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Isles In Buffalo 2/23/13 4-0 Isles Final

February 23, 2013, 3:50 PM ET [167 Comments]
Dee Karl
New York Islanders Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
9:52 pm: And there you have it! Isles win over the Sabres in dramatic fashion! And by dramatic I mean 'DRAMA-tic.' Would you expect to see Doug Weight have to pull Jack Capuano back from a verbal altercation? No. But it happened tonight.

Matt Moulson earned an assist point on Captain Mark Streit's goal early in the second period along with Marty Reasoner. Michael Grabner must feel a sense of relief finally finding the twine on a breakaway opportunity making the game 2 - 0 in the second.

There's no holding John Tavares back and he made some beautiful moves before netting his 12th goal of the season. He is now tied with Vanek for leading goal scorer in the NHL. (He will surpass him. Mark my words.) Moulson earned an assist on on that one as well.

Nabokov made some beautiful saves this time out, yet he told the MSG cameras, "I just try to be ready for the next shot. I don't think too much." No, he just reacts.

Matt Moulson attributed the win to hard work. "We did a good job wearing them down low. I thought it was a pretty solid game all the way around."

Yes it was, although I'm pretty sure Ryan Miller could have done without the bear-hug.



*4:37 pm: Correction on the Art Staple report of Rick DiPietro. Seems he was given this weekend off and will report next week. That is probably why Steve Valiquette was signed. Duh. Hope Rick is okay. This has to be wearing on him mentally.

The New York Islanders have another chance to show they can move in the right direction tonight when they face the Buffalo Sabres and their new coach, Ron Rolston.

Ofcourse every team wants to win for a new coach, but the Sabres have had such a bad start this season that even that desire may not be enough to win. The Sabres are 6-11-1 and the Isles are just a smidge better at 7-9-1. It's the battle to climb out of the basement.

Kevin Poulin will be meeting up with the team in order to back-up to Evgeni Nabokov while Rick DiPietro made the trip to Bridgeport yesterday where he will remain for the balance of the season. (That's according to Art Staple, although I'm guessing if something miraculous happens, that could change.) In order to fill a gap that now exists in Bridgeport, the Sound Tigers have signed goalie Steve Valiquette to a PTO.

Yes... THAT Steve Valiquette, the one born in 1977 and the one who has had a goalie school and the one who was just signed on as the GOALIE COACH in October of 2012. I guess he was the one least removed from his playing days. Reminds me of the night Mike Dunham sat in the locker room with pads on waiting to see if he was needed after the Isles lost one of their goalies in warmups. Good times.

Isles need to win this one to continue their climb out of the basement. Matt Moulson and John Tavares need to continue their headline grabbing ways so we wake up tomorrow with an Isles back cover on Newsday. Let's do that please.







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