Ricky injured; Isles win in OT; Blake gets booed

One thing we all could have warned any of our Maple Leaf-loving friends (If we were to have any) about Jason Blake was his propensity to try and do too much by himself at times. It could be maddening for me watching him dipsy-doodle through the neutral zone, only to get the puck separated from him and for the opposition to go the other way on a scoring chance.

So, you know, in overtime, we'd sort of seen that thing before.

Blake must've been over-excited to make his return to the old barn, even though he was hearing some boos last night. (Memo to Toronto sports writers: we pay for the tickets and we can boo who we want.) Truth is that Blake has been squeezing the stick a little too tight all season. He's only scored a handful of goals and has failed to click with Mats Sundin. The guy also has become really, really good at hitting the post if last night was any indication. (Jason, I've been there in my meager playing days and it sucks.)

In a lot of ways, it was a fitting end worthy of being written by Vince McMahon back in the day when storylines made sense: guys bolts town for big bucks, comes back, causes new team to lose to the old team. Sounds almost NWO-ish, doesn't it?

In overtime, after the boys killed a Richard Park penalty, Park redeemed himself by pick pocketing Blake as he fiddled and diddled and tossed a shot at Toronto goaltender of the moment Andrew Raycroft. Raycroft dished up a nice, fat rebound and Mike Comrie put it in the back of the net with 9.6 seconds to play in the extra frame. It was Comrie's second of the game and his team-leading eleventh goal of the season.

The real news came in warm-ups, however. Ricky tweaked his left knee and tried to gut it out but after giving up two in the first, he pulled himself from the game and Wade Dubielewicz started the second. Dubie must have found some of that old Spring of '07 magic in Frosty's hat because he played solidly in his first action in almost a month. (Remember December 1 vs. Atlanta? Yeesh.)

DiPietro will be evaluated today but did not make the trip to Ottawa for tonight's game against the Senators. Soundtigers goalie Joey McDonald has been summoned from Bridgeport (where he won 5-4 last night over Hershey and that is his picture with this post) to back up Dubie tonight.

The Islanders also played last night without Radek Martinek, who was nursing a sore leg. Funny, but I wasn't able to find word anywhere online if would be playing tonight against the Senators. In Martinek's absence, Bruno Gervais was elevated to the top defensive pair and played over 27 minutes.