Isles win in OT; Yashin featured in the New York Times

Trent Hunter saved the Isles' bacon last night with the winning goal in OT after our boys had squandered a three-goal lead.

In the second period, the Islanders looked to be coasting along 3-0. Soon it was tied at 3 after a penalty shot score by Eric Perrin and tallies by Ken Klee and former Islander Alexei Zhitnik.

Mike Comrie had two goals and Josef Vasicek and Trent Hunter each made the scoresheet with a goal and an assist. The newest Islander, Rob Davison, added his first point as an Islander on a two-line pass that sprung Comrie in the first period.

Holik had tied the game at four with a little more than a minute left in the third after Comrie had reclaimed the lead early in the period. Hunter capped the game after Josef Vasicek intercepted Klee's pass and whipped the puck in front to Hunter, who made no mistake for his ninth of the season at 1:09 of the overtime.

The Islanders website reports that Frans Nielsen will be re-examined later today. He left the game in the second with a shoulder injury. Also, Brendan Witt traveled with the team and may be ready to come back Saturday for Fan Appreciation Day in a matinee with the Flyers.

As of the time I write this, with all precincts reporting, the Isles are in tenth place in the race for the playoffs. Every game counts here on out. The Sabres are in eighth with 71 points in 64 games and the Isles are 4 points behind them.

The New York Times has what I consider some strange comments about Russian hockey in an article by Michael Schwirtz. Mr . Schwirtz maintains that the NHL is losing some of the better Russian players to the Russian leagues who are trying to reclaim some of the home-grown talent. While that fact is undeniable, Yashin tried and tried to get an NHL contract for this season after the Islanders bought him out but he couldn't find anyone who wanted to meet his price, so he went back to Russia to play.

The article also touches on the planned European Superleague that is in the planning stages. Overall, an interesting read. You can find it here: www.nytimes.com

Not Good

Lookit Eli over there. He can't believe it either. The Isles played a great first period and yet let the game slip back to the visiting Flyers by playing cautious, trying-to-be-too-cute hockey. Also, it bears mentioning that DiPietro didn't have his strongest game of the season either last night...but once the team stops playing with discipline and gets away from the direct style we've grown happy to see, the Islanders can find themselves in trouble.

The Islanders had a great first period and went into the break up 3-1 on goals by Richard Park, Josef Vasicek (it had been a while) and Bill Guerin.

By the end of the game, they'd squandered that two goal cushion and dropped the game 5-3. The Isles have lost three straight home games for the first time this season, and dropped their third consecutive to the freaking goon-laden Flyers.

We have a neighbor who has been known to reply, "Not good" if you ask him how he is doing. Well, if he were to ask any Islander fan how they were doing this morning--and I am typing this at like 5:30 in the morning, we'd all tell him that we were "Not good" as well.

Going into the third, the Isles were nursing a one goal lead. Then those tricky boards at the Coliseum hiccuped on Ricky. He tried to play the puck around the boards but the biscuit kicked funny off of off the skate of Scottie Upshall and landed with Hartnell, who deposited the puck into the empty net. Hartnell had a hat trick.

Monday is a big game with the visiting Hurricanes. General Colin Powell will be in the Coliseum to drop the ceremonial first puck. That should be very, very cool. We all need to forget the game from last night and move forward.

So, having said that, I will leave you all with this: LET'S GO G-MEN!!!

Isles Downed by Oilers; Canucks Tonight

Anyone else notice that Rick hasn't won since he hurt his knee the other night?

This Western swing has not treated our boys kindly. OT loss in Colorado--on a shot that DiPietro should've made--and a gak 4-0 blanking last night in Edmonton. The Isles should be treating games against teams like the Oilers--teams with losing records--as important games where they should not settle for less than two points. But here we are.

DiPietro is probably fired up to play against Roberto Luongo tonight, as he should. Luongo was essentially sent to Florida just so Milbury could shock the hockey world and pick Ricky first overall back in the day. Luongo hasn't really had a ton of playoff heat but he has done one thing Rick has yet to do--get out of the first round of the playoffs.

Now, saying that, does that mean Luongo is better than Rick DiPietro? Right now, I would not make that trade. Luongo has a little more experience than Rick does and yes, he was really good in the NHL Rock the Rink game for the PS1, but then again, so was Taylor Pyatt. To me, Luongo does not have the intangibles of a player like Rick DiPietro and he does not bring what Ricky can when he is in good form.

Was Milbury fleeced by the Panthers? Well, yeah. Kinda. But you have to recall that at the time, the Islander organization is not what it is now. Guys with talent and huge upsides had to take on bigger, more substantive roles than they were ready for. That's why players like Todd Bertuzzi and Eric Brewer blossomed when they left the Island. The teams that traded for them had time to let them grow and had infrastructure in place within the organization that allowed for the guys to mature at a reasonable pace. The Isles needed them to wake up, jump out of bed, and start vacuuming the house. Vancouver and Edmonton were able to allow for Bertuzzi and Brewer to have some coffee first and ease into it. Of course, both have regressed professionally but that's a column for a different day.

Let me ask a different question: what the heck happened to Ruslan Fedotenko? He and Josef Vasicek have been in-freaking-visible of late. These guys are counted on to chip in with the Scoring by Committee Plan as devised by Ted Nolan and Garth Snow. Instead, both guys are getting about the same ice time as I would if I were on the team.

Miro Satan is missing in action as well. This leaves the bulk of the scoring square on the shoulders of Bill Guerin and Mike Comrie. Both of them, by the way, have been known as streaky players. I guess Ted Nolan is really happy they're both on a bit of a hot streak...last night notwithstanding.

What does this mean going forward? Well, obviously, it means that the Islanders as constituted need to pick up the scoring. This is not new to any of us who follow the team, is it? in fact, if the first half of the season had a theme to it, that's what it would be: we need to score more.

And I'm not sure how the heck they are going to do it.

Stuck on 499

Big comeback win against the Devils last night after dropping a 3-2 game to the Penguins as the Islanders beat the Devils 1-0. Martin Brodeur is still looking for career win #500.

How big has Josef Vasicek been so far for the Islanders. Big Joe got his seventh of the season, one more goal than he had all last season. Devils defenseman Mike Mottau fell while skating backward about 10-15 feet in front of Brodeur. He grabbed the puck, flashed a few moves on Brodeur, and bounced a shot in off the goalie's blocker that landed in the net just over his right shoulder--all while the Isles were killing a penalty.

Rick DiPietro turned back 26 New Jersey shots to earn his second shutout and his third win over the Devils this season. The Devils best chance came late in the third when when Patrik Elias split two Islanders but missed the net wide to DiPietro's left from just above the crease.

As expected, Marc Andre Bergeron was a healthy scratch now that Bryan Berard has returned for our boys. Freddy Meyer was also scratched.