So, How did That happen?" That seems to be what the Sens personnel was saying as they left the press box this afternoon shaking their heads. There is no way the Islanders should have won that game. Problem is, someone forgot to tell the Islanders.

I was surprised to see Marty Biron in net this afternoon. Maybe it was because it was "Islanders Kids Day" at the rink and the Biron family was in attendance, or maybe because he's on a winning streak. Either way, Scott Gordon made the call and Marty got the nod. He almost got the shut-out, but one lousy goal by Matt Cullen spoiled that late in the third period.

Scott Gordon is always so much more pleasant post game when the team wins. Once again, he was joking with the reporters directing them where to stand, offering NY Post's Dan Martin duct tape for his recorder that was knocked to the ground and answering questions in great detail. Oh, and smiling, which is always nice to see.

In the locker room, everyone had gathered around John Tavares who had his fourth multi-point game. He admits that he changed his mindset a little and his confidence level is definitely showing. Gordon said basically the same thing in the post game.

John Tavares is nineteen-years-old and his frustration level prior to the Olympic break was noticeable. "He was just beating himself up. So I sat him down and talked to him and told him he has to understand that he is not going to score every shift. All he can do is give his best effort and compete and battle and everything else will take care of itself."

Much of the problem is that he is so young. "My point to him is he's 19-years-old. He's going to figure things out; he's going to get stronger and it's going to get easier. That break was good for him mentally. Physically, he's working hard...He doesn't finish a ton of hits, but he's finishing the right ones. "

Speaking of working hard physically, while everyone in the locker room tried to get to Marty Biron, I went over to Trevor Gillies to apologize. Yes, I said apologize. I have been very hard on Gillies since Scott Gordon has called him up from Bridgeport. I introduced myself and told him the truth. "I wanted to say I'm sorry for being so hard on you in my last few entries."

I don't think he knew what was coming next. "...but my husband told me I was wrong and he's very happy to have you in the line-up the last few games and after today, I see he's right."

That is exactly why my husband was yelling about me about Gillies. We haven't had that presence on the bench this season until the man with best mustache in the league was called up to make cameo appearances on the ice.

Gillies fought with Carkner and tossed him to the ice after a bloody battle. He ended up racking up 15 minutes of penalties in his 4:37 of ice time. Only one minute more than Andy Sutton who let Jon Sim annoy him to a point of snapping. Andy grabbed a hold of Frans Nielsen and that's when the refs decided he should go cool off somewhere.

It wasn't the first time during the game that someone seemed to want to take Nielsen's head off. I asked Trevor if he thought something was going on with Nielsen today. "You know Frans is a great player. He plays very hard at both ends of the ice and he's very feisty and he does everything real well. So I could see why they would want to go after a guy like that. He's one of our best forwards and he's really effective. So, they can try all they want but we stuck together. Lots of guys came together in scrums and it was good to see."

He also said he's happy to be part of the Islanders organization. I guess I shouldn't second guess Scott Gordon. He knew what he was doing when he brought him up. It would actually be nice to have him stick around next season as well. You know, just in case.

Speaking of fighting, Sean Bergenheim had quite the game today as well. At the end of the first, he earned seven penalty minutes for a fight with Nick Foligno that seemed to go on way too long for my taste. Sean is very strong on his skates and he wasn't going down on the ice. I'm assuming that's what the refs were waiting for so it seemed to take longer than it should have before it was over. But he paid the Sens back with a goal in their net. I didn't see Bergenheim after the game, so I'm not sure how big a toll the fight took on him.

I'd still like to know how come no one is telling the Islanders they can relax now. We really don't need the points right now. But I guess when you have so many players trying to play for next season's contract, these last four games of the season may be very interesting.