Islanders - Stars Preview
November 26th, 2007 by Tom
Sorry for the lack of posting lately, IslandersArmy has been busy with work, visiting relatives, holidays, drinking a few pints, and a big win for Tom’s Team over Murph’s in the 17th Annual Turkey Bowl Football Game. It was the first time in the 17 years we have been playing this game that Murph and I went head-to-head. One of the highlights had to be Murph stopping to cheer for me after I made a catch before realizing that we were no longer on the same team. I bet you Ryan Smyth gets that a lot when he plays against Edmonton, too.
So while I was offline, the Coliseum Heroes split a home-and-home with the Bruins, which is acceptable, and are now gearing up to face the first-place Dallas Stars. The red hot Stars, winners of five straight, are coming off an impressive win over the Rangers at MSG yesterday. Stars’ goaltender Mike Smith tallied 39 saves in the contest. Hell of a job.
No word yet on whether Smith or veteran Marty Turco will be in between the pipes for tonight’s game on Hempstead Turnpike. While Turco has been good, posting a 2.64 GAA and a .905 save percentage, Smith has been better. The second-year keeper has a 2.19 GAA and a .916 save percentage and is undefeated with a 1.00 GAA in his last three games.
I’m really interested to see how Bill Guerin performs against his former team. Guerin, who is still collecting a paycheck from the Stars, played for Dallas 2002 through 2006 and posted a career-best 69 points for the team in the 2003-04 season.
Also of interest is whether the Isles can keep up their recent domination of Dallas. The Isles have won the last six contests between the teams. I never would have guessed that. I distinctly remember DiPietro’s shutout last year (I think we did a live blog) but I couldn’t tell you anything about the five other games without looking them up. I guess that’s what happens in the current NHL where Eastern teams and Western teams have just a handful of games against each other.
The Islanders are going to need to find a way to spark the offense tonight and going forward. The OrangeAndBlue have scored just 11 times in the past seven games. Not surprisingly, the Isles won just three of those games.
Happy belated Thanksgiving. Hope you got fat and tired.
