt the injury. Yet the 29-year-old Dane played his regular defensive-minded role, notching 19:50 of ice time.
With just over five minutes remaining in regulation, a Paul Martin slap shot deflected off of Nielsen’s stick in front and behind goalie Evgeni Nabokov to tie the game, 3-3. Nielsen tossed his head back in disappointment, and that feeling wasn’t exactly gone afterwards, either.
“Right now, it’s tough,” Nielsen said. “Maybe when we look back in a couple weeks or months, I think we’ll realize we took a big step in the right direction. But we’re definitely not satisfied with that. We still have a long way to go, and it’s not a success until we get that Cup.”
* Joining Nielsen in the lineup was 21-year-old rookie forward Brock Nelson, making his NHL debut in replacement of Jesse Joensuu.
“The guys just told me to relax, embrace it and just play the game,” said Nelson, who got a game-low 7:44 but never looked entirely out of place. “The game doesn’t change, it’s just a step up.”
Nelson had a terrific year playing for the AHL’s Bridgeport Sound Tigers, scoring 25 goals and 52 points in 66 games. He was called up at the beginning of the postseason as part of the taxi squad and took his first bow in the midst of a heated playoff series.
“Maybe at the beginning I was a little shell-shocked, kind of looking around a little bit,” he said. “But after a while I got into it and things settled down.”
* The Islanders reinserted hulking defenseman Matt Carkner for Thomas Hickey, while veteran Radek Martinek stayed in the lineup.
Though the team played a stout defensive game, the loss of top-pair defenseman Andrew MacDonald to a broken hand in Game 4 still could be felt.
“He was a key player for our team,” coach Jack Capuano said. “It’s not an excuse. … When you go through the playoffs and you’re trying to win a Stanley Cup, there are going to be a lot of injuries.”