In Montreal tonight

Bergie is out and Thompson is back in.

Another Man Down: Thompson out 4-6 weeks

Greg Logan reports that Nate Thompson is going to miss the next 4-6 weeks with a shoulder injury sustained on the Dad's Trip through Florida.

My wife Linzi took a picture featured on the Yahoo Puck Daddy Blog. Too bad it had to be something involving Larry Brooks' main squeeze.

Howie Rose will be featured on the NHL Network's "Voices" show this week. I love this show. It's a behind-the-scenes look at hockey broadcasters as they plan out and describe their game day rituals. With Howie and Billy, you know it is going to be entertaining...but if he does that "Matteau!" stuff, I am gonna puke!

Capitals 2 Islanders 1 -- OT

Well, the good news is that the Isles got a point against the Capitals. Ovechkin had 2 goals and Kyle Okposo scored on the power play for the Isles.

WHAT I LIKED: Okposo. You see today that he's just scored his sixth goal and that doesn't sound great or anything but over the year, Kyle has seriously improved. He's made the proverbial leaps and bounds. He's aggressive and always going to the net. He's confident on the puck and we also get to see that burst of speed that we all had heard about. He clearly missed playing the point on the power play with Doug Weight but he is making pretty good decisions with the puck on his stick from the point. There are hiccups as he learns but overall, seeing the improvement since he's returned from injury bodes well for the future of the team.

Nate Thompson and Tim Jackman: these two guys know how to play within themselves; Billy Jaffe talked about it during today's game. They keep everything simple, play to their strengths, and give the team good energy from the fourth line.

Yann Danis: he made some excellent stops today and really reigned in those rebounds. Probably played his strongest game as an Islander.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: the cheap slashing call on Brendan Witt in overtime. It was totally ticky-tack and a hard call to make in overtime. It really shouldn't have been called. And yes, with Witt off the ice, that allowed Ovechkin a lot more room without 32 riding him all over the ice.

The Isles are back to entertain the Ducks on Wednesday and then they're off until the following Thursday in Atlanta.

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.