DP is back after dealing with the passing of a family member, but according to Newsday’s Greg Logan he’ll be riding the pine tonight as Coach Nolan rolls the dice with Wade Dubielewicz versus the Rangers.
Islanders coach Ted Nolan made the boldest decision of his two-season tenure this morning when he announced backup Wade Dubielewicz will be in net against the Rangers tonight at Nassau Coliseum with franchise player Rick DiPietro fresh and ready to go on the bench.
Now that’s more like it. As has been the case many times over the years, the Islanders rose to the challenge and beat the Rangers on the road last night, ending the Rangers’ four-game winning streak and possibly putting an end to their own slump.
Jeff Tambellini, the young forward who has bounced between Bridgeport and Long Island the last two seasons, sealed the victory for the Islanders when he beat Henrik Lundqvist in a shoot-out. The Isles also got goas from Bergenheim, Hunter, and Comeau.
Wade Doobie was one of the big stories of the game, stepping in for an absent Rick DiPietro and beating the Rangers for the second time in two career starts. He shut out the Rangers in the last week of the season when DP was hurt last year. Doobie may be in net again tomorrow night when the Isles face the Rangers at the Coliseum as DP may still me on leave to be with his family.
The win, coupled with a Flyers loss, moves the Isles within three points of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with 14 games to go.
Six in a row! Wow. These guys continue to baffle me. Just when you think they might be on their way out, they go on their longest winning streak since December 2003. They may lack firepower and play ugly every now and then but this team has always been resilient under Coach Ted Nolan.
DP notched his third shutout of the season and his second against the Lightning. Miro Satan scored the lone goal. The Isles are now ninth in the East, one point behind Boston, Buffalo, and the Rangers and one point ahead of the Flyers. Twenty games to go. Buckle up.
Woah! Two in a row! 4 powerplay goals? Who are these guys? Special teams were the difference last night as the Isles PP was 4 for 7 last night while the PK killed 4 of 5 penalties.
“We saw the improbable last year when we were left for dead,” goalie Rick DiPietro said after the Islanders slipped past the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Thursday night. “There’s still a lot of hockey left.”
“There’s still belief in this room,” Comrie said. “Ted (Nolan) and the coaching staff have us focused on the game at hand. We’re not looking too far ahead.”
Ex-Isle Jason Blake had an assist on Toronto’s last minute goal. After 59 games, Blake’s stats are 11G 25A 36PTS, just a little off his 40G 69PTS performance last year which led to his big Toronto contract. Gotta get back to work now…
Interesting stats over at PuckThatHit.com where they’ve divided up all the goalie’s salaries by the number of saves they’ve made this season. DP comes in #16 at about $2500 a save, a little bit cheaper than Lundqvist ($2600), Brodeur ($2900), and a whole bunch cheaper than ex-Islander Roberto Luongo ($3700).
With only 27 games played and $6 million in salary, Jose Theodore is robbing the Avalanche blind at $6000 a save. With 18 wins and a .930 save percentage, Boston Bruins All-Star Tim Thomas is an absolute steal at a $1 million salary and $600 per save.
Top 3 Goalies
$520 Jason LaBarbera (Kings)
$594 Timothy Jr. Thomas (Bruins)
$635 Dan Ellis (Predators)
Bottom 3 Goalies
$4365 Marty Turco (Stars)
$4876 Nikolai Khabibulin (Hawks)
$6000 Jose Theodore (Avalanche)
After a short conditioning trip to Bridgeport last week, where he was 1-1 with the Sound Tigers, Wade Dubielewicz is back with the big club and gets the start for tonight’s game vs. the Carolina Hurricanes. Corey Witt has the scoop on the NYI Media Blog.
Wade Dubielewicz will start for the Islanders tonight while it looks like Cam Ward will be back in net for the Hurricanes. There were some talks that John Grahame would start tonight, but it doesn’t look that way.
Just like other players, Islanders head coach Ted Nolan said that “Dubie has earned his ice-time and deserves to play.”
The NHL All-Star Game fan ballots are now online. Vote for DP and Captain Guerin, the only Islanders listed on the ballot. I voted for Blakey too.
It appears the NHL is trying to avoid the Rory Fitzpatrick mess from last year. “To Nominate A Player Not on the Ballot, Select One From the List” it says. Excuse me if I’m wrong, but if someone is on that list…then they are on the ballot…aren’t they? So there are no write-in votes allowed this year.
Making matter worse are the inclusion of 10 NY Rangers players on that list, including super-studs like Colton Orr and Ryan Hollweg, but NO OTHER ISLANDERS?!? WTF?! Hello? No Comrie (leads the team in scoring), no Campoli (#10 in NHL defensive scoring), or anyone else wearing Orange and Blue. Well at least they left Sean Avery off the list.
[Update] From Uni Watch, here are this year’s All-Star jerseys. How lame and boring can jerseys get? Now you know.
[Update 2] As pointed out in the comments by reader Mike and also over at Islanders Outsider, the voting website has been updated and 15 Islanders have been deemed “Official NHL Approved Write-In Candidates”. Good work men!
You can now select Sean Bergenheim, Marc-Andre Bergeron, Chris Campoli, Mike Comrie, Ruslan Fedotenko, Bruno Gervais, Andy Hilbert, Trent Hunter, Radek Martinek, Richard Park, Miroslav Satan, Mike Sillinger, Andy Sutton, Josef Vasicek, and Brendan Witt. What, no Dubie?
With a 6-7-3 record so far this year and a rabid fanbase desperate for their first Stanley Cup in 41 years, pressure is building on the Toronto Maple Leafs and their high-profile free agent Jason Blake to succeed. Through 16 games this season, Blake has only 2 goals compared to a year ago on the island when Blake had 9 at the same point. The Toronto Sun sat down for an interview with Blake to discuss the season so far. It went something like this:
Blah, blah, blah. Mats Sundin. Blah, blah, blah. $20 million. Blah, blah, blah. Ottawa 5 Toronto 1.
At the end of the interview, they ask Blake some questions about the Islanders who have 1 more point than Toronto with 4 games in hand. Here’s the good part:
“No. 1, they have an unbelievable coach,” Blake said. “Ted Nolan’s the best. No. 2, we played like the Senators, that way. We weren’t as talented, we weren’t as big, we weren’t as strong but we moved the puck. We tried to hit the open guy. No. 3, we had Brendan Witt, one of the most underrated defenceman in the league.”
And No. 4?
“The best goalie. The best upcoming goaltender in the league. (Rick) DiPietro will win the Vezina in the next three years.”
Of all the times to take some vacation, Logan misses Al Arbour night?? I’m not sure what he was thinking or if he secretly snuck-in the backdoor on Saturday night, but Newsday’s Islanders beat writer Greg Logan is back from vacation and gives us this update on DP.
A nasty abrasion remains at the corner of Rick DiPietro’s right eye courtesy of Sidney Crosby’s inadvertent stick to the face Saturday night, but the Islanders’ franchise goaltender was cleared to practice today and was pleased with the way he performed. The best sign about his readiness to go against the Rangers Tuesday night at the Coliseum might have been the way he rolled around on the ice and clowned with teammates. It was Ricky being Ricky, which is always a good thing.
[End 1st] So I sit down to live blog the game…and the website goes down. We’re back up and one period is in the books at the Coliseum. Marc Andre Bergeron scores on a 3 on 3 situation with just 4 seconds left in the period and the Isles lead 1-0. The Isles outshoot the Rangers 15-12 in the period but I’d say the Rangers had better chances including 3-4 whacks on the doorstep forcing DiPietro to come up with a bunch of good saves. The Isles had a bunch of shots but I don’t remember Lundqvist having to make anything too spectacular. The period was a little chippy with 8 penalties called in the period but nothing major.
[19:45 2nd] Second period is underway, skating 4 on 4. Bergeon tries to spring Comrie right up the middle on a Ranger line change but Comrie can’t hold on to it.
[17:51 2nd] Isles still playing sloppy D and they pay the price. 4 guys collapsing in front of Ricky but no one covers Tytuin walking into the zone and firing a wrister past Ricky. Tied at 1.
[16:41 2nd] Three guys watching Jagr in the corner, who finds Gomez on the doorstep all alone but Ricky slams the door. Go DiPietro, keeping us in this one. In the first, the Versus announcers said Jagr has the most goals against the Islanders franchise. I’m not surprised one bit, he’s had some monster scoring nights versus the Orange and Blue.
[9:46 2nd] Speaking of Versus, Dear Time Warner Cable, Why the #%@! isn’t this game available in HD somewhere on my 1000+ channels? It looks a lot better than the FSNY feed from the opener, but remind me again why I’m paying $15 for the HD package? Stupid me assumed it would be on MSG HD tonight.
Rangers run the same play they scored on again, this time with Shanahan unleashing a blast that hit someone before it got to DP. They spend the next minute+ in the Isles zone making it look like they are on a PP. 3 decent scoring chances in there. Ugh.
[6:52 2nd] Isles pick up a powerplay. Malik for hooking. Isles are being outplayed but have a chance to take the lead again if they can keep up the good PP play.
18 seconds later, Betts joins Malik in the box. 2 man advantage for 1:42. HUGE opportunity for the Isles right here. Need to score.
[6:04 2nd] YES! Berard with a blast from the top of the circle beats “King Henry” gloveside. Isles still have PP time.
[5:11 2nd] “The King” follows up that performance with a brain fart and plays the puck outside the goalie zone for a penalty. Isles back on the 2 man advantage with a chance to open this game up. I have a feeling we’ll be killing some penalties in the third.
[3:11 2nd] Penalties are all over, Isles get some more shots but fail to score again. At least we got a goal, last year it would still be 1-1 for sure.
[End 2nd] Two in the books and the Isles still lead the Rangers 2-1. Rangers outshoot Isles 13-9 in the period, even though the Isles had almost 6 minutes of powerplay time. I’m not complaining though. Defense needs to lock it down and close out this win.
[15:27 3rd] Guerin takes down Shanahan who slides into the net. Rangers to the powerplay.
[14:04 3rd] See, I told you. Gervais high sticks Jagr and the Rangers will get some 5 on 3 time of their own.
[12:00 3rd] Isles kill the first penalty. Looking good on the penalty kill with a lot of blocked shots. With 20 seconds left, Jags finds Gomez all alone to DP’s left. DP goes down, Gomez has the whole top shelf to shoot at but banks it off the side of the net. Incredible chance for the Rangers but they can’t capitalize. All hell breaks loose…1, 2, 3, 4 more shots. Witt makes a smart play, banking it off the glass to avoid the penalty and then out of play for a faceoff. Whew. Isles dodge a bullet.
…and the Isles win 2-1!! Definitely not getting a star of the game award…my ISP as the site goes down again. See you tomorrow for more.
