Islanders website: Has the early recap of tonight's 2-1 against the Rangers. Bryan Berard had the game winning goal in his return to New York and likely one more game winning goal then he had in his first tenure in New York.
Bergeron scored the other Islanders goal.
Nolan dressed seven defenders, Bootland was the healthy scratch.
Newsday: Greg Logan's blog reports Jon Sim is facing season ending knee surgery pending a final examination on Thursday.
“It’s tough,” Nolan said of Sim’s possible loss. “You look at what we tried to add to our team, and he’s got that grit, the spirit and that competitive edge. Sim added all those things. To be without him definitely hurts, but someone else has a chance to come in. Now [Jeff] Tambellini will get a chance.”
NYI Fan Central Comments:
Great game by DiPietro that got little attention in the papers, he moved well and was very steady and was the best player on the ice. Beyond that you go into these games knowing Nolan will likely outcoach Renney which was the case again tonight.
Witt and Martinek were outstanding, so were the penalty killers as a unit who got in the trenches and forced the Ranger shots from the outside which led to a lot of blocks.
Five on five was another story. Bergeron had some huge mistakes, forgetting the one in the first peirod with Shanahan what stood out to me was the one just before the Ranger goal where Bergeron lost his man in the corners and Sutton left another Ranger all alone. The commnication was very poor on that play. Seven defenders did not seem to work out in terms of shots against or coverage and several players had limited minutes. Sutton the first time he saw Jagr took a weak holding penalty with virtually no pressure on him and Jagr was kept on the perimeter all night and did not seem willing to work very hard to get to the net until the third peirod.
For all the complaining about Bergeron's defense his goal was amazing and the kind of shot lacking by everyone but Berard who scored the other goal on a Kozlov-like shot that went through the goalie. Pressure is on Bergeron here at the start of the season unlike when he came here from Edmonton and the pressure was off. Sillinger was mostly quiet but his faceoff win led to the goal. Hard to believe first three on three goal since 1981.
Not an easy game with the Rangers trapping in the neutral zone which led to Bergeron's turnover in the first peirod as even the announcer noted, they sit back and wait for mistakes.
Fedotenko had some very good shifts where he kept working hard and forced mistakes from the Rangers. Satan looked terrible in his five on three shift and the line with Vasicek just did not generate much. Guerin did everything but finish his five on three chance but his value to this point has been sticking up for teammates and setting up plays.
Funny thing I read today is how it's going to take time for the Rangers, but all we read all summer was how everyone on the Islanders left. Seems to me the Islanders strategy was a little better than the Rangers and when your goalie is your best player you got a great chance to win which Islanders did.
That said some players have to start appearing on the scoresheet among the forwards, cannot keep winning with the defense doing the scoring.