The Week That Was

That was one hell of a week in Islanders history. Let's review:

**Isles had to beat Toronto on Thursday (and they did, 5-2) to keep pace with Montreal and TO;

**Isles had to beat Philly Saturday (and they did 4-2) in a strong, balanced performance and a gritty goal by Richard Park;

**Toronto had to beat Montreal on Saturday and did win 6-5 in a wild game that was 4-2 Montreal at one point;

**The Islanders had to beat the Devils on Easter Sunday to overtake Toronto and eliminate them (and they won in the shootout 3-2) The Isles had a 2-0 lead early in the third but then the Devils got two quick ones--the second coming with less than a freaking second left in the game. There was no scoring in the OT so it went to shootout. Miro Satan scored first and Viktor Kozlov scored second. That made it 2-1 in the shootout. Dubielewicz made pokechecks on the next two shooters (including the last Devils shooter, Sergei Brylin) and they freaking won!

OK, so now it is Tuesday morning and I have just resumed normal breathing. I am such a geek. I was so excited Saturday night after the TO-Montreal game (we monitored the game on the computer...may God smile on the person who invented DSL) that I barely slept Saturday night. Then I had to play cool all day on Easter and pretend that I wasn't jumping out of my skin waiting for the game to start. My wife and my mom both kidded with me about how keeping busy helping out with the cooking and whatnot was taking my mind off of the game...which was so not true! But honestly, we never expected this to happen. The Isles really needed a lot to fall into place and it did.

Easter has always been a great day in Islanders' history. First we had the Easter Epic and now, as Peter Botte of the Daily News proclaimed, we can now see the game against the Devils as The Resurrection.

The whole thing is just unbelievable. I mean, you know it happened and you watched the games but the Isles making the playoffs just seemed like such a longshot. Maybe the better word is "improbable" and not "unbelievable". Yeah, maybe that is what we can say: improbable.

Was anyone else begging for Howie; Billy; and Deb on Sunday? If you're a Center Ice subscriber like me, you didn't get the regular Islander TV crew. Instead we were "treated" to the Devils announcers (but not Mike Emrick, who was doing the NBC game) and they weren't as into it as the Isles' announcers would have been. You remember the guy from MSG Network who kinda looked like Deuce Bigelow, Steve Cangialosi? Well, he did the PBP with former Islander and Devil, Chico Resch. Chico has what I consider to be simply the worst toupee in television history. I swear that in the first standup that I could make out a chin strap holding that thing in place! At least with him you get some comedy and enthusiasm but the telecast focused on the fact that the game was the last regular season one to be played at the Continental Airlines Arena--a building one does not exactly feel nostalgic about in any way. It would have been so much better and dramatic if we got to see the Islanders' TV crew instead of The Maven; Chuck the Duck; and Ken Danyeko.

Now we all turn our eyes to Thursday in Buffalo. I for one, cannot wait.