Tampa Bay in Town 2-21-08

Tom's here, so there's no way in hell I"m doing the "Live Blog" thing. Ok, Well, it IS live blog, but not play by play.

Simon's here. He was at the warm ups, and everyone was at the glass looking, waiting, he didn't look very comfortable. Neither are we.

Loudville is crowded and loud as they should be. THey just started the Let's Go Islanders Chant. You know... they should give them some sort of incentive for that. Oh... they do. $10 tickets. Right.
Ok Simon's on the ice first shift out, othing happening yet, and no boos or noiises from the crowd. Nice. I was worried. Short shift, that was uneventful. Keep it that way Chris.

DiPi is getting peppered a little, but the board says 4 shots on goal, they're keeping it moving in the right direction.

So it isn't filling in the way we would have liked it. And the weather is good, but the Bolts are playing like crap lately... and the Islanders aren't. (Ha ha ... that was for YOU Dr. David!) Even my brother Dominic called from Tampa asking if he would see me on TV since he was watching hte game. Um... no. Not from up here.

Frank is already having a stroke and we're only in the first period. Tom is the buffer tonight between us so that we don't kill each other as he's my favorite adversary.

Oh look, SOG are 11 - 2 in favor of the Islanders, and Simon's back on the ice. Puck goes out of play and Comeau is in the box for delay of game. They really should change that rule.

Good to see Ricky may be on tonight. He just fumbled the puck but snatched it out of the air in forn tof Gratton's face. Nice little move that prompted the DiPi chant.
SOG now 12 - 5 and 24 seconds left to the penalty. They kill it off, no problem.

And someone must have spiked Berard's Starbucks today because he is flying.

Little Marty goes into the boards, and they call Drew Fata for tripping. That was a bogus call IMO. The little guy slipped himself.

End of 1, and they manage to get out of the period without any scoring. So there will only be a few seconds left when they return to the clean sheet of ice.

Off to Gate 1 Meet & Greet to see who is there.
CJ is on the Jumbotron with Berard. He says they are well rested. He's actually just on a caffein high. ha ha ha.

Yeah yeah... I got side tracked. Back in the box, SOG 18 - 11 and no score. I didn't miss much while I was chit chatting. That's a good thing.

As is typical, Frank has dissapeared from the blog box for the second period.

Simon back out and into the play at 4:46 of the second. Gee, he's next to St. Louis and there's like a 3 foot difference in size. Very short shift. Miro Park and Bergie trying to make things happen, but they get a whistle for interference on Satan. I guess he was trying just a LITTLE too hard.

As luck would have it, they just did a pseudo commerical for the blog box on the in arena TV thing. Thank god it wasn't on Broadcast. It was just Tom and I... um... laughing. They toldpeople to come talk to us. Right... Like we'd do that. Just kidding!!! We're friendly. Well... Tom, Ken and I are friendly. Frank's another story.

And someone DID indeed come up to talk to us. Thanks guys.

Did we think it would be scoreless by the third? No, not I. And looking at the game stats, Simon has had 7 shifts so far. More than I told my friend from Toronto I thought he'd get.
How ARE the Leafs doing Gibby? Losing to Buffalo I see.

I'm starting to get a headache. Someone score. Or I should go get some tea...
There's a hole in the ice in front of the bench being fixed. It's also colder in here than usual, but I think that's because it's colder outside than usual. But even I'm not exactly comfortable. Ok... Tea it is!

Miro, Miro on the ice, a goal right here would sure be nice....
You HAD to wait till I was on the concession line to score? Thanks. But Sean gets the assist and I'll take points for that boy any way he can get them.

SOG now 24 - 21 with 10:23 left in the third. Not the most exciting game I've seen, but there's still time left for something to happen.

9:33 left and Ranger takes a penalty to put the Islanders on the Power Play. Now, can they convert it into something is the question.

There is now a new Hooters promotion for free wings if you wear your Islander gear before or after the game. That's good since it doesn't look like there will be free chili tomorrow.

It's always nerve wracking as hell when DiPietro loses sight of the puck. But he managed to keep it beneath him in order to get the whistle. 7:28 left and sog are 24 - 22 they are closing in. I'm not very comfortable as all the action is now in the Islanders zone. They want to tie this up for sure. If anyone can, it's that little rat St. Louis ... uh... if he was out there. Which he's not.

Again, the post is Ricky's best friend as it CLANGS off and right beneath him. He sits on it in order to get a whistle.