- I'm not sure what I'd rather have happen: The Islanders moving to Las Vegas or hearing this stupid "Meet Me At The Lighthouse" song one more time.
- They're doing the whole giant-American-flag-at-center-ice thing yet again. This was a cool thing when they did it the first time. Now? Sort of old hat. They kind of ruined it when they started doing it every game.
- The Islanders take a penalty and Pens goalie Danny Sabourin stays in the net. Good idea.
- Right off the bat, Joey MacDonald makes a nice save on a Malkin blast from the point. The crowd is chanting "Princess Crosby" at Gary Bettman's favorite player. Interesting, but effective.
- I have to say, I'm not used to being this close to the action. Every shot looks like twice as hard as it does from the 300s. That said, MacDonald looks sharp early on. He has to be, as the Pens are firing at will.
- The scoreboard educates us about Turdecken, the favorite Thanksgiving food of the immortal John Madden. Unfortunately for Mr. Madden, it doesn't come with a side of Brett Favre.
- Two icings in a row for Pittsburgh. I bet Howie and Billy are complaining that they can't take at TV timeout.
- Power play for the Isles. They should start declining penalties at this point.
- Streit puts on a weak shot from the point. Nobody's in front of the net to deflect it. Of course.
- One of the Penguins runs over MacDonald with 32 seconds left in the Islanders' power play. By the time Richard Park figures out what to do, eleven seconds elapse. Now the Isles only get a 21-second two-man advantage instead of a 32-second one. Big difference.
- The Isles get a little pass-happy on the five-on-three and miss one opportunity, but end up getting the goal anyway as Doug Weight taps in a rebound. We thought they were going to give the goal to Josh Bailey, but they didn't. Damn. Anyway, 1-0 Isles.
- Trent Hunter comes in on a broken play and backhands one past Sabourin to give the Isles a 2-0 lead! Sabourin could be getting rattled by a pretty impressive crowd tonight. And that's two assists for Bailey, who has all but written his ticket for a permanent stay on Long Island.
- We were just given free Lighthouse shirts. Meet me at the Lighthouse... and don't forget your smile...
- As soon as the puck drops after the TV timeout, Mitch Fritz engages in fisticuffs with former Islander Eric Godard. Nice, long bout, with both guys getting in good shots. Maybe Gordon should up Fritz's ice time to two minutes a game.
- This game's starting to get a little physical, which is nice. We're starting to see more up-and-down action, with both teams having their chances.
- The Islanders ice the puck, the Ice Girls come out... only there's no TV timeout because you can't have a TV timeout after an icing call. Whoops.
- Now, we have our TV timeout, as Andy Hilbert takes a boarding penalty. Hard to believe, right?
- Pat Sajak is being interviewed on the scoreboard and says, and I quote, "Rangers Suck". After the interview, the Coliseum game ops staff reminds us that we're two-thirds of the way to free chili. Personally, I'd rather pay the dollar for chili than have the cashier at Wendy's look at me like I have three heads after asking for free chili.
- Miroslav Satan is playing in front of the net on the power play, as opposed to when he played for the Islanders, when he used to stand at the point and miss the net.
- Bailey made an excellent play behind the net to steal the puck and create a great scoring chance. Unfortunately, Jon Sim can't put it home. We end the first with the Islanders comfortably ahead 2-0. And by "comfortably", I mean there's a great chance it'll be 2-2 before long.
- The second period brings rise to all the crappy emo music I dread hearing at Islander games. How wonderful.
- The puck is taking some weird bounces tonight. The Islanders would do well to keep firing the puck on Sabourin, who's given up some pretty good rebounds tonight.
- The officials changed the scoring on Weight's goal, giving the assist to Streit instead of Bailey.
- The pace has slowed down a little bit as the second period unfolds. The focus in the Blog Box turns to Family Guy clips on YouTube and the Ice Girl who stopped by to say hello.
- The Isles have had at least three great opportunities, but have opted for the pass each time. However, they're working hard in the offensive zone and drew a penalty. Best part? It's on Malkin. Gotta score here.
- And just like that, Guerin fires one from the top of the faceoff circle to make it 3-0. Which sounded awesome until I realized the Islanders now have a three-goal lead. Sabourin gets the yank; he's replaced by someone named "John Curry". He wears #1. It's actually his first NHL appearance, which means he'll be utterly dominant.
- So you know how I said the Islanders should start declining penalties? They're 2-for-3 on the man advantage tonight. So much for that line of thinking.
- This is kind of a jinx... but Pittsburgh is playing like crap. They haven't gotten consistent pressure all game long, the Islanders have had a number of odd-man rushes, and the Pens' goaltending hasn't been anything to write home about.
- On the penalty kill, Jordan Staal gets a breakaway, but Joey MacDonald comes up huge with a kick save. The Pens have had three good chances on this PK. Maybe they should play shorthanded for the rest of the game.
- New feature on the scoreboard: The Supercuts "Who Needs A Haircut" cam. We're treated to a bunch of fans who badly need haircuts. I like this one. I've seen worse, anyway.
- The Isles have blown a golden opportunity by allowing Curry, a cold goalie with nerves about making his first NHL appearance, time to get comfortable. This could come back to bite them later.
- The Pens get one with 18.7 seconds left in the second. Looks like Satan tapped it in. Suddenly, a three-goal deficit becomes a very manageable two-goal deficit. Not good. We saw how late goals killed the Isles in Jersey on Friday. Let's hope for a different result this time. 3-1 Isles to end the third. So far, so good... but I'm still a bit worried.
- Intermission Idiocy: The Human Puck Shoot! I love this one. Parents put their kids on sleds and shove them into the goal from the blue line. Clearly, this is something I'll be doing when my daughter is old enough.
- My favorite guilty pleasure of attending Islander games is the text messages that appear on the scoreboard. If you haven't seen this, they basically take the dumbest comments people text to some number and put them on the scoreboard. Unfortunately, they never put up my texts. I always send the same one: "Stan Fischler is old."
- According to the scoreboard, the average person consumes 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving. Very inspiring.
- The Penguins knock one in at the same time as one of their players barrels over MacDonald, knocking the net off. After a review, the call on the ice (no goal) stands.
- The refs let three consecutive penalties go, including one dive by the Islanders and one hook by Crosby. Seconds later, Crosby scores to make it 3-2. Here we go again...
- The Isles have gotten extremely sloppy over the past 15 or so minutes. Pretty much ever since they scored that third goal, they stopped playing their game and reverted into the shell that has led to them blowing many a third-period lead. Since the end of the first period - that's 27 minutes of hockey - the Islanders have ten shots on goal. That's not going to get it done.
- Right off the TV timeout, Petr Sykora gets a point-blank opportunity from the slot. If the Islanders lose this game, they're going to regret it. With a goalie playing his first NHL minutes on the other end, the Islanders haven't tested him at all. If I were Scott Gordon, I'd call a timeout and kindly remind his team that they've blown like five three-goal leads in the past month.
- Ten minutes left in the third, and the Islanders ice the puck. I can't even remember the last time the Islanders carried the puck over the blue line. It was probably in the second period.
- Malkin scores to make it 3-3. And I have to admit, I totally saw this coming. As did every other Islander fan in the building. The Islanders haven't played their game in well over a period and it finally came back to bite them. The good thing is, there's nine minutes left to get the lead back. The bad thing is, Pittsburgh has all the momentum in the world right now.
- Under a minute after scoring goal number three, Makin puts in number four. Crosby gets the assist once again. This is exactly what the Islanders deserve after mailing in the last 30 or so minutes of this game.
- As if everyone in the Coliseum is under a malaise, the game ops staff play "I'll Stick Around" by the Foo Fighters. Which would have been fine, except they played it in the first period as well. Whoops.
- Instead of playing hard and trying to get the lead back, Guerin tries to goad two Penguins into fights. This is with 7:19 left in a game the Islanders are currently losing. He gets two well-deserved minutes. Remember, this is our captain we're talking about here.
- The Penguins are just having their way with the Islanders right now. The Isles are scrambling around on the PK and can barely contain the Penguins at this point. Not good.
- We gotta wrap this up so that we can head down to the locker room and watch the players try to explain away their latest blown lead. Unless, of course, the Isles pull victory from the jaws of defeat yet again. As Tony Schiavone would say, the tape machines are rolling... should the Islanders not blow this game, that'd be excellent. But at this point, it's hard to expect anything else.
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