One Point Gained, One Lost

Marty Biron and Jeff Tambellini were the only reasons the Monday night Habs game wasn't a 6-1 Islanders loss and another devastating disappointment. Not that losing in overtime is anything to be proud of (again), but there were positives from the game. Just not enough of them.

Kyle Okposo didn't seem to be himself after the hit he took that required stitches to close a cut above his eye. Certainly that throbbing in the stitches had to be somewhat noticeable to him. I'm not quite sure what Mark Streit's problem was, but he didn't exactly seem himself either. Maybe he's catching whatever it is that Doug has that is keeping him off the ice.

Streit played a whopping 29:55 minutes and had three shots on goal and three blocked, but he was a -2 and if this was baseball, even I could recognize a few errors. Brendan Witt only played 9:04 and thirteen shifts. He was still a -1. But then again, John Tavares ended up a -2 and also sat in the box for 2 minutes.

Unlike last season, the Islanders have been on the receiving end of very few penalties. But they haven't been able to capitalize on the penalties of their opponents as often as they should. They cannot win games when they can't find the back of the net.

If you want to know all the details of their shortcomings, check Islesblogger.com. He can recognize each of them as they happen. I'll just stick to the positives as best I can and the biggest positive of the game was Jeff Tambellini. The man who has sat on the side lines so often was the man who gave the Islanders their best chance of winning this game that meant so much to them and their morale.

Marty Biron deserved to win this game even though both goalies faced 31 shots, Montreal managed to 18 missed shots and 26 that were blocked. However, it was the one that Roman Hamrlik managed in overtime that meant the most to both teams.

Sean Bergenheim had a few words for Scott Gomez after Gionta decided to give Andy Sutton a little extra "what for". Anyone else wish that Andy would realize that he's about a foot taller than most and use it to his advantage? Anyone?

Okay. One point is better than no points. But that's hardly consolation.