Mr. 100

Well, Ricky has about 400 to go to catch Brodeur, but anything the guy does now should not surprise us. Honestly, there's a comfort level in net that fans of the team have not enjoyed in a very, very long time.

Think about the maturation of his game over the past few seasons. When he came up, DiPietro tried to do too much. He tried to make saves that were too dramatic. He tried to make big up-ice passes before the red line was taken out of the game. Rick relied more on athletic instinct to make saves and play his position than he did by playing sound angles. It was an exciting style, but not good exciting. DiPietro was all too often flopping around on his stomach like a fish gasping for air. It was desperate. Maybe he didn't have much trust in the skaters in front of him at the time and maybe he felt a measure of athletic arrogance back in the day. But now, seriously, no one can touch him. It's correct to say that Rick DiPietro is one of the top goaltenders in the National Hockey League. It's no longer a stretch for a fan of the Islanders to talk him up and try and give DiPietro guy a little rub. It's now a fact.

Last night's game against the Rangers was almost perfect. We also got to see a little of the fire Rick has in his belly when he dropped a glove on Sean Avery after Avery has whacked him in the crease. We also got to see the man play some positionally-sound goaltending and in a matchup with the alleged best goalie in the game (Engblom said it on Versus and Stan said it on MSG), DiPietro continued his mastery of the Rangers. Rick gets up to play these big games and man, when the guy gets to the playoffs with a solid team ahead of him, you have to believe that he is going to take the Islanders as far as he can.

With another one goal victory, the Islanders have moved to 11-6. Winning all of these close games is fine and certainly builds character (as they say) but the offense is going to have to kick it in gear in one of these upcoming games. Montreal had a hot start but the Habs have cooled down in their last ten games. The Bruins are in the same situation. Away from home the Bruins can be beat and they're relying on G Tim Thomas to save their bacon. Right there tells you what you need to know about the Bruins. They've recently called up top prospect Tuukka Rask to play within the pipes so Claude Julien recognizes that the up-and-down performance they get from Thomas needs to be improved upon.

But let's get back to the Rangers. Has anyone seen Jaromir Jagr? Are their search parties out there looking for him? I don't know that I saw him last night. Another big game and another MIA Jagr.

What about Scott Gomez? We can hear all about his great point streak and yet, last night, in another big game, Gomez is missing. If I am a Ranger fan--and believe me, I thank Sweet Jesus every morning that I am not--I'm wondering why the defensemen are all scoring goals and the forwards with the huge paychecks aren't doing jack.

Another big game last night for Big Joe. It was a little scary in the second when he got beaned with the puck after scoring his team-leading 8th goal but Vasicek is a hockey player so he was back out there in the third to help the Isles clamp down and run out the clock.

Andy Hilbert and Richard Park were singled out by the Ranger announcers as having good games as pests last night. See, Sean Avery, you can be a bit of a disturber without jeopardizing your team with needless penalties and without inducing eye rolling amongst your teammates.

Wednesday night, the Islanders host Montreal before heading to Boston for a nooner on Friday.