This Is How You Win- With Effort, Confidence, Grit, and Offense

Islanders 4 : Penguins 2

For the first time since November 1st (a 4-0 win against Tampa Bay), the Isles scored four goals to lift the team to a 4-2 win at Mellon Arena, over a Penguins team that had played three games in four nights, but more importantly is having some serious issues in the net, with Dany Sabourin perhaps luckier than he was good (20 svs). Miro Satan, playing in his 900th NHL game, started off the scoring 44 seconds into the game with his ninth of the year. When asked by Isles broadcaster Deb Kaufman how he stays healthy, his essential reply was, "Just don't think about it."

The Isles certainly weren't thinking about it in this one- their all-around effort was tremendous, despite a couple of mistakes that led to goals, the most glaring one on Pitt's second goal, Jordan Staal's third (a PP goal no less), in which Andy Sutton and Rick DiPietro got tangled up with each other, leaving a wide-open net for Staal to shoot at. Other than that, however, DiPietro made 24 saves, a couple of which were great, and Mike Comrie even got in on the saving act, denying Jarkko Ruutu flat-out on an empty net when DiPietro got caught out of position.

On the other side of the ice, the offense was buzzing. Aside from Satan, Andy Hilbert scored his third of the year after a great odd-man rush by him, Bridgeport callup Blake Comeau, and Tim Jackman (who played a very good game with Hilbert and Comeau), and then Comeau got his first career NHL goal in the third period, which was essentially the game-winner, and a great one for him, as well as the assist on Hilbert's goal. Add on an insurance goal by Trent Hunter less than a minute later, and that equaled the Isles skating out of Pittsburgh with the two points.

Brendan Witt, who had a strong defensive game as well as a goal on Wednesday night, continued that play, but also was very strong on offense, getting a few shots in as well as recording an assist. With a +1 rating and an assist on Miro Satan's goal, he looks to be getting comfortable with offensive play, as well as being a great presence against dynamic Sidney Crosby, who was held to just one assist. Overall, he has been putting forth great effort, and moreover is, as Christine says, a perfect Islander, which is just what we need- a guy who loves playing, who wants to play on the Island, and who has grit and character. Witt is all of that, and as you can tell, I can't stop singing the guy's praises.

On an even better note, the Islanders' TV ratings have skyrocketed, rising up 176% from last year, which is incredible. More incredible is that that jump in the ratings is the highest in the entire NHL- which shows that Islanders fans are supporting this team in more ways than just going to the games. Now, if the Isles can do something about those Christie Brinkley commercials...

link- http://islanders.nhl.com/team/app?articleid=347405&page=NewsPage&service=page