Glad I took my blood pressure medicine today….

This was the most exciting game that I have seen this year.  I felt just about every emotion that I could possibly imagine.  Fear, anger, sadness, exhiliration, ecstasy.

Well - maybe not everyone - it is a public place, you know…

This game is a real step towards not only respectibility, but it is kind of like grabbing the next rung of the ladder.  I feel that this team is moving forward, and it takes attempts like this to make it happen.

Ok - is Mike Sillinger the story of the year?  12 teams in his career, and there are still so many hockey experts that think that he is gone. 

No freaking way!  He is going nowhere!  Not only does he provide scoring touch (# 20 on the year today), but the presence in the locker room, the calming influence on the rest of the guys.  To the Isles, Alexei Yashin is the captain of the team, but to me #18 REALLY is!

I think that all four lines played really well.  The only real problem with this team today was the fact that the for the first minute of each period, the Pens scored a goal.  Ryan Malone, scoring a hat trick today, has six of his twelve goals on the season against the Islanders.  I think that the defense played a decent job on Crosby and Malkin.  Crosby got four assists, but his shooting was kept to the outside, so no point blank shots were received by Ricky.Witt and Hill were the battering rams, with a dash of Campoli.  The physical game is key to the success of the Isles, this game was no exception.

Welcome to the Island, Marc-Andre!  He played extremely well, and I really enjoy his offensive game.  He has more goals than the rest of the defense, and is definitely not afraid to shoot the puck.  And boy, does he have a BLAST of a shot!  He got two points in his Islander debut, which is making Garth Snow look like a freaking genius.

Chris Simon was excellent as well, scoring his first two goals in nearly 30 games.  There really wasn’t a bad Islander today.  Yes Ricky gave up five goals, but when he needed to, made some great saves.

By the way - the Isles have had some visitors from the UK for the last two games.  They came from Belfast, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, and Nottingham, among others.  They have enjoyed watching the Isles, as they also saw them in Toronto.  Their trip took them to Detroit, Toronto, Buffalo, New Jersey, and the Garden.  Their last game is tomorrow in Jersey against the Rangers.  The jerseys they wear are real cool looking.  I had a picture with a bloke named Mark from Belfast.  Unfortunately, my wife took a picture that did not come out too well (note to Mark - if your picture came out, please e-mail it to webmaster@nyiboosterclub.org). 

THREE STARS OF THE GAME

1. Mike Sillinger - Game winning goal - what a lucky thing that the Booster Club has a meeting tomorrow and Sillinger is the guest.
2. Marc-Andre Bergeron - welcome and thanks for bringing that slap shot of yours.
3. Chris Simon - two goals - welcome back!

GOLD STAR

• The UK fans - see above

TIN TWIT

• Officiating - I usually don’t gripe on this - but I really think Don Koharski has either fuzzy vision of dark objects, or his cruller addiction is getting the best of him.  He officiated the last two games we played, and he has been nothing short of pathetic.  I know that even with the two referee system does not produce a 100% efficiency rating, but Koho and van Massenhoven were real bad on Saturday against the Devils, and Donut boy and Tim Peel were just as worse.  I am so tired of the Islanders getting the short end of the stick.  As of today, we are a -81 of PP as opposed to PK.  It really sucks.  Hey refs. how about paying a little more attention to the game, ok.

Will take the day off tomorrow - we have a Booster Club meeting, on Wednesday, I will show some pics and some highlights of the meeting.

I was really hoping that the guys would have seen what the Penguins did to Jersey, and do the same thing.

However, was I wrong….

The Devils, for all intents and purposes, stopped the Isles from creating traffic in front of Marty, and the Devils took advantage of the Islanders mistakes, and beat New York by a score of 2-0.

This is the third shutout by Marty against the Isles this season, and the 11th on the year for the future Hall-of-Fame member.  Is he ever going to show signs of slowing down?  This was Brodeur’s 29th straight game.  Scott Clemmenson has the greatest job in the NHL!  Making money for sitting on his arse.  What a deal.

THREE STARS:

1. Rick DiPietro - played a solid game.  Had no chance on the first goal and unfortunately, I did not see the second one.
2. None
3. None

GOLD STAR - Great to see a few dozen hockey fans from across the pond today.  They are a group trip seeing nearly 10 games all across the North East.  They were at the game last night - and will return on Monday against the Pens.  I will get a picture and some quotes from them for Tuesday’s entry.

BERGERON an Islander.  Marc-Andre Bergeron, was dealt from the Edmonton Oilers to the Islanders along with a 3rd round pick for Denis Grebeshkov.  To me, this move is a freaking steal.  With Bruno and Martinek on the shelf, this is a great addition, for basically nothing. Grebeshkov probably would never end up here, and Bergeron is only 26.  With 33 goals in 189 games, he is very offensive oriented; and only 101 penalties during that time, it seems that he plays a positional and smart game, becuase of his diminished size (5-9, 180).

With his lack of size, it will be a definite need to pair him up with Witt, a strong backminded d-man.  He will not be a 23-27 minute man, but 16-20 would be good, and his shot on the PP will be most important.  He already has 8 goals on the season, which is more than the entire defense combined. 

I like this deal a lot.

On the UK front - as I type this - the Sheffield Steelers are at home playing the Belfast Giants.  The night before, the Steelers defeated Newcastle 2-0.  Netminder Jody Lehman notched his sixth clean sheet of the season.  The Steelers are stil lin third place in the league, one point ahead of the rival Nottingham Panthers.  On Wednesday, the Steelers lost 4-3 to the Conventry Blaze in the first leg of the Challenge Cup final.  The second leg will be in the end of March at the House og Steel.

Go Steelers…. If any of you readers are from the UK, please let me know.  Thanks for the support! Cheers!

With a Canadiens loss last night - the Isles are two points behind the 8th place team.  Now - with the next seven games on home ice, it is time, FINALLY, for this team to take a big step up.  This will do two things:

1. Shut up the critics that believe that we are just going to dump our players and run the proverbial table until the season ends
2. Start putting team in the rearview mirror.

Ricky has been BIG of late - he has done the kind of things that will begin to put your name among the elite.  The numbers are not there yet, but they will be.  He is 3rd in the league in shutouts, and he will not reach Brodeur levels, his name is improving on that list.

Now we need to get the offensive players on the ball, and home cooking is just the remedy.  Satan, Hunter and Kozlov, have responded to the coach’s call for offense.  Now it is time for the Robitaille’s, Hilbert’s and especially, the Blake’s of this world to get their collective chests pumping.

Player to watch:  Randy Robitaille.  With York a busts in two cities this year - it seems like we can call the Randy Robitaille deal a wash. However, it would be nice for #27 to get his game going in the right direction.  He has a good shot, and has had some decent chances at times.  Other times, he looks like a lost puppy - seeking his toy bone.

Is Yash playing?  Maybe his face should be on the body of Waldo…

And speaking of Waldo - where is Keith’s favorite basher?  Will Bates play again - - - ?  I am sure we all know what KPMats wants to see happen????

Well - enjoy the game! 

BTW - Story on Sheffield’s game last night in the Challenge Cup against the Coventry Blaze, courtesy of www.sheffieldsteelers.co.uk.

02/14/2007 11:19 PM

Both teams had chances in a very competitive 1st period, but at the end of the first twenty there was one goal separating the teams. The goal came the way of the home team at 13.26 on the powerplay as Adam Calder fired home his 23rd of the season. Moments later Steelers had a 5 on 3 powerplay and despite numerous chances on the Blaze goal the home side held firm to maintain their lead. Blaze doubled their advantage at 25.12 with a second powerplay goal as Sylvain Cloutier shot home his 20th of the season. The Steelers cut the deficit at 31.14, as Dan Tessier with his 13th was on hand to tip past Trevor Koenig. With 37.48 on the clock the Blaze powerplay unit came good for the third time on the night as Adam Calder with his second of the game shot home his 24th. With only seconds remaining in the period Dan Tessier almost got his second but his shot rebounded off the bar. Mark Thomas with only his 3rd goal of the season got the visitors right back into the game as he netted at 42.17 to make it a one goal game but within two minutes the Blaze regained their two-goal advantage as Ashley Tait with his 19th found the net at 44.44. But the Steelers showed great character as they came right back into it yet again at 48.03 as they finally got their poweplay play unit to work at the seventh attempt with Ryan Finnerty netting his 5th goal in seven starts to make it 4-3 to the home side. With just over 4 minutes remaining the gods were against the Steelers for the second time as Shaun Sutter saw his shot come off the bar. At the end of a pulsating 1st leg, Coventry hold a slender advantage but the Steelers must still fancy their chances with home advantage to come on 27th March at the Sheffield Arena. Period Scores: 1-0, 2-1, 1-2 Penalty Mins: 20-12 Shots On: Trevor Koenig 35 – Jody Lehman 38