Who Is That Unmasked Man?

Magnum, D.P. Bests the Greatest Canadian Hero Again

Now that's the way to turn around a road trip. Losing two 1-goal games against division rivals on the road is acceptable, especially after you start the season 9-4. Three in a row would have caused the questions to begin. Were we kidding ourselves thinking this was a .692 team? Is it really more of a .500 team that got off to a hot start? Maybe somewhere in between? What do we really have here? With tonight's 1-0 shutout of the Devils, we can set those thoughts aside for another day.

Of course, no team is going to play .692 hockey without an Alfredsson-Heatley-Spezza level of talent (Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom-Lidstrom-Rafalski-Hasek-Osgood seemed like overkill). But with just six points separating 6th place from 14th in the Eastern Conference, staying in the thick of things early in the season seems key now more than ever. The Islanders already survived the test of an unusually light schedule. Now they must come through during an uncharacteristically busy stretch. A 2-2 road trip would be a good place to start.

I'm still looking for Marty's view on who actually won the game tonight. So far, I've only found something unconvincing about creating your own luck and not crying about bad bounces.

I know I keep saying it, but it's a joy to watch this team close out games with a lead.