Canadiens 3 Islanders 1

Long road trip. Severe traveling throughout Western Canada and the states. Bonding. Team building. Snow in Long Island keeps you in Ottawa. Finally, after being on the road for ten days, you return home. Ah, the friendly confines. Family. There's a game to play. What do you do?

Well, if you're on the Islanders, you promptly lay an egg.

Last night was not a fun game to watch by any stretch. The Islanders played tired and managed one shot on goal in the first period. In fact, the Canadiens looked to be fresh and played with a bit of a spark as they lined up and dared our boys to try and cross center ice. And for the first period, it looked like they didn't want to do it. They only had, as a team, one more shot on net than I did and I wasn't anywhere near the Coliseum last night.

DiPietro was not the DiPietro we all admire. I dare say that both of the goals scored by Tomas Plekanec (one at even strength and one shorthanded) were ones Rick would like to have had back. In the rearview mirror, this may have been a good game to get Dubie some work in net. Rick played a lot of hockey on the road trip and the team traveled over 6000 miles in ten days. I dare say that Wade may have been a better choice; especially with the Isles in New Jersey to play the Devils tonight.

One thing that the Versus crew missed--or I missed them mentioning it--was that the Isles were obviously taking very short shifts trying to conserve their energy. As a result, there were very few sustained rushes and not too much pressure on Habs goalie Cristobal Huet.

Richard Park had the Islanders only goal in the third period to cut the deficit to one and Alex Kovalev added an empty netter to seal the two points for the Habs.

The boys are back on the ice tonight against the Devils. Let's hope for a better effort tonight.