What's better than beating Toronto?

Big New York Islanders effort last night in the unfriendly confines of the ACC. Ricky was unbelievable, making successive saves on Sundin and Kaberle. If you missed it, Big Mats flew down the right wing and uncorked on Ricky, who let the rebound go to his left right to Tomas Kaberle. The Leaf defenseman had an open net and tried to pop the rebound in the net from just above the circle. DiPietro sprawled to his right as only he can and snatched a goal away from Toronto.

I'd say to check in on ESPN because it's truly a sequence you need to see but then I remembered that ESPN barely shows any NHL highlights because they hate hockey fans. You can probably find it on the NHL website, on Islanders TV, or YouTube.

Mears and the Kinger both noted that the game last night had a real playoff atmosphere to it...and it really should have. Even though our boys secured the extra point in the shootout, we can't stress enough that every point is precious. The Isles and Leafs are now tied for ninth in the East with identical 27-22-8 records for 62 points. Both teams have a game in hand on the Canadiens, who hold down a two-point lead for the eighth spot.

The big difference from one year to the next has to be on defense. The Isles really signed a couple of warriors when they picked up Brendan Witt and Sean Hill. Both have just brought accountability and grit to a team that was sorely lacking in both departments. I mean, Eric Cairns is by all accounts a great teammate and a hard worker, but he was also undeniably a fist magnet. Being willing to drop the gloves doesn't mean you are going to be good at it. Other teams knew that they could get Cairns to lose his cool and then they'd have someone fight him to take whatever toughness the team had out of the game. Witt and Hill make the opponents pay for indiscretion. They make them pay for taking liberties with the other players. And the best thing is that they can get the other guys off of their own game. We've seen both of them do it to stars like Shanahan and Jagr over and over again. The opponent knows what to expect and they can do nothing about it. Last night Sundin showed a little fire getting in Brendan's face but in the end, nothing happened except that the best player on the Leafs got pissed off. Brilliant.

The goals were scored by Trent Hunter--and we better call the fire marshal because the man is officially on fire--and Miro Satan. Miro is another guy who took it to heart when Coach Nolan told him that the team needed him to nut up when Yash is on the shelf.

I'd be remiss if I didn't alert you, dear reader, that Fran Nielsen's move in the shootout was so cool it was too cold. He deked Andrew Raycroft so badly that Raycroft's jock ended up in the third row. By the time Koz got to him, it was all but academic. I was shocked to see that Nolan picked Frans for the shootout but of course, he knew something we don't and he looks like a genius for doing so. Nielsen even joked in Newsday that he missed on his only other shootout attempt in the American League. Good sense of humor, too, when he said that the goalies are better in the AHL than in the NHL.

Lastly, I want to end today's post with a little bit about Sting and The Police.

I didn't see the Grammy Awards but I did hear the performance of "Roxanne" on the radio and it nearly made me want to swerve into a bridge abutment. The performance was completely nutless and bland. For years the Stinger has been fooling the world by pretending to be some kind of genius artist but c'mon, the guy is a total waste. Right-thinking people should shudder with contempt at the mere mention of his name...which is Gordon!

Here are the facts: every album of Sting's should be called "Songs for Scented Candles" and should be available only at Pottery Barn. He ruined the only good song he has ever written--"Roxanne"--by changing the tempo of it for the express reason that he cannot hit those notes in the higher register any more. He'll claim that the song has evolved over the years and whatnot; with the typical ar-teest line of bullsheet blah blah blah, but we know that he just can't get up the energy to say, "ROXaaaaaaane!" any more.

And that isn't even taking into consideration that the man recorded a bunch of Christmas songs on a lute! Who the hell plays a freaking lute these days? What kind of pretentious horsepile is that? A freaking lute! And yet, without fail, middle-aged wine sniffers will all sit around and play the latest Sting CD, talk about mutual funds with their friends as the sandalwood nightmare envelopes around them like a freaking Dockers commercial from hell.

It's always a little sad when the old bands reunite for the cash grab (hello, Van Halen!) but this one proves that there are suckers born every minute and that Sting and the Police are going to exploit the wine collecting and mini-van-owning public for every nickel that they can. Plus they're not making any new music AND probably won't play "Canary In A Coal Mine". That's Capitalism with a capital C, baby!

So, when you go, be sure to enjoy the show, but don't say you weren't warned when you leave the show and it was boring and there's like $500 missing from your pocket.