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Preseason - Washington Capitals 3 (EN), New York Islanders 1: Hickey hurt, horn honking

Hickey left with an "upper body" injury, Boulton chased Wilson to no avail, and the goal horn honked people off.

By Dominik
Greiss paints the town, er borough, er bridge, orange.
Greiss paints the town, er borough, er bridge, orange.
Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Thomas Hickey was injured in the New York Islanders' 3-1 preseason loss to the Washington Capitals, but the severity was unclear after the game.

Other notable reports from the un-televised games included Eric Boulton's frequent but unconsummated pursuit of spring playoff villain Tom Wilson, Kirill Petrov's nice snipe for the Islanders' only goal, and the...rather high pitch of the goal horn that had many fans honked off during the game.

You can hear the goal horn (and see Petrov's goal) here. It created more jokes on Twitter than I can count.

There wasn't much on Hickey's injury other than:

Capuano said he did not have an update on Hickey after the game. "He’ll see the doctors Tuesday and then we’ll figure it out," Capuano said.

...and:

Boulton v. Wilson (Incomplete)

As for Boulton, who has been signed to a series of one-year contracts the last few seasons but is currently in camp on a PTO, he unapologetically looked to exact frontier justice on Tom Wilson, who knocked Lubomir Visnovsky out of the playoffs and out of his Islanders career with a baiting check last spring.

Evidently Wilson was told by his coach not to bother:

That's either really smart, or dodging hockey's "code," or both. Boulton's probably retired within the month, so Wilson could avoid him without too much worry. Then again, most "physical" people in hockey tend to alternately act like proud code-upholding citizens one moment and then hypocrites the next depending on the situation, so...onward then.

Much more on the confrontation or lack thereof, in Newsday and in the Washington Post, as Wilson said he both "respects" Boulton's role but knew he "didn't play at all" last year and probably won't this year either. Touche.

The Rest

In goal, the new backup Thomas Greiss played the full 60 -- well, aside from being pulled for a sixth attacker -- and gave up two goals on 24 shots.

The Isles generally described their play as "sloppy," but Petrov's goal came off a nifty feed from Michael Dal Colle to make it 2-1. An empty net goal gave the Caps the insurance goal.

Otherwise, not much coming out of this one. The Isles now have almost a full week of practice before their final preseason game against these same Capitals, next Sunday in D.C.

But to close this game that didn't matter and few saw, some Caps reactions to the new areener: