Super Bowl Sunday Makes Up for Sub-Par Saturday

Isles 1 : Montreal 4

This past weekend, it was a tale of two worlds for this sports fan.

On one side, my strong hockey following took a huge blow with the Islanders' fourth consecutive loss, a 4-1 drubbing by the Montreal Canadiens on the road to kick off February with a terrible whimper. Rick DiPietro had a stronger game in his return from sitting out the Kings game with flu symptoms (28 saves), but ultimately the lack of offense was what killed the Isles, who now find themselves with a game in hand and four points behind the Rangers, who beat said Canadiens 5-3 yesterday afternoon. Moreover, they are not making any callups to Bridgeport, according to this Greg Logan item.
http://www.newsday.com/sports/hockey/ny-spisles045563798feb04,0,5860338.story
With a league-last 2.36 goals per game, you're going to let Jeff Tambellini sit with the Sound Tigers? Not for nothing, but something has got to be done regarding roster changes, and the best thing to do would be to sit someone like Mike Comrie and pull up Tamby or Ben Walter to see what happens. Sure, you don't want to have your players lose faith or confidence, and I can understand that if Ted Nolan is thinking it. But you cannot coddle these guys, and you can't keep playing them if they are not producing. The time has come to make changes, and make them big time. (Ted Nolan, are you listening??????)

That said, my whole outlook changed with the Super Bowl, and the first one I really paid attention to in a long time- being that my beloved New York Giants were in it for the first time in eight years, and they were the proverbial David against a huge Goliath in the 18-0 New England Patriots, the team that I, my father, and everyone else loves to hate (unless, of course, you're a fan), who were all set to make history and whose fans even smugly started planning parades and selling T-shirts marked "19-0 Dynasty" and the like to celebrate.

Spoke too soon, didn't they?

The Giants were the winners, 17-14, in a thriller that had me in turns screaming, praying, and ready to cry as I watched, second by painstaking second. Everyone who thought this would be a high-scoring game thought wrong- the Giants played their trademark defense-first game and played it well, throttling Tom Brady and stifling Randy Moss (except for his touchdown catch in the last two minutes of the game that put the Patriots up and would have sealed it for them if not for... wait, I'm getting ahead of myself). In the fourth, Brady finally hit Moss for a touchdown that made the score 14-10 Pats, and were that close to making history... but then young Eli Manning stepped up and said no, we're not done yet, throwing an incredible long-yardage pass to David Tyree that pulled the Giants all the way across the field (83 yards!) and set up the clincher: a TD pass to Plaxico Burress that sent all of New York's fans into a frenzy. They would hold on and make the score final: 17-14 Giants. Super Bowl Champs.

As I write this in my Manning jersey and with "18-1: R.I.P." written on my hand, I still can't really believe that we've come this far. It brings me to the conclusion that it is true, what they say- any team, on any given night, can win it. It all boils down to who wants it more, who is willing to step up and bring it home, as our MVP quarterback did.

Which is exactly why I am dying for the Islanders to break out of this funk and break onto the ice tomorrow night against defending Stanley Cup champions, the Anaheim Ducks, and start winning games. We have as much of a chance as anyone. The Giants proved it last night.