Capitals fans write letter to Isles after being harassed

By Alexandra Huber | Apr 20, 2015

Apr 15, 2015; Washington, DC, USA; Washington Capitals fans sit in the stands in the final minute of the third period against the New York Islanders in game one of the first round of the the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Verizon Center. The Islanders won 4-1, and lead the series 1-0. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /

Capitals fans write a letter to the New York Islanders after being harassed by Isles fans during Game 3.

A group of Washington Capitals fans had a terrible time at Nassau Coliseum on Sunday night, and it had nothing to do with the outcome of the game.

A group of Capitals fans wrote a long, detailed letter to the Islanders after being “harassed” at Game 3 of the Caps/Isles series on Long Island. In the letter, the fans describe Sunday’s game as “the worst experience [they] have had in 30 years of attending sporting events.”

The letter went viral among Islanders fans on Twitter Sunday.

The full letter is available here. (Take a minute to read the whole thing and bask in Islander fan glory.) But here are a few key points:

"I am a member of the New York City Capitals Fans and a dozen of us decided to take a trip to Long Island to see our Capitals play. We paid $158 each for terrible seats way up top with an obstructed view of the score boards but not quite high enough that we didn’t have drunk Islanders fans screaming at us to shut up."

Tickets to hockey games are expensive, as fans you would know this, and this is a playoff hockey game. Also, as New Yorkers, you know that you live in the most expensive city in the country. The price you paid to get in the door is irrelevant, but even so, it’s not that surprising. And the obstructed view? If you are buying your ticket on a reputable site, they tell you the view is obstructed. And if you bought the ticket from another fan or a scalper, you should have done your research prior. Little sympathy here.

Not that we’re experts in the demographics of Nassau Coliseum, but at most stadiums, the upper deck is where the drunkest, most rowdy fans reside. Again, as a sports fan, you should have expected this going in.

More from New York Islanders

"When the Islanders scored their first goal one of the guys behind me poured beer all over me. Homophobic bulls**t was shouted at us all game and my friend Fatou had a number of racist comments directed at her."

No excuse for this. This is a game we’re talking about. If you as a fan feel the need to throw inappropriate insults at others then you are the one with the problem, not the person in the other team’s jersey.

The letter goes on to list a number of similar offenses – smoke being blown in their faces, bottles being thrown at them – all of them worse than the next. Pretty terrible. And this is just the first round of the playoffs, imagine if they make it to the Stanley Cup finals.

"At some point a drunk Islanders fan grabbed the rally towel out of my hands and as I tried to get it back Islanders fans swarmed me and it looked like it was going to turn into a brawl but security was quick to break it up."

Give me my rally towel back, you big bully!

"When we made it to our cars we noticed that our friend Justin’s car had been keyed twice and his rear license plate had been stolen."

Did Justin have a Caps bumper sticker perhaps?

"While I have had some problems with fans in the past (Jets fans mostly) I have never had so many people be so s**tty to me and my friends."

Jets fans…Islander fans…there’s a lot of crossover there.

"Hopefully when you guys come to Brooklyn, the city I have lived for the last decade, you will do a much better job of controlling your drunk abusive fans and hire some security guards who do their jobs instead of just treating the visiting fans as the enemy."

Yep! Because moving 25 miles to the West is sure to irradiate this deep-seeded problem. To paraphrase, “spread love it’s the Brooklyn way.”

Ultimately, no one is making an excuse for racist, homophobic, violent, vile behavior, and it must have been pretty bad for the fans to take the time to write this letter. But when you enter an opposing team’s venue in your team’s jersey, you take responsibility for yourself. If you feel threatened, as these fans clearly did, remove yourself from the situation. It’s just a hockey game, after all. You are not required to stay.

This Caps fan is, unsurprisingly, putting all the onus on the Isles fans. If the reactions from Islanders fans were completely unprovoked, that’s one thing, but we’re guessing you weren’t completely in the right. Just a guess, though.

Videos provided by the Capitals fans are posted below.

More from FanSided

Home/New York Islanders