After taking care of the Panthers on Saturday, the Islanders now have the opportunity to continue their recent road dominance against the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are currently without their captain, Mats Sundin.

Given that, this is a game that the Islanders can and must win. They have the offensive firepower to hold their own with the Leafs and without Sundin in the lineup, the defense can focus on some of the other players that can hurt them. That will give players like Asham and Hunter the opportunity to lay hits on people like Darcy Tucker.

Getting points in their last five road games, the Isles have been a changed team since they were taken to school by the Lightning a week and a half ago, combining both fantastic goaltending by Dipietro and Dunham with the consistent dominance of Alexei Yashin and Jason Blake has effectively formed the key ingredients of a team that has been simply amazing as of late.

Ted Nolan has got these guys going in the right direction and has them motivated all season. Despite a few hiccups along the way, the Islanders have been one of the sleeper teams in the conference. I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but Stan Fischler so far has nailed it right on the head. Usually the biggest Islanders basher in the tri-state area, “The Maven” said in an article on MSG that the Isles were going to sneak up on teams the same way the Rangers did and like I’ve said already, so far so he’s been totally right and I hope it stays the way all season.

That also goes to tell you that despite the fact that he was practically ripped apart by the media during the off-season, Garth Snow [and Neil Smith] did a pretty decent job of putting a solid team on the ice and Ted Nolan has taken care of the rest.

BACK TO THE GAME…

Hating the Maple Leafs as much as I do, I really want to see the Islanders take the body tonight. Nolan has been rolling four lines consistently and because of that, we should be flying tonight and should put forward a team effort. Look for guys like Witt, Hunter and Asham to insert themselves into the game and fuel a hard fought Islanders victory. If guys like Hilbert and Satan get going offensively, we might even see a blow out.

But let’s see what happens.

Let’s Go Islanders.

Posted under Isles 2006-07, Pregame Musings