Another man down?

The Islanders lost to the reigning Stanley Cup champions last night--a night in which the Ducks welcomed Teemu Selanne back to the lineup. The Islanders and losing at home are becoming almost a tradition of late and the team has been completely horrible in their last ten, going 3-6-1 and sliding right out of the NHL playoff picture.

The Isles have 54 points and are in tenth place overall in the east. Boston has a game in hand on the Isles and are currently in the eighth and final playoff spot with 59 points. Those freaking Rangers are in seventh with 60 points in 55 games. You look at the names on their roster and they should be so much better...but they are still in the playoff picture.

The NHL season is winding down. Last year at this time, it wasn't looking too good either. But at least the team was scoring goals once in a while. Last season, the playoff drive stalled and it took a magical stretch where they won their last four games and qualified for the playoffs in the final game of the year, with an overtime victory at New Jersey. You just have to think that the scenario is not going to play itself out the same way this season. The time is now. We need points and we need goals.

Last night, without injured warrior Mike Sillinger, the Islanders were ready with changes to the lineup in the hopes that something would get turned around. Jeff Tambellini had been playing spectacular hockey in the AHL and had been knocking on the door for over a month now. On Monday, Tambellini was recalled and he brought two of his Bridgeport Sound Tigers teammates with him: Tambellini's linemate Frans Nielsen and tough guy Kip Brennan. All three would be dressed to play the Ducks.

Last night, in the first period, the lineup took another hit when Miroslav Satan crashed awkwardly into the end boards and aggravated his injured right knee. According to Newsday, Miro had been gutting it out since hurting the knee on January 8. Satan returned later in the game, but the Islanders could muster no offense and lost to the Ducks 3-0. It is the Islanders seventh straight loss on Long Island.

Satan will apparently be re-evaluated today before the team heads to Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins tomorrow night.

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.

Richard Park earns everything he gets!

Park's wrister with 1:17 left in OT gave our boys a 3-2 victory over the Capitals last night.

You have to enjoy this new tough-love "earn your playing time" deal that Ted Nolan is using on the guys. While it was strange to see guys like Andy Hilbert and Blake Comeau on the PP in the third period the other night in Pittsburgh, it's also a really good way to let the star players on the team know that they need to be held accountable as well.

Anyone read US Weekly? Did Lizzie McGuire break up with Mike Comrie? The Islanders need him to get his focus back and start doing all of those things that made the guy the star that he was for the first part of the season.

Miro's first period goal extended his latest streak to six games. He and Big Joe have been getting a rhythm of late while playing with a revolving door of wingers. The Isles really need Miro and Vasicek to keep it going as well. Guerin potted the Isles' second goal. He's playing better of late, I think.

I'm really looking forward to the WJC starting Wednesday. It will be great to see Kyle Okposo play so we can get sort of a free preview of coming attractions. The Isles have other junior players in the tournament and we'll get to spotlighting some of those guys once the games get started.

Also, in a last note, I just want to say that Dominik Hasek is a tool. I was transferring a copy of Classic Series to DVD for a buddy who is a Senators fan and they had the 1997 series between Buffalo and Ottawa where Dom may or may not have faked a knee injury to get out of playing. Of course they had some of the ancillary issues of the series as well, featuring Hasek pushing a reporter and then his lame statements about wanting to play, etc. It is really telling to me that in his press statement after the shoving incident that he named the owner by name, John Muckler by name, and when he should have said Ted Nolan's name, he just said "the coach". It wasn't that he just said "the coach" either, he said it fairly derisively.

Seriously, if you were to make a list of the hockey players you just can't root for under any circumstances, wouldn't Hasek be on that list? Hasek. Roenick. Darcy Tucker. Sean Avery. Oh, man. This could be longer than Santa's!

Where was "Black Betty"?

Well, the Giants pooped in the punch bowl for sure yesterday and that
has me feeling prickly as a summer cactus. When I get fired up about
the inability of some of the higher-salaried people on the Giants
roster, I just try and relax and I remind myself that the Islanders are
9 and 4 so far this season. Yes!

This week begins a stretch where our boys are finally going to be
playing some games on the road...such as they are. I bet teams from the
Western Conference are jealous when they see stretches like this. The
Isles meet the Flyers tonight and the Penguins on Thursday. Then they
head to Jersey for the Devils on Saturday, the Rangers on Monday, and
the Canadiens on November 21. The day after Thanksgiving the Isles are
in Boston for a nooner and then host the Bruins the following night at
the Coliseum. Not a whole heck of a lot of traveling, for sure.

What can we say about the Devils game...other than the Games Ops peeps
didn't play "Black Betty"? I keed. No, it was another solid effort by
our boys in blue and orange. Somebody needs to call the fire department
because Miro Satan is on fire! Also, we need to keep Dancin' Stan
Hunter (love that nickname) in LI because his son Trent has been playing
very, very well since Dad came to visit. Billy Jaffe and Howie Rose
made the observation and I think it is true: we need to get Stan on the
road trip!

I especially liked the way our defensemen were heading to the net
Saturday night. Billy and Howie mentioned Andy Sutton's name many times
because Sutton was setting up shop right in front of Martin "Mr. 499"
Brodeur. Again, I keed. I love Brodeur and I think he is the best
goalie I've seen since Roy (I know how to take a stand on the real
issues, eh?) but everyone knows that the best way to beat any goalie is
to keep the puck near his feet. Sure, he is awesome in the butterfly
but packing the crease and playing it to his feet is the way to slide
'em past him. Of course, I say that and recognize that Miro's GWG was a
quick slam on a goal mouth pass from Trent Hunter that Brodeur had no
chance of stopping--especially because it was on a 5-on-3 PP advantage.
You know what I mean.

Over the weekend the Isles also welcomed back one Frederick Meyer IV as
well. Freddy had been with the Isles until getting cut when the team
needed to sign Bryan Berard. Of course, Berard has been out for a bit
and now ace in the hole Aaron Johnson is out for 6-8 weeks with a knee
injury so the backline is looking a bit depleted. Hey, the great thing
is that Meyer comes in fully aware of the systems and style of play so
he should be ready to go as soon as tonight against the Flyers.

Bill Guerin took a puck to the face against the Devils and although he
came back to play because he is a hockey player and that's what you do,
The Captain ended up missing the third period with the injury. Looked
to get him on the eyebrow area and he is reported to be re-examined
today before the Flyer game. I have a sneaking suspicion that if the
swelling is down and there's no damage to the eye itself that The
Captain will be in the lineup tonight.

Radek Martinek also was rocking a cut over his eye that needed a few
stitches the other night. He came back to play and was his usual steady
self. He reminds me a lot of Kenny Morrow in so many ways. I know that
is saying a lot but both guys were steady and played against the top
offensive players all the time without making any mistakes. Radek and
Brendan Witt compliment each other so well. You get the sense of
stability that Kenny Jonsson and Adrian Aucoin used to give us.

Lastly, I don't want to start an Oprah book club or anything, but people
have been asking me about the new books written by Bret Hart and Chris
Jericho. I've read both and I can tell you that each one is definitely
worth checking out. Jericho's book flows along like a buddy telling you
stories and when you're done, I think you can't help but like the guy
more and more. Bret's book is just like he seems to be: rather tortured
at times and serious. The guy has been through a lot and let's face
it--he's been on the doorstep of a lot of history. When he wasn't
knocking on the door of history, he was directly in the middle of
controversy. If you're looking for massive insight and disclosure about
Montreal 1997, there's not a lot new here. But if you want to learn
about the real Hart family and a lot about the early WWF, this is a good
one to read.

So there you go. Five stars for each book. Five stars for entirely
different reasons.

What a night!

First off, we need to say that the Islanders know how to throw a party. Second, we need to say that all Islander fans had to be super-happy to see Miro knock home the game winner for Al Arbour's 1500th game as coach of the Islanders.

It seemed a little dusty at times in the old barn for Radar, and who could blame him. The event was classy and reverential right from the beginning. The fans were outstanding and I was very pleased to see many younger people in the stands who had a great grasp of what kind of coach Al Arbour had been for the organization even though many of these fans may not have even been born the last time the Isles won the Stanley Cup.

I don't know about the pre-game stuff on TV for FSNY because it's all blacked out for those with the Center Ice package, but I can tell you that on Hockey Night in Canada they aired an excellent feature with Coach Arbour and his wife, Claire. For those who don't know, Elliotte Friedman is a very good reporter who has a feature or interview before the HNIC broadcast and his interview with Arbour was just outstanding. "Radar" even got a bit choked up when Friedman told him that fellow HNIC staffer Kelly Hrudey told him that Al had been like a second father to him.
You no doubt have read the Newsday accounts of the game or watched it for yourselves. It was a super game. Anthony Reiber in Newsday is reporting that Rick DiPietro was examined after getting clipped in the eye (through his mask) by Sidney Crosby and that he has not suffered any major eye damage. It isn't know, however, whether he'll make the start Tuesday when the Isles host the Rangers. Dubie played well and made more than a handful of key stops after relieving Ricky in the second period.

Ben Walter made his Islanders debut wearing #29 and playing on the fourth line with Chris Simon and Aaron Johnson.