When I think of Rick DiPietro, I usually think of the former Broadway musical “Jekyll and Hyde.” On one hand, you have a guy that when his head is screwed on right, he’s easily a top five goaltender in the league. On the other hand, when he’s off his game, he’s a detriment to his team, his teammates and himself.

Nonetheless, when he’s on his game, he is without a doubt, a Vezina trophy candidate. I’m sure some of you pundits are in front of your computers laughing as you read this, but it’s the truth. There’s a reason why the guy made the All-Star team. The Islanders would have been fish in the bottom of the pond through the halfway point of the season if it wasn’t for DP. Remember all those one-goal games? 35 saves here, 40 there? Of course not, because the rest of the NHL seems to consistently believe that the Islanders are the benefactors of luck, while in reality, its character and grit. When I think of goalies that have the power of bringing their team to the next level, Rico is one of the first that come to mind, after of course, Martin Brodeur.

Like I said, when he’s on, that’s exactly what DP represents. Without a doubt, he is everything a hockey fan could ask for in a goaltender and then some. However, when times are bad, they are horrible. Take last season, after the All-Star break, for instance. After injuring his knee [and worse off, not the one he had surgery on the year before] and hiding the fact [I remembering mentioning more than a few times he was playing injured, to only fall on deaf ears: score one for big Pat], the Islanders headed in a downward spiral; in the end, it was one of the reasons why the team didn’t make the playoffs.

Like all things concerning DP though, there are two sides to this debacle. The guy is signed for 13 more years, you can’t take a risk in having him permanently injure himself. Selfishness on the part of DP helped cost Joey McDonald and Wade Dubielewicz at least five starts apiece and got the ship going in the wrong direction. A direction it could never recover from.

On the other side of the coin though, you have a guy that wants to be the leader of this team and wants to be the center of their success. While it doesn’t always work out the way the guy would like, you have to respect the fact that someone is willing to stick their neck out for this team.

That’s something that doesn’t quite show up in the box score after the game and I think we’ll only see more of that in the future from DP. He grew a lot mentally last year on the ice and was much better covering the puck. After the injury, it felt like he was reverting to his old “tryin’ to go too much” façade and it hurt him. Hopefully next season, he comes back healthy and continues to mature more. With a much younger team who may have problems scoring yet again, they’ll need him more than ever.

When Chris Simon started stepping on people around Christmas time this season, many Islander fans expected Kyle Okposo or Jeff Tambellini to join the team. However, what they got instead was Blake Comeau. Even though his game was a little rough around the edges at first, after about 20 games, Comeau proved himself as someone who could play at the NHL level and be successful.

Late in the season, when all the Sound Tigers were up, Comeau was asked if he would join them after the season was over if they made the playoffs. The answer he provided showed a level of maturity and willingness to compete that you don’t see very often in youngsters, as he said he thought of himself as an NHLer now and that while he would go back if they asked him, he instead wanted to focus on his game and help the team make the most of the season. By the end of the season, I think he really established himself as someone that could help the team in various different areas.

With the youth movement apparent, I see Comeau as a third line winger in the mold of someone like Trent Hunter, scoring 15-20 goals a season and playing in all game situations. Scoring eight goals and 15 points in 51 games might not sound too enthralling, but when add in the fact that Comeau only took 67 shots on goal this season, it’s obvious that with a little more polish and hard work, he could be a dependable role player on this team.

However, I think the biggest thing Comeau needs to work on is his toughness. Sure, he takes the body and plays a physical game, but he doesn’t stick up for himself on the ice as often as he should.

A few times last season, people were taking liberties with him and he didn’t respond. One instance that comes to mind is the whole Garnett Exelby situation, you know, when the Thrashers defenseman went gonad fishing with his stick and then sucker-punched the youngster. I know what Comeau was thinking in this situation, that the Isles were way ahead in the game and he wasn’t going to be enticed to drop the gloves when the team was ahead and fighting for their playoff lives, but when a guy spears you in the marbles and then sucker punches you, you have to stand up for yourself. After Exelby got out of the penalty box, Comeau should have challenged him right then and there. Instead, he didn’t and over the next few weeks, agitators were busting his chops on the ice on a consistent basis.

In order for him to truly take his game to the next level, I really feel that he has to stand up for himself. That will give him more space on the ice and will give more of an opportunity to help himself and this team. Otherwise, he’s going to be a marginal 15 goal scorer with no passion.

The passion and talent is there, we just have to wait to see how it develops.