Take That, Jersey! Isles Win 5th Straight Against Foe
January 17th, 2008 by Tom
“I don’t know. If you play long enough, there are certain teams you play well against,” Rick DiPietro told Newsday after the Islanders beat New Jersey for the fifth straight time this season. “The last couple years for us, it’s been the Devils.”
Right now, there’s no question that the Islanders have the Devils’ number. That was readily apparent last night when the Isles skated to a 3-1 victory, largely on the strength of DP’s sick goaltending and two tallies by Captain Bill Guerin. The game was tight and the Devils certainly had plenty of opportunities but in the end, the Isles again grabbed the win. The Islanders are now 5-0 this season against their Jersey neighbors. How do you explain that?
“I don’t know what it is,” Mike Sillinger told Newsday.
Fair enough, because we don’t know either. The Isles just seem to get up for these games and, as we all know, success breeds confidence. Despite the fact that the Devils have been ahead of the Islanders in the standings for the better part of a decade, the Islanders now come into these games, believing – no – knowing, they can win. The Devils, on the other hand, kind of look for something to go wrong.
“It’s weird. One team beats the other all the time,” Devils forward Sergei Brylin told the Newark Star-Ledger. “We play better against other teams in our conference. I don’t have an explanation. They have our number this year.”
Rich Chere of the Star-Ledger had a great line about the game in today’s paper.
Too bad the Islanders had to waste all that fuel and time riding the bus from Long Island to Newark. The Devils could’ve just e-mailed the two points to the NHL office.
That’s how predictable a Devils-Islanders matchup has become.
These wins are HUGE for the Islanders. They are now just four points behind the Devils and the Penguins, who are tied atop the division with 55 points. More importantly, the victory gives the OrangeAndBlue sole possession of the seventh seed in the East. Again, it’s only January but it’s never too early to think about the postseason, especially with the trade deadline just one month away.
If the Coliseum Heroes can stay among top eight teams in the conference, I have no doubt they’ll look to add some scoring up front and toughness on the blueline. But that’s a conversation for another day.
P.S. If you don’t get the joke from the Marty picture above, check out this site for an explanation.
Hockey1919 Says
I don’t know if the Islanders have the Devils number or not, but DP certainly does. Another 35+ save performance to grab another two points. At some point the Islanders are going to have to cut down on the number of penalties and quality scoring chances DP faces. If they were playing run and gun trading chances I can see them allowing that many opportunities, but 2 goal outputs are hard to live with. Hope Witt can make it back soon since being down by arguably their top 3 D last night certainly contributed to the number of Devil chances late in the third.
Jan 17th, 2008 at 11:32 am
murph Says
What was Marty’s excuse THIS time? The All-Star game locker room should be pretty interesting next weekend.
DP “I know this is weird with you being the starter and all Marty, but could you hold my jock for a minute? Maybe a little good luck will rub off on you.”
Jan 17th, 2008 at 12:28 pm