“After the first ten minutes of the first, I thought we played well.” said Jack Capuano to start his post game media report.

It’s the same story; playing the full 60 minutes, that came back to bite the Islanders. The first Sabres goal was scored at the 15 second mark of the first period by Paul Gustad. It was deflating to say the least.

When Newsday’s Katie Strang asked Jack Capuano how he would keep their poor starts from “becoming a habit.” there was silence for a second or two. “Well, you can ask those guys. But…guys have to be prepared mentally, physically. They’ve got to be ready to go.”

That’s why you play the game. On any given day, the tables turn. And the Sabres had been looking for a way to beat the Islanders and found it. Grab an early lead and work from there.

The Islanders top line of Moulson, Tavares and Parenteau have found the right stuff and even with Moulson’s scoring drought, have been able to be productive. But when Jack was asked who he wants to be the second line, he immediately answered the Comeau, Shremp Bailey line. He would like to see them produce more. I’m pretty certain they’d like that as well.

Also, the Grabner, Nielsen, Okposo line did well against the Sabres. “I thought all lines were good tonight. We could have generated a few more. We had our chances. There were some rebounds there for us… there were some pucks laying around in that area that I thought we could have pounced on.” Jack again pointed out his team’s shortcomings.

That being said, there were some bright spots in the loss. The Islanders out-shot the Sabres 34 - 23 and there were only two Islander penalties. The Sabres were given a four minute penalty on a high stick to Frans Nielsen which was then followed by a four minute penalty on Josh Bailey. Sadly the Islanders couldn’t keep the Sabres from scoring on the second half of that penalty at the beginning of the third period. It was Nathan Gerbe, who looks as if he could have been playing in that morning’s Lighthouse Tournament, scored on the power play that left the Islanders trailing from there on.

In the locker room, the continued chemistry on the Moulson, Tavares, Parenteau line seemed little consolation for Matt Moulson who scored two goals and donated another $1,000 to the Islanders Children‘s Charities. They may be happy playing on a line together, but they are not happy when they lose. PA sat in his stall with his head back against the wall and his arms folded as Moulson addressed the cameras.

“John and PA are two easy guys to play with. We all want to compete out there and win our battles and help the team win.” Matt was quick to explain that many of the goals credited to him came from the keen instincts of his line mates. But for Matt, that’s not enough. He wants the team to win.

Rick DiPietro, back from a bout of the flu, spoke for a minute and a half. “We got behind the 8-ball, but I thought we showed some resilience. We battled back, but unfortunately they pulled ahead and then they had that reviewed goal.”

Yes, that reviewed goal seemed to be a turning point that was even more deflating than the first goal scored at the 15 second mark. “But we came back hard and battled right to the end.” Which they did.

After Jack Hillen scored at 16:37, it seemed as if the Islanders could tie the game and send it to overtime. But with an empty net, after the one minute announcement was made, the Sabres were not letting the Islanders back into the game. Jason Pominville ended the Islanders hope of a point in regulation.

“We just didn’t get the win.” said a somber DiPietro.

Even more curious than Matt Moulson having more hits than Matt Martin was the fact there were no fights. Oh there was a roughing call for a little pushing and shoving in front of the bench that sent both John Tavares and Paul Gustad to the box, but you would think that two teams who have had to play each other so often in such a short amount of time would be sick of seeing each other. But there was no Zenon Konopka beat down or Matt Martin tango. Maybe because it was an afternoon game or maybe because for the rest of the country, it was the NBC game of the day. I’m not sure.

Now, let’s discuss the topic that seemed to be the most important one to all the MSM in attendance today: Evgeni Nabokov. While Garth Snow and Charles Wang entertained the MSM with a play-by-play of the mishaps of the situation at hand, a row of bloggers watched the game taking place on the ice. The Nabokov saga was all consuming for them from Charles Wang’s post Lighthouse Tournament press conference to Jack Capuano’s closing post game. Every player that was in the locker room was asked their opinion of how the Russian goalie would be treated if he showed up at their door. The reaction was the same to a man. Should he report, he would be welcomed. This is a room of professional hockey players who conduct themselves as such.

Even Rick DiPietro was asked his take on the situation, which he said he had none. But according to Rick, the bottom line is “We’ve got a great group of guys here and if you’re part of the Islanders’ organization, you’re family. It’s obviously up to him. He’s a grown man and he can decide what he wants to do and if he decides to come, we’ll welcome him with open arms.”

Yet I don’t know how you welcome a player who hung up on your General Manager and then goes straight to ESPN with a story about why you’re refusing to report. This is a bad situation that a phone call to ESPN seemed to make worse by the minute.

At this point, no one is sure where it will go. But I do have an offer from @HockeyRocker to make the less than an hour drive from his home to pick up the Russian goalie and his hockey bag and drive him to the airport. Maybe the Islanders will take him up on that offer early this week.

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