This play didn't begin as a breakaway. When Sidney Crosby got the puck at center ice, Thomas Hickey was in his way, with Lubomir Visnovsky closing in on Crosby's right. Plenty of room.
Hickey flailed helplessly as Crosby batted the puck under his stick and glided right on by him. Visnovsky made a harmless poke, and then he was gone. All Islanders goalie Evgeni Nabokov could do was light a cigarette and put on a blindfold.