On the Islanders Beat

For those who lament the passing of old-time hockey toughness, just watch Brendan Witt and appreciate all the things he does from game to game to help the Islanders win and to set a standard of effort for his teammates. One night he’s roughing up Jaromir Jagr in the Isles’ shutout win over the Rangers, and the next night, he’s down on the ice blocking three Ottawa shots with his body during a five-on-three power play.

“It’s just one of those things you’ve got to do, sacrifice your body, block shots, especially five-on-three,” Witt said the other day. “At least, try to get a piece of the puck because you know they’re just going to tee it up for one-timers. It’s part of the dirty work. The puck’s like a magnet to me when I’m defending. It’s okay. That’s part of my job is to block shots.”

Sometimes, Witt’s style is reminiscent of the way the great football player Jim Brown would pick himself up slowly after a tackle, looking as if he were exhausted on the way back to the huddle and then just run over guys as soon as the ball was snapped. Of course, with the new rules, Witt has been forced to rein in some of his aggressive instincts in terms of fighting and taking penalties. When he baited both Brendan Shanahan and Colton Orr into dropping the gloves while he took their punches in the Dec. 19 win over the Rangers at the Garden to create power plays, that was the epitome of taking one for the team.

The bruising from Shanahan’s punch, which opened a cut that required stitches has almost faded, and the 31-year-old Witt said he actually feels pretty good for this point in the season. He sometimes skips the morning skates to save himself for the games, but I saw him sneaking out of the trainer’s room Wednesday morning in Ottawa after receiving treatment. So, it’s not like he’s 100 percent.

Witt’s toughness has been a positive influence on all the Islanders, but his defensive partner, Radek Martinek, might have taken it to heart as much as anyone. Martinek won Witt’s respect the night after Christmas when he took a stick above the right eye from the Rangers’ Michael Nylander that opened a gusher of blood near the end of the second period, but he returned to play in the third period after it was stitched up.

“He’s been a warrior,” Witt said of Martinek. “He’s played hard. Even though he could barely see out of his eye the other night, he came back, and even [the next night in Ottawa], it was still a bit of a problem. But I give him a lot of credit for battling back. That’s what we get paid to do is battle through injuries and play injured. It’s unfortunate, a high-stick, but he understands it’s part of the game and just go back to work.”

I asked Witt how dangerous it is to play with fresh stitches on such a grizzly wound as Martinek did when he played without even a visor for protection in Ottawa. “It [stinks],” Witt said, or a word to that effect. “I’ve had it. It’s swollen. As much Vaseline as they put on it, it still gets bumped and it’s still sore and you still feel it. You take a couple of Advil and try to deal with it as best as possible. It’s always going to be a nagging bump. I wasn’t sure if he was going to wear a visor or not. I asked him how he was, and he said, ‘I’m fine.’ So, I said, ‘That’s great.’ It was gritty.”

Unfortunately for Martinek, he was diagnosed with a broken foot suffered in the Rangers game and was placed on injured reserve yesterday for up to four weeks while it heals. So, that means he played the entire game against Ottawa on a broken foot. Allan Rourke has been called up from Bridgeport to take Martinek's place.

Without knowing how Martinek's injury will affect the defensive pairings, Witt will continue to line up against the other team’s top line in most games, and sometimes, Sean Hill, another old-school tough guy, is going to get a piece of that action. The Islanders may not have the swiftest corps of defensemen, but Witt said they can pound on the other team’s stars like a boxer going to the body and wear them down. If the Islanders get to the playoffs, that’s exactly the kind of thing that can help them slow down more skilled teams.

It was coach Ted Nolan who really pushed for the Isles to sign Witt last summer at a time when some talent experts throughout the NHL and even in the Isles’ organization questioned what he could bring to the table at this stage of his career. Nolan couldn’t be happier with the result.

“I think the way Brendan plays sets a tone for all of us to follow,” Nolan said. “He plays with his heart on his sleeve and he gives everything. It doesn’t matter the score, it doesn’t matter the opposition, it doesn’t matter what game. It starts to rub off on people. Jason Blake does the same thing. There’s a number of people that do the same thing. But as much as the coach wants to say this and say that, when your teammates are doing that on a regular basis, it’s kind of like, ‘I should do it, too.’”

NOLAN’S APOLOGY: The day after the Isles’ 2-0 loss to Ottawa, Nolan apologized to the team for taking an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that was tacked on to the end of the two-minute five-on-three they received from referee Eric Furlatt. The Senators scored the clinching second goal with one second left in the bench minor. “When a guy asks you three times and puts his hand up to his ear, obviously, he wants to hear what you said, so, I told him,” Nolan said of his exchange with Furlatt. “But I apologized to the team for losing a little bit of control once in a while. Those things happen. We live and move on and, hopefully, it doesn’t happen again.”

LONG ISLAND HOCKEY: Center Mike Sillinger and assistant coach Dan Lacroix remained behind for an extra day in Ottawa to watch their sons play in an international junior hockey tournament with more than 500 teams. Two top teams from the Island, the Gulls and the Royals, were among those competing.

Sillinger’s 9-year-old son plays for the Gulls in AAA Atoms. Sillinger said he thought his son’s team was going to face a Russian team with 10-year-old goaltender Maxim Tretiak, grandson of the great Vladislav Tretiak. I know because I stopped in at my hotel bar in Ottawa for a postgame beer and sat at the opposite end from a loud group of parents who obviously were enjoying themselves.

One of them walked over and tapped me on the shoulder. It was Sillinger. I hadn’t noticed him, but he came over to say hello and tell me what was going on. He said this is the fifth hockey tournament his son has played in with the Gulls this season. Sillinger also was able to attend the first one in Boston, and he said he loves the enthusiasm of the other parents and appreciates the opportunity for his son on Long Island.

The Islanders are Sillinger’s NHL-record 12th team. Of all the places he’s been, Sillinger said, only St. Louis has a top junior program comparable to what he has found on Long Island. High praise indeed.

Everyone says Jason Blake is a pain in the you know what. Sometimes, even his teammates might agree with that assessment. Hey, he didn’t do me any favors the other day when he refused to discuss his contract situation. Just laughed and pretended not to know what I was talking about.

No doubt, Blake is on the hottest roll of his career with 20 goals through 34 games, which is just eight goals short of his best full season. Presumably, talking about it might upset the hockey gods who control these things, and what’s the point of jinxing himself?

Coach Ted Nolan has another theory. He suggested Blake’s competitive zeal has rubbed off on Alexei Yashin, whose playmaking ability, in turn, has shoveled coal into the fire in Blake’s belly, fueling his desire to score. The symbiotic reaction generated by Nolan’s decision to pair them on the top line clearly has been one of the major reasons for the Islanders’ transformation into a legitimate playoff contender.

And to think Blake complained the first week of training camp in Nova Scotia that he left his hands in Minnesota. But right from the first workout, no one skated harder or faster than Blake. It only was a matter of time until his hands caught up and his scoring took off. He set the prime example of the work rate and grit Nolan wanted from his team, and the Islanders’ new coach rewarded him with a key role on the first power-play unit, as well as the Yashin pairing.

All the goals Blake has scored this season would make a nice highlight reel, but some of his finest moments had little to do with scoring. The bright spot of the Isles’ dismal 6-3 loss in the opener at Phoenix came when Blake was flattened twice by Coyotes defenseman Nick Boynton, and twice, he picked himself up and reclaimed his turf in front of the crease. The way Blake persists in annoying opponents is obvious to the point of being almost comical at times.

When the Islanders’ season-worst losing streak reached three games against the Kings in Los Angeles, it was Blake who turned inward and spouted about the Isles’ need to stop taking so many stupid penalties and start playing smart hockey. Blake might be loathe to explain his success or discuss his contract, but when things go wrong, he never shies away from holding himself and others in the locker room accountable.

There may be limits to how much the Islanders can afford to pay a 33-year-old forward, but he’s certainly shown no signs of slowing down, which management recognized recently in making a couple of trades to clear more than $5 million in salary cap space for future moves. In fact, it almost seems as if Blake is just getting started. He might be a pest, but Nolan and general manager Garth Snow want to make sure Blake remains their pest.

With each turn of the page, the Islanders’ story for 2006-07 seems to get better and more intriguing. As a reporter, my critical faculties always are engaged, but for the second time in less than a week, new general manager Garth Snow has pulled off a cap space-clearing trade that lays the groundwork for bigger and better things to come, and it's hard to argue with the result.

Back when I last covered the Rangers in 2000-01, Mike York was a hustling young kid with a bright future. He tried to maintain that hustle with the Islanders this season, but he wasn’t keeping up with the play well enough to make things happen on a consistent basis. Coach Ted Nolan’s disappointment was obvious after York failed to click with Miro Satan and Trent Hunter, both of whom have struggled offensively.

So, the only surprise about the trade that sent York to Philadelphia for Randy Robitaille was the fact Snow found a taker for his $2.85 million contract. Defenseman Alexei Zhitnik, who was shipped to the Flyers four days earlier, was more effective than York this season in the sense that he always made the smart, percentage play, which is why he was the plus-minus leader. But his plus-minus was offset by the penalties he was taking that led to opponents’ power plays.

Now, with two bold strokes, Snow has made the Islanders faster and cleared $5 million of cap space. No doubt, a team losing money at the box office will save some major bucks until the next trade (Most of which likely will be reinvested in a new deal for Jason Blake somewhere down the line). But Snow has insisted that neither of these moves was made just to cut costs, and I have no reason to doubt him.

Owner Charles Wang wants a winner and is willing to pay for it. There’s zero doubt that Snow will make a push to add offensive help before the Feb. 27 trade deadline. Who it will be and when depends on the circumstances presented by potential trade partners. But anyone hoping for a Tampa Bay selloff likely will be disappointed. The Lightning will contend for a playoff spot, but even if it wanted to get rid of Brad Richards’ $7.8 million contract, that is well beyond what the Isles have available.

However, a lot of other players who could become available have contracts that fall well within the Islanders’ means. The question is what those teams might want in return in terms of future assets. Robert Nillson is an obvious possibility as trade bait, but expect Snow to be very wary of the Islanders’ history of giving up too soon on players with the potential to blossom.

At the same time, if Nolan isn’t high on a player, that’s an indication of which direction the Islanders might be headed because he and Snow are very much on the same page. Although everyone on the Islanders’ crack committee has some say in the decision-making process, from what I’ve seen so far, Snow and Nolan are a pretty powerful one-two punch with Snow acting very much the part of a normal general manager who maintains a constant dialogue with his coach but also with an eye to the big picture.

So far, so good. Now, it’s time to begin scouring the rosters of the bottom feeders for a goal scorer who might shake loose with the majority of candidates likely playing in the Western Conference. In the meantime, watch to see how Robitaille performs on a line with Satan and Viktor Kozlov. In practice this morning, Robitaille was skating at left wing with Kozlov roaming center ice. But obviously, Robitaille would take the faceoffs.

Even if Robitaille’s playmaking ability turns on the juice for the second line, Snow still will look to add scoring. In today’s NHL, he believes the best teams have three lines that can score. That’s Snow’s goal.

Goaltender Rick DiPietro’s shutout performance against Atlanta Saturday night got lost in the shuffle because of the Alexei Zhitnik trade and the return from the injured list of captain Alexei Yashin. But under the circumstances, it was a terrific effort.

Although DiPietro downplayed it, he certainly had added incentive because his low moment of the season came six weeks earlier in a home loss to the Thrashers when he had three giveaways, one of which wound up in the net, was booed by the home fans and then heard them chant for backup Mike Dunham. In addition, he was coming off a game in Pittsburgh in which he gave up five goals in the two periods he played, the last four of which were the result of bad breaks or bad defensive plays in front of him.

Don’t think the previous Atlanta game wasn’t on his mind before the game. “We talked about that before the game,” coach Ted Nolan said. “The last time Atlanta was here, they did certain things to us, and we tried to keep the puck away from areas where they capitalized on us. [We] really executed very well. The communication between Ricky and our defense was on top of its game, and the way Ricky rebounded certainly shows what kind of guy he is.”

The second time around against the Thrashers, DiPietro handled the puck only when necessary, was totally squared up to every shot, didn’t go down too soon, didn’t give up many rebounds and protected both posts solidly when the rush reached the crease. In short, he never gave the Thrashers any reason to believe they had a chance.

When asked if the Zhitnik trade was needed to improve the Isles’ speed on defense, DiPietro said, “No, I think we just hit a spot where we started to struggle a little bit with the ups and downs of a season. But it’s how you rebound and bounce back. I thought [the win over Atlanta] was a good indication that we’re starting to be able to respond to controversy.”

Maybe he was talking about himself a little bit, too.

YASHIN’S HEROES: Alexei Yashin is 33 years old, has scored 330 NHL goals and has played on the Russian national team in international play for years, but he’s not too big a star in his own right to indulge in a little hero worship of his own. While I was chatting with him Friday night in Pittsburgh about his comeback from a sprained knee, Yashin mentioned he had met Penguins part-owner and Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux for the first time that morning.

Yashin was smiling like a little kid who got everything he wanted for Christmas. “I played against him many times, but this is the first time I really met him,” Yashin said. “It was exciting because he was someone I watched for a long time. We talked just for a little while. I got him to autograph a stick. Once before I tried to get him to sign a stick but he had to go someplace and couldn’t do it. Now, I have sticks in my collection from the three players I used to watch, Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier.”

For a guy who has been the target of unbelievably harsh criticism at times in his career, Yashin really is quite passionate about his sport and very professional in his approach. We talked about the difference between being fit to play and being 100 percent. “It’s two different things,” Yashin said.

He could have been out up to four weeks, but Yashin came back in three. He knew the team needed him, and fortunately, the schedule is favorable in terms of recovery time this week. Give the captain credit for acting like one.

Whenever a trade looks too good to be true, it’s a good idea to check your pockets. But if Islanders general manager Garth Snow checks his pockets after trading defenseman Alexei Zhitnik to Philadelphia for defenseman Fred Meyer and a conditional draft pick, he’ll find the franchise is more than $8.6 million richer. Not to mention younger and faster on defense.

That’s approximately the difference between what was left on Zhitnik’s contract, which runs through the 2008-09 campaign at $3.5 million per year, and what the Islanders owe Meyer, whose two-year deal for $525,000 per year runs through next season. Now, consider that Zhitnik totaled 29 points in 59 games last season compared to Meyer’s 27 points in 57 games. Everything was equal except the money and the numbers on their birth certificates, which say Zhitnik is 34 and Meyer turns 26 on Jan. 4.

The numbers may not measure the intangibles Zhitnik provided. Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren wanted Zhitnik for the experience and know-how he can provide for a young defensive corps. But the Islanders can get those same intangibles from Brendan Witt and Sean Hill. What they need is more speed on defense and maybe fewer hooking penalties and less time on the penalty-kill.

Down the road, there’s no telling how valuable the draft pick might become. It’s a third-round pick this June, but if Snow chooses to wait a year, it becomes a second-round pick in 2008. So, if Meyer doesn’t turn out to be an adequate replacement for Zhitnik, wait a few years and the pick might turn into a quality player.

Of course, the big thing is how Snow uses the extra $2 million in salary-cap space he just cleared this season to go about $4 million under the cap. When it was suggested the Islanders’ need more scoring power to keep up with the loaded leaders in the Eastern Conference, Snow said, “I agree. Are we actively pursuing anything? The answer is no, but I recognize we do need secondary scoring. It seems our first line has been scoring most of our goals, and that’s not good enough. But we believe in the guys in the locker room, and they’ll figure it out.”

One thing that might be harder to figure out is who will play once Meyer recovers from a minor back injury. The four veterans, Witt, Hill, Tom Poti and Radek Martinek appear locked in. Coach Ted Nolan loves the way Bruno Gervais is developing, and it’s obvious by the way he is playing more aggressively in the offensive zone that Gervais is growing more comfortable.

Snow said a major reason for the trade was to make room on the roster to bring Chris Campoli up from Bridgeport. But Snow also said, “I have no intention of sending Freddy Meyer to Bridgeport. But you’re asking me to read what’s going to happen and who’s going to play well a week from now. The players who can help us win hockey games are the players who are going to be in the lineup…Who knows? Freddy Meyer AND Campoli may be in the lineup. That’s a coaching question.”

Nolan doesn’t like the idea of rotating an extra defenseman into the lineup to help with certain matchups or to get him some ice time. But obviously, someone is going to have to sit in the press box or go (back?) to Bridgeport. Stay tuned.

Every Newsday sports writer, I’m sure, has been introduced to a stranger, who, upon learning what they do for a living, mentions “Everybody Loves Raymond.” No matter what axe someone has to grind with Newsday regarding politics, religion or even Islanders coverage, when they meet someone who covers sports for Newsday, they laugh and invariably bring up the title character of “Everybody Loves Raymond” because he’s a fictional Newsday sports writer.

Normally, I don’t use the Islanders blog for personal asides, but when I heard Wednesday evening about the death of actor Peter Boyle, who played Raymond’s father, Frank Barone, I thought I’d share an anecdote. Actually, I was watching reruns of the show when one ended with the words: In Memory of Peter Boyle 1935-2006.

It brought to mind a moment about four weeks ago in Tampa. As I got on the elevator headed from the arena floor to the press box, I was joined by Phil Esposito, the radio analyst of the Lightning and the prolific Hall of Fame scorer for the Blackhawks, Bruins and Rangers (Next time I see Joe Gergen, I’ll tell him Espo would have been my choice for No. 77 among New York athletes ahead of Red Grange, and I would have chosen Islander John Tonelli as No. 27 ahead of Pete Reiser, my only two quibbles).

Anyway, it was just the two of us, so, I introduced myself as the Islanders beat writer for Newsday. Espo laughs and says, “‘Everybody Loves Raymond.’ Ray Barone.” We chuckled, and he starts talking about how much he enjoys the show. “I love Peter Boyle, who plays the father,” Espo says. “The way he complains. He really makes me laugh.”

I told Espo that Peter Boyle was my favorite, too. I got the feeling we both could identify with the character. Plus, Boyle used to show up fairly often at Knicks games when I was covering that beat. I never could look at him without smiling at the memory of Boyle as the monster in “Young Frankenstein” when he was introduced as a “sophisticated man about town” before breaking into “Putting on the Ritz.” If you recall, he ended that movie married to Dr. Frankenstein’s fiancée and acting the part of the put-upon husband. Good training for the role of Frank Barone.

The elevator reached the press box, and Espo and I parted ways with a smile. It was a nice little moment. We all should leave as much laughter in our wake as Peter Boyle did.

If the Islanders don’t improve their special teams play, they’re not going to make the playoffs. It’s really as simple as that.

As coach Ted Nolan has said many times, the Isles can match up with anybody in the NHL at even strength. If they could break even on the power-play and penalty-killing units, they would be one of the top teams in a tough Eastern Conference and a threat to advance in the playoffs.

There’s no denying the numbers posted by the Islanders through the first third of the season. The Islanders’ special teams play was absolutely abysmal during the three-game losing streak that began the season. They turned it around in the next nine games when they went 6-2-1, but in the past 16 games (8-7-1), they have reverted to their earlier form. In fact, it’s a testament to how hard they have been working that the Isles have managed to play slightly better than .500 hockey over those 16 games.

If you take out that nine-game stretch of solid special teams play and compare it to the other 19 games, the difference is stark. During their 6-2-1 stretch when their power play was clicking, the Isles scored on 27.7 percent of their power-play chances (13 of 47), while their opponents scored on a still respectable 18.8 percent of their power plays (9 of 48). The Isles had power-play goals in seven of those nine games, including all six wins, while their opponents scored power-play goals in six of those nine games.

In the other 19 games of the season, the Isles have a combined 8-10-1 record. They scored on only 10 percent of their power plays (8 of 80) in that stretch, getting power-play goals in seven of the 19 games. In contrast, their opponents have scored on 21.4 percent of their power plays (25 of 117), netting power-play goals in 15 of those 19 games. That’s a big difference to try and overcome at even strength.

There’s one other key point demonstrated by the numbers. During the successful 6-2-1 stretch, the Isles had just one less power-play opportunity than their opponents. In the other 19 games, their opponents had 37 more chances with the man advantage, an average of almost two more per game.

When Alexei Yashin returns from his sprained knee next weekend, it undoubtedly will improve the power play. And obviously, the Islanders must continue to avoid penalties as much as possible, and maybe Nolan has make more of an issue about the imbalance in calls with the officials.

But most of all, Nolan and general manager Garth Snow need to focus on finding help for their power play before the Feb. 27 trade deadline and to work on making their current power play more cohesive. If the NHL is a special teams game now, then, the Islanders must pay special attention to improving that part of their game.

HOLIDAY BREAK FOR THE ISLANDERS BLOG: Generally, I take my last week of vacation the week before Christmas to find the time necessary to organize a holiday celebration for my family. But in my first season on the Islanders, I feel it’s important to make every trip, especially since Newsday is the only newspaper traveling with the team, and I want to limit the number of games I miss.

With a five-day gap between tomorrow night’s home game against Florida and the next game in Pittsburgh, this is the perfect time to take my holiday break. Newsday’s Eric Boland will cover the Florida game, and I will return in Pittsburgh on Dec. 15.

Again, I want to thank Islanders’ fans for the strong interest they have shown, and I want you to know I’m paying attention to your concerns and expect to provide some answers in the near future to the Coliseum-related issues many have raised here. Until then, my best wishes to all for a wonderful holiday season.

For the second time this season, the Islanders have reached first place in the Atlantic Division. Based on what they showed over the weekend in one of the most tough-minded performances imaginable in back-to-back games played within a 24-hour period on the road, the Isles have to be regarded as a legitimate threat to win the division.

Things didn’t get any easier for the Islanders when they learned this morning that forward Trent Hunter will be out two to four weeks with a sprained knee, the same injury that previously sidelined captain and leading scorer Alexei Yashin. Hunter hasn’t been putting up offensive numbers, but he has set a tone on defense with his hitting and ability to create turnovers. Richard Park will move up, and Jeremy Colliton has been called from Bridgeport to fill a spot on the fourth line. In addition, goaltender Rick DiPietro is being rested tonight against Ottawa and replaced on the roster with Wade Dublielewicz, but at least he is expected to return Thursday against Montreal.

Despite the injuries, the character of the team coach Ted Nolan has been building really showed through as the Islanders shook off two straight losses after losing Yashin and found a way to get enough goals to defeat the high-powered Penguins and Rangers.

Obviously, the play of Viktor Kozlov, who has stepped up with seven goals and two assists in the past four games, including that unbelievable four-goal effort at Madison Square Garden, has been a real eye-opener. But the win over the Rangers had a multitude of moments that deserve comment. Sorry for the length, but there’s a lot of ground to cover. Here are some observations from a reporter’s notebook:

MIROSLAV SATAN: He’s been working hard, and it’s finally starting to show. He got the Islanders’ power play out of its funk with the opening goal in Pittsburgh, but the move he made to score the first goal against the Rangers was the first time this season that he really looked like the same player who led the Isles with 35 goals last season. The Rangers’ Brendan Shanahan blamed a lack of communication on defense for allowing Satan to score “one on five,” but maybe those magic hands are back.

MIKE SILLINGER: Sillinger is another player who stepped up offensively when he ended a 13-game drought with two goals in Pittsburgh and added two assists against the Rangers. But his real value has been in the faceoff circle. He took 33 of 69 faceoffs against the Penguins and 20 of 62 against the Rangers, winning 37 of 53 to give the Isles a clear advantage in possession in both games. Sillinger currently is third in the NHL in faceoffs won.

HARD-NOSED DEFENSE: Speed on defense might be more important than ever in the NHL, but toughness and smarts still wins games. If the Islanders make it to the playoffs, the experience of Brendan Witt, Sean Hill and Alexei Zhitnik only will become more valuable. Witt had one shift against the Rangers in which he took a shot from Jaromir Jagr off the leg, plastered Martin Straka against the glass behind the net and then blocked a shot from Michal Rozsival with his chest. Zhitnik cleared a loose puck behind DiPietro in Pittsburgh at a key moment, and he showed he still can bang in a good give-and-take with the Rangers’ Ryan Hollweg. Hill was credited with blocking an incredible 12 shots against the Rangers, and the Islanders totaled 31 blocked shots. Defensemen Tom Poti, Radek Martinek and Bruno Gervais also showed their cool under pressure with the way they moved the puck as the Islanders’ defensemen totaled just two giveaways in the two games, including none in Pittsburgh.

LEADERSHIP: When Shanahan got his hat trick to cut the Islanders’ lead to 5-4 early in the third period, Chris Simon left the bench to talk to DiPietro. After the game, Nolan said Simon did that on his own and that Richard Park said a few words to the goaltender in the locker room after the Rangers scored three goals in the second period. The second and third came 1:06 apart, and although the third happened because Shanahan knocked down a clearing pass by Witt, it appeared DiPietro just missed the glove save.

But after the game, Park said, “Those goals weren’t Ricky’s fault. We had mental lapses. He made plenty of saves to keep us in the lead.” No doubt, DiPietro did that, but still, it’s good to see DiPietro’s teammates understand how emotional he is and know when to offer timely words of encouragement.

Certainly, DiPietro notices the difference in the locker room this season. Asked about the atmosphere, DiPietro said, “It’s a good feeling. I don’t think we’ve had this feeling for quite some time here. We’ve got some veteran guys that refuse to let guys get comfortable. After that first period, we came in up 4-0, and it wasn’t, ‘Good job.’ It was, ‘We haven’t proven anything yet. There’s still two periods, a lot of hockey, especially against a good team like the Rangers. You haven’t achieved anything until that buzzer sounds and you get the two points.’”

DIPIETRO’S PLAY: DiPietro still makes the occasional mistake when he tries to do too much with the puck. Nolan shook his head over a play his goaltender attempted moments after the Rangers cut the deficit to 5-4. DiPietro caught a shot, threw the puck up in the air and attempted to hit it out of the zone with his stick as if he were hitting fungos to the outfield. But he fouled it off and left it in his own end.

“When it was 5-4 and he was trying to bat the puck out of the air and make it look dramatic, he missed it,” Nolan said. “Fortunately for us, it didn’t come back to haunt us. But he’s a character guy. Ricky’s one of those guys who’s very competitive, very entertaining and a very good goalie.”

How good? Well, since the home loss to Atlanta a month ago, when he committed five turnovers and heard the crowd call for backup Mike Dunham, DiPietro has gone 7-2-1 and committed only five turnovers in that 10-game span, two of which came, ironically, in the shutout he pitched in Dallas. Yes, he can take you for a rollercoaster ride, but the highs are as thrilling as the lows are scary.

He caught a couple breaks against Pittsburgh and the Rangers with a no-goal call in each game, but every goaltender needs a bit of good luck now and then. The bottom line is that DiPietro faced 80 shots in a 24-hour period, including seven from Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh and nine from Shanahan, five from Jagr and four from Straka at the Garden. Unlike Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who basically benched himself after the first period, DiPietro didn’t duck out under heavy fire. He came up big with 73 saves, a .913 percentage, and won two huge divisional road games when the Islanders needed it the most.

That’s the kind of goaltending that, together with all the other good things the Islanders have been doing, can get a team to the playoffs with a real chance to do some damage. The Islanders will be only one-third of the way through the season after tonight’s game against Ottawa and they have a couple of major players missing, but you really have to like the direction they’re headed.

Yes, it’s just the 26th game of the season and they will meet seven more times over the next four months. But Islanders-Rangers is never just another game, and that’s especially true when first place in the Atlantic Division is on the line.

Coming on the end of a back-to-back set of games, the Islanders couldn’t afford to look past Pittsburgh to the Rangers. But in a way, the Rangers game was the subtext last night, providing motivation for the Islanders to find a way to beat the Penguins, 5-3, and draw within a point of the Rangers and Devils.

When I spoke to him after yesterday’s morning skate, Islanders goaltender Rick DiPietro made it clear he knew where both teams stood and what was necessary to make tonight’s game just a little more important. “I’m sure for the fans, it will be a little more exciting than usual with our current standing,” DiPietro said. “But we’ve got to win [against Pittsburgh] to put ourselves in a position to catch those guys.”

They did that despite a tough opening period in which Pittsburgh was awarded five of its nine power plays and took an early 2-1 lead. After the Isles came back to take a one-goal lead midway through the second period when Viktor Kozlov and Mike Sillinger scored the first of their two goals apiece, watching DiPietro and the Islanders fight to hold onto the lead was like watching a high-wire walker on a windy day. There were a lot of oohs and aahs and heart palpitations as the Penguins came close on chance after chance.

No, the Islanders’ defense didn’t exactly lock up Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. That’s an impossibility. But they fought like crazy, as defenseman Sean Hill did after having his ankles broken when Crosby did the hockey version of a crossover dribble behind the net. Hill picked himself up off the ice and gave Crosby a shot. Okay, it gave the Pens another power play, but the Islanders stayed in the faces of the Penguins’ young stars during a game in which even Miro Satan threw off his gloves while wrestling behind the net with Mark Recchi.

If there’s one major concern for the Isles, it’s the lopsided difference between the number of power play opportunities they receive compared to their opponents. Going into the Pittsburgh game, only Chicago had received fewer power plays than the Islanders in the NHL, and they were only 25th in the league in number of power play goals for.

They broke out of a 12-game power-play slump last night with two goals in four chances. But during the previous 12-game stretch, the Islanders scored only three power-play goals in 44 attempts. During that same span, their opponents scored 12 times in 63 power-play chances.

If the Rangers have a big advantage in power-play opportunities tonight, it will be an uphill fight for the Isles against the likes of Brendan Shanahan, Jaromir Jagr and Michael Nylander. But no matter how the game is called, something tells me this is going to be a wild one because the Islanders will be out to show the Rangers they are a different team this season, a gritty Ted Nolan team.

Let the fireworks begin.