Richard Park plays every shift like his pants are on fire

And that's why we like him so much.

Good win last night at the Gahden for the Islanders. Joey MacDonald is doing his best to make people forget about the weeble known as Dubie. (Speaking of, is there any news how Dubie is doing in Russia? If you have some news, put it in the comments. Thanks.)

Park's relentless fore-check and effort led to the Isles second goal. Park intercepted a terrible cross ice pass and made a quick deke that froze Ranger netminder Henrik Lundqvist before firing a high wrist shot over Zoolander at the 8 minute mark of the third period.

The Isles first goal of the night came earlier in the period after some more hard work on the PK. Nate Thompson jump-started a fast-break 2-on-1 with Frans Nielsen. Thompson fed Nielsen, who clinked his shot off the post. Nate popped the puck out of mid-air and over the prone Henrik Lundqvist at 3:18 of the third period. It was the hard-working Thompson's first NHL goal and first NHL point. Well done, Nate. No word on whether Henrik was so sad that he broke out the Blue Steel pose for reporters after the game. We will work on getting an update.

What else I liked: Joey MacDonald. For a guy with a one-way contract that a lot of people (fans) had questions about, Joey was strong again in net last night. He's sure ending up playing a whole heck of a lot more than anyone ever expected so far this season, and he has gone a long way into securing some further employment for himself. MacDonald's best save of the night came at the end of the second period on a Scott Gomez one-timer. He stopped 29 Ranger shots in the first two periods and kept the game even at zero entering the third period.

Jeff Tambellini fighting. Wow. Did you see his dad in the crowd when Jeff was fighting? Talk about composed. Sure, the Tambellinis are a hockey family and they all understand the role of fisticuffs in the game and all but still, that is your kid out there. And Jeff didn't do too badly in a middleweight scrap with Ranger Nigel Dawes.

Still, Jeff was like the next-to-last Islander I thought I would ever see in a fight. The last? That would have to be Mark Streit. He's from Switzerland, of course, and as we know from the NHL Network commercials, the Swiss were neutral in World War II. I think I learned that in school as well.

Kyle Okposo. Kyle hasn't hit the score sheet as much as he'd like but one thing is for sure and that is that the kid can play. He also is really good "playing in space", which is a soccer term for a player who uses whatever part of the field the defender is giving him to his advantage. Kyle Okposo plays in space and it is going to fun to watch him grow throughout this season.

What I didn't like: Not much. The Isles went into MSG and came out with two points in regulation after having trouble holding onto 3 goal leads in their previous couple of games. Got to like that.

The Isles are bound for ATL on Thursday and that should be an interesting game because the Thrashers play a firepants full-court press brand of hockey that our boys do. They also have Ilya Kovalchuk, who is dangerous when he decides to try.