In a monotone voice, John Tavares, sporting a two inch superficial cut on his cheek, addressed the media after their 3 – 2 Overtime loss to the Senators. He told the reporters he's not satisfied with the one point. Scott Gordon wasn’t either, but was pleased with his special teams’ work and development. “I thought we got better as the game went on.”

Actually, they did. During the second intermissionl, Scott Allen said the team needed to play with more ‘urgency.’ They must have lit a fire under them in the locker room, because that’s what they came back out with. Urgency.

After two very fluky goals made the score 2 – 0, it didn’t look like anything was going to go right for the Islanders. The first goal should have been waived off as the puck was shot into the netting above and came back down to continue to be played. There was no call. Biron was furious.

The second goal was banked in off Biron’s skate by Carkner and was reviewed. And while you couldn’t be 100% certain the puck was entirely over the goal line, they gave him his first NHL goal and the Isles were down by two.

It looked like Leclaire wasn’t going to let anything by him until Kyle Okposo showed off some amazing stick work through traffic and scored while airborn as he dove over Leclaire. It was a thing of beauty that sparked his team. With very little time remaining in the period, Doug Weight, Richard Park and Sean Bergenheim had three late chances to stuff another one in the net to even the score. But the clock ran out on them.

John Tavares had 8 shots, 4 on goal and 4 blocked. According to him, it’s the most number of shots he’s had in any game including pre-season. However, it was Matt Moulson that would tie the game at two on a power play goal right outside the paint. Matt had a two point night.

Robbie Schremp also had “two” tonight. Two penalties that is. Not exactly the way you want to start out. They were literally back to back andthe only penalties the Isles took for the night. The first for tripping, the second for elbowing. Now the odd thing is that Josh Bailey was elbowed in the head and he crumbled against the boards and his helmet dislodged. There was no call. Schremp led with this elbow into a chest and got sent back to the box. Where’s the equality?

While I wondered if Bailey would be okay from that hit, I also worried when I saw Martinek tangled up in the corner along the boards for more than a few seconds. The play had actually turned up ice and Marty was still in the corner. I thought this was it – again. But he managed to get up and continue to play.

However, Tim Jackman took a big hit in the first and didn’t play again. He was on the bench, but according to the game summary he played 10 shifts and 6:49 minutes. I don’t want to push my luck and text over to Ottawa to see how he is. So I’m sure we’ll find out from elsewhere if he’ll be out of the line-up for any time.

Even with the loss, Biron made some excellent saves. I especially loved the one he snapped out of the air and flashed at Kovalev.

While Jon Sim never made it to the stat sheet, he had some good chances directly in front of the net and played his usual hard nosed hockey. Maybe that’s the “character” that Tavares was talking about.

Blake Comeau and Doug Weight both played their first game after injury. They both looked fine. Doug really pushed himself tonight and I hope it doesn’t take a toll on him. He wanted to lead by example. He certainly did.

I want to say one thing about Mark Streit. He played a team high of 27:16 minutes, but the thing I find most amazing about him is the sound his rocket shot makes as it hits off a goalie. It echoes. It’s amazing.

So even though the ice seemed tilted in the first period, the Islanders managed to play at least 30 minutes of this game as if they could win it. Not bad for their second day.

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