It was the Nathan Lawson Show

It may have been the debut of John Tavares, but it was the Nathan Lawson show last night in Edmonton. Another late night of rookie battles with a very familiar outcome. 3 - 2 Oilers.

It was forty minutes of good, fast paced hockey with an Islanders lead from courtesy of Bruno Gervais from early in the first. They held onto the lead until Dustin Penner skated in all alone and beat Lawson eight minutes into the third.

That's when I decided to call it a night. I missed the last two Edmonton goals. But if I think hard about last season, I'm sure I can conjure up the visual.

Lawson made some excellent saves and some just plain good ones. As Scott Gordon said, "I don't think I could expect him to play any better. This was a big step." With the depth in goal that he spoke of, the question looms large -- Who's going to Utah? Personally I think it should be the "kid." Unless he's too young to travel on his own. I don't know. But let him come up through the ECHL first and give Lawson to Jack and the Tigers to learn the system. But, that's just me.

While I was able to stay awake to watch the game on the computer screen (Thank you NHL.com and no thanks to the Dolans) I noticed that John Tavares is right in everything he says about what he needs to do to get better. I watched him get stripped of the puck a few times. Yes, his opponents are just stronger than he is. Doug Weight warned him about that. Actually, everyone warned him about that. Maybe this was the first time he actually realized that. It was sad that he told a reporter that he didn't even think about his first NHL game as "fun." He said he had "one" special moment, but he was keeping it to himself.

The rookie who DID have fun last night was Calvin de Haan. You can tell that in his interview tape, but then again, he DID have a big goal too. "Probably one of the best days of my life. Dream come true. First game, first goal." But he too understands his short comings and what he needs to learn. "Gap control -- I'm giving the opposition's forwards too much time and space out there. Gotta tighten it up a bit."

I'm reminded at mini-camp, I was told by someone in the know to keep an eye on de Haan. I guess I should take his advice.

So now that John Tavares' much heralded first NHL game is out of the way, he can continue his quest to get better. Hopefully the two injured players from last night will also Get Better Soon. Both Doug Weight and Sean Bergenheim had to leave the game due to groin strains.

Yep, Islanders training camp. Same old, same old. Any takers on who will go down next?