I could write a decent open to this live blog. But the Islanders' e-mail newsletter said it better than I ever could... "Commissioner Gordon Takes On The Penguin". Maybe Howie Rose and Billy Jaffe write the e-mail newsletter?
- We begin tonight's broadcast with - get this - Stan Fischler making an interesting point. He suggested to C.J. Papa that as good as Sidney Crosby is, he might be even better without the pressures that come with being captain of the Penguins. Billy Jaffe disagrees; I'm not sure where I stand. But good thinking by the Hockey Maven.
- Jaffe informs us that those of us watching in HD will get to watch an exciting game. Um, what about everyone else? Anyway, the HD feed is a little choppy. I feel like I'm watching a streaming video over a bad Internet connection. Those third uniforms look pretty sweet in HD, though.
- Interesting lineup tonight, as Sean Bergenheim, Jeff Tambellini, and Tim Jackman are all dressed. Nate Thompson, unfortunately, is out with a groin strain. Figures. As soon as he shows promise, he gets hurt. Hey, at least they told us what happened to him; as Jaffe said during the last game, Crosby probably doesn't even know where he got hurt. I love Billy Jaffe.
- Joey MacDonald looks fairly stout on the first real scoring chance of the game. He pulls an old-school DP move and looks behind him to see if the puck got by him. Thankfully, it didn't.
- Eight minutes in, we go to our first commercial break... and I don't think the Islanders have a shot on goal yet. They've gotten nothing going offensively. Pittsburgh's doing a good job getting back, and the Islanders haven't had enough chances to get anything resembling sustained pressure.
- Ad Break #1: Cablevision, Emblem Health, and "Redemption Song" with YOUR new WWE champion, Chris Jericho. At least there's some justice in this world.
- Maxime Talbot takes a dumb slashing penalty, and we have the game's first power play. Howie points out that the Penguins have the league's sixth-best penalty kill. Suddenly, I'm not so excited about the next two minutes.
- A tale of two minutes. The first minute was excellent. The second, not so much.
- Ad Break #2: Bridgestone, Geico, McDonald's. I had a triple cheeseburger for lunch today. Tremendous.
- Panasonic Digital Replay. Drink!
- Howie and Billy go over the Penguins' stellar draft record over the past five or so years. I'm a bit jealous. But it also goes to show you - even when things look extremely bleak, as they did for the Penguins not so long ago, there's always hope.
- Not much has happened in this first period, but we finally have a goal! Doug Weight knucklepucks one over the shoulder of Penguins backup Danny Sabourin to give the Islanders a 1-0 lead. I'm starting to like Weight more these days. This is probably because of his "Day in the Life" special on the NHL Network. Quality program. Anyway, Bill Guerin and Andy Hilbert get the assists. If the Isles can keep this lead until the end of the period, that'd be very nice.
- Finally, end-to-end action shows up. We're starting to see the game we thought we'd see. Thank God. It only took like 18 minutes to get going, but the rest of this one should be fun.
- Ad Break #3: Mercedes-Benz, Optimum Rewards, Ridgewood Savings Bank. You know, the one where the guy's jogging on the treadmill in the middle of the bank. I can't even remember the last time I was actually inside of a bank. You can do everything online these days. Why even have branches?
- One minute left in the first period. One thing I never understood about the Coliseum clock - when the time goes under a minute, the clock gets very screwy. And even on TV, you can see it. It's not a smooth trip from 60 to 0; instead, it starts and stops for half-seconds at a time.
- Intermission Time! Stan Fischler calls Mats Sundin "a spoiled brat" for taking his time deciding what he wants to do. He then predicts Sundin will sign with the Rangers. But the Maven isn't done. He calls Sidney Crosby a "stiff" and commends Pascal Dupuis for having a nice name.
- Some sloppy hockey to begin the second period. Crosby gets hurt on the ice and for some reason, jumps over the boards instead of walking through the door that's opened just inches away from him. Still, he had a better shift than Ruslan Fedotenko and Thomas Pock, each of whom had awful giveaways.
- Tyler Kennedy makes one of those plays you see coming a mile away, but you can't stop. He brings the puck over the line, passes it, acts like he's going to hang back at the blue line, then cuts to the net and taps in the easy goal. We're tied at 1. You have to tip your cap to Kennedy for that one. Nice moves.
- The Islanders haven't rebounded too well from that goal. We need a fight. Of course, there's a penalty, so that's not going to happen for at least two minutes.
- Sloppy PK work from the Islanders. Pittsburgh had a number of good chances, but somehow couldn't convert. The Islanders almost ended up with a home run pass to Richard Park, but no luck. Beats letting up a power play goal, though.
- Ad Break #4: Bridgestone, some tourist promo, Panasonic.
- A close-up of Ruslan Fedotenko, who has parlayed his 2004 playoff into yet another bad contract. Good for him. He'll be getting a great view of the Penguins from the press box sooner rather than later.
- Weight takes a slashing penalty, which is just retarded. He had two guys right behind him; had Malkin beaten Weight, there were two d-men ready to take Malkin out. I smell a PP goal.
- No power play goal. However, my six-month-old daughter let out two massive burps. Clearly, she inherited Daddy's flatulence genes.
- Weight comes out of the box and enters into a two-on-one with Tim Jackman. Weight takes forever setting up a shot, which rebounds right to Jackman, who jams it home. 2-1 Isles. That's two points for Weight tonight. Andy Sutton gets the other assist.
- Still waiting for that fight. Jackman could be the guy. Howie says Jackman had six goals and five fighting majors in Bridgeport so far this year.
- Ad Break #5: Geico, Lincoln, Marines. Immediately upon returning, we get a Panasonic Digital Replay. Hooray!
- Howie drops the name of Dean Chynoweth, whose dad is being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Chynoweth's dad was the president of the Western Hockey League; presumably, he did a better job than Dean did as an Islander.
- Suddenly, it's the Islanders who are taking it to the Penguins. They're getting the puck deep almost every time, while the Penguins are just getting it over the blue line and dumping it in (if that).
- Just as I note the Islanders' ability to get the puck in deep, the Isles set up their third goal. Sutton gets it to Kyle Okposo, who has Hilbert as a screen. Hilbert instead positions himself for a pass, Okposo reads the play, and Hilbert has an easy goal. 3-1 Isles. That's another two-goal lead. Uh-oh.
- Ad Break #6: NY Red Bulls (they need to win tomorrow), FSN Final Score, Qantas (the world's most experienced airline), and some show about Jon & Kate on TLC. Whatever.
- And just like that, the Islanders get to work on blowing their two-goal lead. A bouncing puck eludes Bruno Gervais' stick, Jordan Staal hops on it, and puts a nice move on MacDonald to put the Pens within one. Howie and Billy have been talking about the subpar ice surface of the Coliseum all night, but that's no excuse. If you're Gervais and Staal gets by you, you have to absolutely maul him. Worst case scenario, he gets a penalty shot, which he pretty much already has anyway.
- Penalty to Guerin. Here we go again.
- Crosby makes a beautiful play to dump the puck in so that it bounces off the boards, then the side of the net, and right to a cutting Miroslav Satan. Jaffe tells us Crosby spent an extra 40 minutes after practice working on angling off the boards. I don't doubt it, either. This is something Wayne Gretzky used to do all the time.
- Sean Bergenheim gets loose on a shorthanded breakaway opportunity, but Kris Letang is all over him. See, that's what you're supposed to do there. It really doesn't matter what you do in that situation as long as the other guy doesn't score. Good play by Letang, one of the more underrated d-men in the league.
- Gervais gets whistled for doing... not all that much. Tough night for Bruno. The Penguins have had something like four power plays in a row; the Islanders have had one for the entire game. Just saying is all.
- Intermission Time! I like C.J. Papa's tie. Stan's outfit looks like one of those shirt-and-tie combos you buy from Kohl's for $15. Stan wastes no time in breaking out the alliteration; this time, he says the Islanders need to use "aggression and acumen". Apparently that means "avoiding stupid penalties, none of this business about the ice not being good, Gervais should have taken the man, period." Meanwhile, C.J. Papa is trying not to laugh. Fischler goes on to state that Richard Park is "a ferret on the spore of a loose puck", whatever that means. But, as usual, he's not done. He then calls out the referees for not telling Scott Gordon why exactly they've called like 20 slashing penalties on the Islanders tonight. And just as C.J. is breaking into an awkward segue into the Family Fun Pack promo to end the segment, Stan stops C.J. and asks if he agrees with his take on the referees. C.J.: "I always agree with you. We're wearing the same suit, we have to agree." I swear, these segments are absolutely must-see TV.
- We get a teaser for Hockey Night LIVE! Prediction: Of the 30 minutes of airtime, approximately 28 will be dedicated to the Rangers.
- The third period opens with the obligatory "Islanders Blown Leads" graphic. Thanks, guys. The power play has a number of close calls, but MacDonald is game each time. After the final flurry, Howie exclaims, "Stan Fischler will be singing barnyard tunes after that one!" Have I ever mentioned how much I love the Islanders' broadcast team?
- Pittsburgh has the first five shots of the third period. Nice to see the Islanders have learned their lessons from their many blown leads. If I were Scott Gordon, here's what I'd tell my team. "Look, if you try to protect the lead, you're going to lose anyway. Why not just try being aggressive?" I don't think coaches really think this way, but it'd be nice if they did.
- Okposo gets a great feed in the slot and does that stupid thing where he goes down on one knee to take his shot, which ends up doing him in. If he had stayed straight up, he could have at least put a fake on Sabourin. Instead, it's an easy save for the Penguins goalie.
- Pittsburgh is absolutely buzzing. This is like watching a stay of execution. You just know Pittsburgh is going to score, it's just a matter of when. How depressing.
- Jaffe states that Andy Sutton has eight blocked shots. Wow.
- A Matt Cooke shot rings off the post. Time to use that timeout, Mr. Gordon.
- The Penguins are not only putting tremendous pressure on MacDonald, but they're also swarming the puck carrier every time the Islanders gain the offensive zone. I'm more than a bit worried right now.
- We're halfway through the period and we haven't had a TV timeout yet. The Islanders have iced the puck three straight times. I love how Scott Gordon coaches with both hands around his neck late in games. Even Mike Milbury would have called a timeout by now.
- Frans Nielsen gets open in the slot, doesn't shoot for some reason, but draws a penalty. Finally, a TV timeout! The Ice Girls are going to be awfully busy going forward.
- Ad Break #7: Bridgestone, Marines, Emblem Health. And, of course, a Panasonic Digital Replay.
- What an awful power play. No shots on goal, of course. The Islanders spent two minutes trying to make the perfect play, forgetting that two of their three goals tonight came on rebounds.
- Ad Break #8: Infiniti, Christian's Children's Fund. Sadly, we're cheated out of a crappy third commercial.
- Five minutes left in the third. Shots on goal this period: Pittsburgh 12, Islanders 0. About that whole "We're not going to sit on the lead anymore" thing? Yeah.
- Well, we all saw that one coming. With 3:15 left, Pittsburgh ties the game. Kennedy deflects in a slapshot from the point to make it 3-3. Of course, they have to get your hopes up before blowing the lead. But you know what? They deserve it. Zero shots on goal in the third? You reap what you sow, and I don't want to hear another word about how the Islanders are "learning" about how to play with a lead. That's now FOUR GAMES OUT OF FIVE where they've blown two-goal leads. Even if the Islanders win this one, it goes down as a disappointment.
- Ad Break #9: McDonald's, Lincoln, Islanders promo, Boomer Esiason Show.
- The iO replay is Andy Hilbert's goal. Shots on the net. I remember those.
- Jeff Tambellini makes a nice play. A blocked shot leads to a semi-breakaway and the Islanders' first shot on goal in the period. Whoo-hoo.
- Nielsen gets a point-blank opportunity to win the game in regulation with just seconds left, but misses the net. Overtime. That's one point. Great. Two should be in the bank already.
- Overtime Bonus Ad Break: NHL.com. Should've been a car ad. We've only seen 80 of those tonight.
- Looks like the Islanders remembered how to play hockey in this overtime. We're seeing more of the team that played very well for two periods. I guess the time off served them well.
- The final 90 seconds of this game just totally open up. It's reminiscent of the final round of a boxing match, when both guys are just letting the punches fly before the judges make their decisions. Both teams have their chances; the chippy ice hinders the options of both teams. It's a shame it took this long for the teams to figure out that they should just put ANYTHING on net, because it's the most reliable option out there.
- Just to stick it to the Islanders, Mark Streit draws a four-minute penalty with two seconds left. Wonderful.
- We're headed to a shootout. Sykora, Satan, Crosby for the Penguins; Weight, Guerin, and Hunter for the Islanders. I bet anything Satan goes to the backhand. That's all he ever did with the Islanders.
- The Islanders have blocked 29 shots tonight. Wow.
- Weight goes five-hole, but Sabourin gets a pad on it. 0-0.
- Sykora puts on a nice backhand move to beat a sprawling MacDonald. 1-0 Pens.
- Guerin tries to wait out Sabourin, who doesn't commit, and Guerin just shoots it right into Sabouin's glove. 1-0 Pens.
- Satan eschews the backhand in favor of a Guerin-esque move. No luck. 1-0 Pens.
- Hunter shoots one into the middle of Sabourin, who falls back into the net. It's called a no-goal. The officials call Toronto. The replay shows the puck go under Sabourin's left pad, which stays right on the line. You can't see the puck at all under the pad. It looks like the puck actually goes inside the pad. I don't see how this gets overturned. Not to say it didn't go in, but the evidence doesn't appear to be here.
- No goal. Pens win the game, 4-3. That's a fair ruling. It's one of those calls where the call on the ice was going to stand no matter what. It's also fair that the Islanders, who didn't show up for the third period at all, didn't get two points out of this one.
- Next Islanders game is Tuesday against Philadelphia. Those of us who have work won't be able to watch. Maybe that's a good thing. These blown leads are a serious, serious problem. And with the ending of this one, the focus will be on the ref's decision, not yet another blown lead. Seriously, if they can't figure this out yet, when are they going to? It's maddening.
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