Blake Returns to Island Bearing Gifts
December 27th, 2007 by murph
Wow. What a crazy game last night, lots of good and bad to talk about. Fan-Favorite (for the most part) Jason Blake returned to Long Island for the first time after signing a free-agent deal with Toronto last summer. Blake was a “love him or hate him” Islander - you either loved his speed and hustle, or you hated his tendency to hog the puck and occasional turnovers that came with it. We here at Islanders Army were strongly in the “love him” category, as evidenced by our top secret plan to clone Blake and dominate the NHL with five 40-goal scorers on the ice at once.
It was all business and $$$ that led to Blake leaving. He wanted a longer deal than what the Isles were offering and after a career year with 40 goals, he found someone else willing to give it to him. The Toronto Maple Leafs opened the checkbook for a 40-goal scorer for 5 years, and so far have 5 goals and 16 assists to show for it. The Isles showed their appreciation for the 6 years Blake played for us with a short pre-game video tribute.
I missed the first two periods and the Islanders “offensive explosion” of 3 goals in the first. Considering the difficulty the lsles have had scoring 3 goals in 60 minutes, 3 in the first 20 was quite the feat. The excitement of those goals quickly wore off at the start of the second period when Wade Dubielewicz came out of the tunnel and into the net in place of Rick DiPietro who apparently hurt his knee in warmups and wasn’t able to finish the game. DP is getting an MRI on the knee and will miss tonight’s game at Ottawa. Joey MacDonald has been called up from Bridgeport to backup Doobie. With Doobie in net, the game took a more defensive tone - 14 Islanders first period shots turned into just 4 second period shots. Still the Isles held a 3-2 lead after 2 periods.
An early 3rd period Islander powerplay backfired into a shorthanded goal and a 3-3 tie. It stayed that way through regulation thanks to the heroics of Doobie, Toronto goalie Andrew Raycroft and some goalposts. Both teams had some great chances down the stretch, including Mike Sillinger getting stoned on the doorstep twice by Raycroft with less than a minute left in regulation.
Richard Park got called for hooking in OT and it looked like the Isles were doomed on the 4-on-3 powerplay. Doooooobie to the rescue with some awesome saves and it looked like we were headed to a shootout, until this….
Richard Park (aka The “New” Jason Blake) pick-pocketed the “Old” Jason Blake at the Isles blueline and turned it into a 2-on-1 because of a Toronto line change. Park’s shot was deflected by the defenseman, stopped by Raycroft, but then a uncovered Mike Comrie came along and banged in the rebound with just 10 seconds left in OT for the 4-3 Islander win. Tic-Tac-Toe, three in a row for the Orange and Blue.
Blake’s miscue is sure to send Leafs Nation into a frenzy. After the game Blake defended his actions, while his coach wasn’t buying it.
“We’ve only got so many seconds left in overtime,” he said of his extended bout of stick-handling. “I was trying to make a play. [Park] made a great play by poke-checking it.”
Blake’s coach, Paul Maurice, was not impressed.
“He turned the puck over an awful lot tonight,” Maurice said. “You can’t turn it over there at any point in a game.”
Sorry Blakey…it was all just business last night.
Tom Says
Really nice win for the Isles last night. The team is looking much better lately, their play seems much sharper.
I was a big Blake fan. Loved the energy, hustle, enthusiasm, and creativity he brought to the ice every shift. That said, we’ve all seen him get a little overzealous and screw up a ton of times. It was nice that last night it benefited the OrangeAndBlue.
Dec 27th, 2007 at 2:14 pm