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By Bryan Berg  January 19, 2010, at 10:40 pm  You knew the Islanders had to lose sometime. And you probably knew that the Islanders sweeping three of the East’s top four would probably be too good to be true. Yet, you’re disappointed that the Islanders lost tonight.
That’s a good thing.
I keep waiting for the Islanders to fall off the pace and out of the playoff picture. It hasn’t happened yet. At this point, I’m not so sure it’s ever going to happen. These Islanders looked like they belonged in this game, and they looked like they had a great chance to win. It’s a shame it didn’t work out.
Some thoughts on tonight’s game…
– Over the past two years, the Islanders have written the book on blowing three-goal leads. Tonight, they flipped that book around, coming back from three goals down on the road against the defending Stanley Cup champions. Even though the end result wasn’t there, the comeback was a great sign.
– If Garth Snow does nothing else next year, he has to get a big winger to play with John Tavares. He’s not big enough to do it all by himself, which is to be expected at 19 years old. Even so, it’s hard to watch him getting knocked around so frequently.
– Sidney Crosby didn’t do a whole lot to silence his “whiner” rep after Richard Park’s goal to tie the game. I get that it’s the captain’s job to let the ref know when he’s missing calls, but yapping with Park and Doug Weight doesn’t really accomplish a whole lot.
– The Sutton hit… just an unfortunate incident. Clearly, Sutton felt bad; he stayed on top of Pascal Dupuis until the whistle blew to make sure nobody else hit him. The refs got the call right, but it’s unfathomable that the ref behind the play made the call before the ref standing right next to the play. Even more unfathomable than that, though, was the discussion on MSG Plus that followed the play, in which the announcers – particularly Butch Goring – suggested that the hit was Dupuis’ fault for being in a bad position. We here at The Rivalry regularly sing the praises of the MSG Plus crew often, but this was uncalled for.
– The Isles got destroyed on faceoffs tonight. Not good when you’re facing a team with as many playmakers as the Penguins.
– Not to jump on the “The refs give Pittsburgh preferential treatment” bandwagon, but there were a few calls that probably didn’t need to be made. The two that stick out in my mind were the call on Kyle Okposo that set up the game-winning power play goal by Evgeni Malkin and the delay of game call on Dwayne Roloson. But that’s life. Good teams always get the calls.
– Kind of a dick move by Crosby, taking a shot on Roloson as time expired and the Penguins protecting a two-goal lead. The Isles and Penguins meet again in three weeks. Here’s hoping the Islanders haven’t forgotten by then.
All in all, an excellent effort for the Islanders, who probably deserved more than they got tonight. That said, giving the likes of Crosby and Malkin seven opportunities on the power play is usually a recipe for defeat, something which was the case in tonight’s game. Despite the loss, the Islanders should feel great about their play of late. The days of the sad-sack Islanders are rapidly coming to a close and are being replaced by this young, energetic team that can hang with anyone.
By Zach Schiff January 13, 2010, at 12:28 am Can’t be any disappointed hockey fans out in the NY-NJ area tonight, from the 17,000 Ranger fans at MSG, to the 1,000 Devil fans at MSG, to the 4,000 Islander fans who routinely sell out the lower bowl on the Nassau Coliseum, to the 17,000 fans that the New Jersey Devils have accumulated since Aaron Broten first led them on the ice in 1982.
Yes, Bryan, the Rangers-Devils game was excellent, except for one thing – it underscored how bad the Rangers are at mustering offense. Henrik Lundqvist was great in stopping 45 shots – downright incredible on a few.
And I won’t bash Marty Brodeur as I normally would. Any time you stop 51 shots, you played great. Of course, the Rangers made it very easy for about 40 of those shots. He did make a few excellent saves, and while he didn’t do much on Marian Gaborik’s overtime-near-score, that save on Michal Rozsival with time running out in the extra period was good.
Shots from the boards, shots with no traffic in front, shots to Brodeur’s glove. C’mon! Do you really think a wrister from the left circle is going past Brodeur’s glove? You can tell me all you want about how many shots they had, and I will tell you until I’m blue in the face that it doesn’t matter if they’re 90% crappy shots.
And I guess that old hockey adage “If you shoot enough, one is bound to go in” was proven wrong tonight.
Remember March of 2007 when Rick DiPietro made, what, 56 saves in a shootout loss to the Rangers? The Rangers made him look like Jesus Christ that night – albeit he was clean-shaven, and Christ would wear #33 not #39. But they had so many awful, easy-to-save shots that it looked like nothing would get by him, and rarely anything did except for a goal in regulation and a Matt Cullen goal in the shootout.
Anyway, fast-paced, end-to-end action with good defense play that wasn’t boring. It was a very good game to watch and would’ve been sweeter with a Rangers’ win, but now the Rangers web site can say they are 9-1-3 in the last 13 games.
And I can’t even get mad at the shootout result. It would’ve been nce to have had a Ranger score, but they couldn’t, and Patrick Elias’ wrister that beat Lundqvist was awesome.
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Telling stat of the night brought to us by Versus and Jack Daniels Old No. 7: Marian Gaborik was 2-for-17 in shootouts going into tonight. Now, he is 2-for-18, around 11%. By comparison, Erik Christensen, Zach Parise, and Ales Kotalik are near (or over) 50%.
Why does John Tortorella keep putting Gaborik in? I know he’s a superstar, I know he’d the “stud” on the team, and I know he scored in the shootout in Atlanta, but he isn’t a breakaway artist.
Jaromir Jagr wasn’t. Gaborik isn’t either. Stick to Kotalik, Christensen, Vinny Prospal, Artem Anisimov, and maybe even Ryan Callahan. But keep Gaborik out of it until at least the 6th round.
Enver Lisin would’ve been nice to have seen pull some moves out of his bag. But alas, Donald Brashear needed to have his customary 8 shifts and 5:53 of ice time.
Hey, didn’t Lisin score in Atlanta?
By Bryan Berg January 13, 2010, at 12:14 am Just got home from the Coliseum a little while ago… WOW. Of all the things I thought I’d see tonight, a 6-0 Islanders win would have been at the very bottom. A perfect performance from the Islanders tonight, and that is no exaggeration. Maybe the bright future of the New York Islanders isn’t as far away as we all thought.
As for the Blueshirts, they lost in the shootout to the Devils. However, by all accounts, this was one of the best games in the entire league this season. Unfortunately, a quick search of the iO Channel Guide does not indicate a replay of this game airing anytime soon, which means that those of us who didn’t see this game missed out on something special. Hopefully, Zach will be by later on or tomorrow to post his thoughts.
In closing, thanks to the Islanders and the Rangers for giving us great performances tonight. Here’s hoping the season’s second half is full of many more nights like this one.
By Bryan Berg January 8, 2010, at 4:53 pm October 5, 2006 was a pretty big night in my life. It was a hectic time – my wife and I had just been married for five months and were getting ready to move into a new apartment – but that night stands out. My mom came through with a quality birthday present (a brand new X-Box 360) and my brother came over to our box-filled place to watch Game 2 of the Mets-Dodgers NLDS, which the Mets won. At that moment, all was well.
However, unbeknownst to me, all was *NOT* well. Because Fox airs their baseball games ridiculously late even on weeknights, I was forced to miss the start of the Islanders’ first game of the season. Since it was in Phoenix, I was able to join the game in progress. When I turned the game on, my jaw dropped. 5-1 Coyotes in the second. Phoenix would go on to win 6-3. Saddest of all, in the first game of his 15-year contract, Rick DiPietro was pulled after two periods.
I thought that was the end of it until the next day, when I received a text from Zach, the esteemed Rangers writer of this great site. His paraphrased text:
“6 goals per game… for 82 games… for 15 years… equals 7380 goals… that’s DP!”
Zach’s number-crunching made me cringe, but made me laugh even more. Unfortunately, Zach made one erroneous assumption – that DiPietro would even come close to playing in every game of his contract.
Welcome back, DP.
By Bryan Berg January 6, 2010, at 8:57 pm To say that Rick DiPietro was the most important New York Islander in the 2000s would be an extreme understatement. Outside of possibly Charles Wang, nobody has been as central a figure to the Islanders – and their current state – as DiPietro. Here’s a look at the influence Rick DiPietro has had on the Islanders organization over the past decade.
- 2000: Islanders GM Mike Milbury trades Roberto Luongo, clearing the path for the Islanders to draft Rick DiPietro. Luongo goes on to become a star, as do Marian Gaborik and Dany Heatley, both of whom the Islanders passed on in favor of DiPietro. In exchange for Luongo, the Isles acquire Mark Parrish, who would become the team’s most consistent forward for the first half of the decade and a key part of the 2001-02 team.
– 2001-02: DiPietro leads the Bridgeport Sound Tigers to the Calder Cup Final. While the Sound Tigers don’t win the championship, future Islanders Trent Hunter, Eric Godard and Raffi Torres gain valuable big-game experience.
– 2003: DiPietro is called up to the NHL for good. This forces the Islanders to trade starting goalie Chris Osgood to St. Louis for prospect Justin Papineau. Papineau goes on to become a typical Islanders prospect – a “can’t miss” guy who misses horribly.
– 2004: DiPietro takes over the starting load for the Islanders, who are eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by Tampa Bay. DiPietro earns his first playoff win, which is a shutout. DiPietro later appears in one game for the U.S. team in the World Cup of Hockey.
– 2006: DiPietro is named to the U.S. Olympic team. After the team loses its first game, DiPietro is named starter, a position he holds for all but one game until the U.S. is eliminated from the tournament.
– 2006: Having gone on record stating he would like to finish his career on Long Island, DiPietro signs a 15-year deal with the Islanders. The deal ensures that DiPietro’s prime years will be spent with the Islanders at well below market value, while his later years will cost the Islanders well above market value. Word is that new general manager Garth Snow and DiPietro’s agent are barred from the negotiations so that Charles Wang can negotiate with DiPietro one-on-one.
– 2007: DiPietro suffers a concussion while charging for a puck well before it reaches the goal crease. The hot play of Wade Dubielewicz allows the Islanders to make a miracle run to the playoffs, where DiPietro returns and goes 1-3 in four games.
– 2007-08: DiPietro has the best three-month stretch of his career, resulting in a selection to the 2008 All-Star Game. Due to an injury to Martin Brodeur, DiPietro starts the game. He lets in one goal over the entirety of All-Star Weekend and is considered for MVP honors. He also “f***s up” his hip during the Skills Competition.
– 2008: As DiPietro leaves the team to mourn the loss of his grandmother, the Islanders win the first game of a home-and-home against the Rangers, thanks in large part to the efforts of Wade Dubielewicz. DiPietro returns for the second game, but coach Ted Nolan starts Dubielewicz instead of DiPietro. The Islanders lose the game as well as the next five, knocking the Islanders out of playoff contention and, if you believe what you hear, costing Nolan his job.
– 2008-09: DiPietro has knee surgery over the summer. Both the Islanders and DiPietro claim a clean bill of health has been given. However, DiPietro only plays five games all season, forcing the Islanders to juggle the craptastic duo of Joey MacDonald and Yann Danis for the duration of the season, which for all intents and purposes is over by Christmas.
– 2009: Concern about DiPietro’s short-term and long-term health force the Islanders to sign both Dwayne Roloson and Martin Biron. Many fans are convinced that DiPietro will never return to the NHL. Rumors persist that Biron’s contract includes a clause stating that Biron is to be traded if/when DiPietro returns.
– 2009-10: Roloson’s play keeps the Islanders within breathing distance of the playoffs as 2009 ends. DiPietro plays rehab games for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and is called up to the Islanders roster in January. DiPietro joins the team on a West Coast trip, where he is to play his first game in over twelve months.
>So yeah… it’s been a busy decade.
As Rick DiPietro returns to his place as Islanders goalie – not to mention the face of the franchise – it will be interesting to see how people will react. Many fans have completely turned on DiPietro, to the extent that they don’t even want him back.
In the eyes of this writer, this attitude towards DiPietro is juvenile at best and reprehensible at worst. In all of struggles Rick DiPietro has gone through over the past four years, the person who is least to blame is Rick DiPietro. He has worked harder than any of us would have just to get back to the Islanders, and for what? To play in front of a half-full arena of people who hate him? Please.
When Rick DiPietro signed his 15-year contract, there wasn’t a John Tavares to get people excited about the team. The Islanders were coming off a non-playoff year in which the only two players who even qualified as decent were Miroslav Satan and Alexei Yashin. The signing came after the Islanders were also exposed as the laughingstock of the NHL after the hiring and subsequent firing of Neil Smith. Furthermore, the year after DiPietro signed his contract, Islanders fans watched Jason Blake, Ryan Smyth, Tom Poti and Viktor Kozlov sign with other teams on the first day of free agency. Instead of following the money like most players, DiPietro pledged loyalty to an Islanders team that, quite honestly, had no hope whatsoever for the future.
What is the reward for Rick DiPietro’s loyalty? An angry fanbase who doesn’t want him back? I would certainly hope not. I understand that many Islanders fans are skeptical that DiPietro can stay healthy over the long haul. But DiPietro is as much an Islander as anyone who has ever worn the uniform, and we should be proud that he would fight so hard just to wear the Islanders crest again. Remember, this is a team that nobody wanted to be associated with us… and yet, Rick DiPietro chose us at a time when he could have commanded more money on the open market. It’s time we, as Islanders fans, repay DiPietro for his commitment to the Islanders and Long Island in general.
It works out well that DiPietro will make his debut on the road. This will give Islanders fans a chance to see DiPietro in action from a distance and evaluate his performance in an unemotional setting. However, when Rick DiPietro makes his return to Coliseum ice, anything less than a standing ovation would be a disappointment.
By Bryan Berg January 2, 2010, at 10:38 pm The shootout has not been kind to the Islanders in 2009-10. The earlier shootouts were plagued by the spotty goaltending of Dwayne Roloson; while Roloson has significantly improved his play, the Islanders still entered this week with a record of 1-4 in the shootout.
This week, the Islanders played three games. Each of them went to the shootout. The Islanders won on Tuesday night against Columbus, lost on Thursday in Ottawa, then beat Atlanta tonight. In two of those games, the Islanders used the same three shooters – Jeff Tambellini, Frans Nielsen and Rob Schremp. No surprise there, especially since each of them were 50% or better in the shootout heading into tonight’s action. (On Thursday, John Tavares replaced Tambellini in the shootout, but only because Tambellini was scratched.) In fact, you could make the argument that the main contributions of Tambellini and Schremp are their skills in the shootout. But that’s an argument for another day.
My issue is this. Not only have the Islanders used virtually the same shootout lineup for three consecutive games, but all three guys – Tambellini, Schremp and Nielsen – have used the same exact moves each time they’ve appeared in the shootout. Tambellini used his wrister from the hash marks, Nielsen did his backhand move, and Schremp did an odd combination of like 40 moves that made it look like he was having a seizure as he skated down the ice. You’d think opposing coaches would take note of these things and go over them in meetings. Apparently, this isn’t the case.
Now, I might be in the minority here, but I’ve always liked the shootout. Anything added to the game that appeases the fans is a great thing, and that’s exactly what the shootout was intended to do – to ensure that paying customers see a winner and a loser. The Columbus game on Tuesday was the first time I got to see a shootout live, and I loved it. However, I’m starting to see where the “skills competition” aspect comes into play. If players are just going to recycle the same moves over and over again, nobody benefits. Shooters risk doing their moves one time too many and being figured out, while the fans – the reason for the shootout in the first place – get cheated because they’re not seeing anything new.
Don’t get me wrong. I’d much rather see the shootout in its current form than watch a game end in a tie. But maybe there’s a better way to go about this. I have no idea what that better way would be. I just wish the shootout was the exciting, creative event it’s supposed to be instead of the same old moves night in and night out.
Thanks to the incomparable NHL Shootouts for the shootout data.
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