On the Islanders Beat

Just as the Islanders did a few days ago, it’s time for me to clean out my locker, pack up my laptop and head into the offseason. I’m going to leave you with a few odds and ends left over from interviews at the end of the season, and I’m going to include a section with answers to some FAQs that are bound to come up in the next couple of months so that you have a handy reference. This is my longest blog ever by far, so, you can read it in sections over several days if you like because it’s the last one for quite some time.

But first, I want to thank all of the people who have read this blog and contributed to it over the course of my first season on the Islanders beat. Right from the start of the season in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia to the very end in Buffalo, the Islanders provided all of us with a great story to follow. I’m approaching my 25th anniversary at Newsday this summer and have covered a lot of territory in that time, but I really can’t remember a more enjoyable experience on a beat.

As a first-time blogger, I approached this opportunity a little differently because I saw the space available on the Internet as a way to expand coverage of the Islanders, which is what I promised to do in my second blog. It was a lot of work, and I might have to re-think my approach next season now that this blog is established. But taken as a whole, the blog provided extra full-length articles by the dozens. I like to think that set a tone for the in-depth discussion that grew all season in the comment section.

I can’t tell you how many times I read over the comments and felt proud that so many people with hockey knowledge and interest put so much effort into expressing their opinions and driving the discussion forward. I don’t want to slight anyone by overlooking your name, but the steady posters from Vancouver to Edmonton to Cincinnati to upstate New York to Massachusetts to Toronto to New York City to Slovakia to Merrick Road and on and on even to Rangers precincts across the USA and to other places known only by their initials must be commended for making this spot come alive. I can do my very best, but without your input and effort, this blog never could have achieved the level of readership that it did. And while I am off, you are invited to continue posting comments and discussing the Islanders.

Since the week of the Feb. 27 trade deadline when it set a Newsday record for sports blogs with 56,782 hits, this has been the No. 1 sports blog at Newsday for six of the past eight weeks with numbers ranging from just over 20,000 to more than 33,000 hits. Readership of Islanders stories on our web site also has jumped accordingly, topping 120,000 hits for five of the past eight weeks up to a high of 230,543 the week the Islanders’ first-round series with Buffalo opened. That’s the highest number of hits for a week of Islanders coverage in five years since the first-round playoff series with Toronto, when the numbers included the Rangers and all hockey stories. The interest was reflected by increased space in Newsday, including quite a few back page headlines.

Congratulations to all of you and thank you very much. Despite the empty seats at the start of the season in Nassau Coliseum, it shows the depth of interest and passion for the Islanders still is there. It’s up to GM Garth Snow, coach Ted Nolan and owner Charles Wang to keep building on it. Clearly, the fan base is ready to embrace a quality product. Okay, on to hockey topics.

RYAN SMYTH: You might have seen these comments previously on the Islanders’ web site, but I found it interesting when Smyth spoke about his contact with former greats Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier before leaving. In particular, Smyth recalled a passage from Wayne Gretzky’s book about the scene in the locker room area at Nassau Coliseum after the Isles swept Edmonton, 4-0, to win their last Stanley Cup in 1983.

“It’s pretty special, actually,” Smyth said. “I came from the west side, knowing all those Oilers, and now, getting to meet the other side. I still remember when Gretz wrote in his book the fact that, when he walked down this hall, they were on ice bags. They weren’t even celebrating when they beat [the Oilers]. They knew how hard it was to win and what it took to win. That’s the reflection you get when you see the other side of it and how they deal with everyday life. It’s a great opportunity to get to know them all.”

That history might be meaningless to many hockey free agents, but I think Smyth honestly appreciated it. Whether it’s enough to convince him to return, I don’t know. But Marc-Andre Bergeron, another former Oiler and a friend of Smyth’s seemed to like his experience on Long Island and to think Smyth did, too.

“It’s been great,” Bergeron said of his own time with the Isles. “Right from the get-go when I was traded here, I talked with Garth, and he made me feel really confident about coming down here. He made sure I was comfortable. The players and the staff made it easy to adjust. That’s the biggest part. They showed me confidence on the ice, and I took advantage…I’m closer to home [in Quebec]. I’ve got friends coming down here. I’m in New York, so, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Of course, Smyth’s heart is far away in Edmonton, where he grew up as a kid in Alberta rooting for the Oilers. But when I asked Bergeron how he thought Smyth liked the Island, he said: “I think he likes it. I know he likes it. So, it’s a matter of having a deal that will make him happy.”

JASON BLAKE: It would be surprising to me if Blake signs before July 1 when the free agent market opens. It’s in his best interest to see if there’s a team that will blow him away with a big-money offer. He is coming off a career season of 40 goals despite playing with a wide variety of linemates that went from Alexei Yashin to Viktor Kozlov to Randy Robitaille. He proved in the second half of the season that he wasn’t just a beneficiary of Yashin’s hot start. If anything, it might have been the other way around.

As much as the Islanders need Blake’s speed, he actually might fit in better elsewhere with a team that places more of a priority on speed. “Is there a better fit out there?” Blake asked. “I don’t know that. For me, I’ve been here for six years; I’ve made a home here, I’m comfortable here, I know everyone in the organization, I know Charles and Mike Milbury and now Garth’s the GM. We’ve done a lot to make it successful. Is there a better fit? I’ll never know that unless I do go somewhere else. I’ll be 34 at the start of next year, and I want to win. It’s not necessarily about money. It’s being happy, and I want to win. Hopefully, that’s here.”

Interestingly, Blake said he and Rick DiPietro both tried to sell Smyth on the advantages of Long Island.

RICK DIPIETRO: The goaltender began this season with the pressure of a 15-year contract, but after the team lost him twice with concussions, his value was underscored to the extent that the contract began to look like a bargain. Nolan talked often about how you could see DiPietro mature over the course of the season. I’d be willing to bet that, after his experience with concussions this season, he might recognize the need to rein himself in just to the point where he eliminates the unnecessary risk-taking. His puck-handling still will be a vital part of his game, but as the Islanders improve, DiPietro will grow more secure with his importance to everything they do and just concentrate on providing the edge the Isles need to get past the Rangers and Devils.

As the face of the franchise, DiPietro knows better than anyone how much progress the Islanders have made this season, and he will want to keep pushing that forward. “It was a tough summer as far as p.r. went for the Islanders, but I think we made all the right decisions and right moves, and it paid off,” DiPietro said. “We always think there’s things we could have done better, but for the most part, we had a productive season and we got a lot of people back.

“People saw how hard we fought and the resiliency this team had. That’s the New York attitude: always keep fighting. And that’s what we did. People respect that. It’s nice to see people when you’re on the streets or out to lunch and they come up and say they’re proud of you and the season you had. That’s a great feeling.”

ALEXEI YASHIN: The promise of Yashin’s fast start under Nolan faded when he struggled while trying to come back from a knee injury in late November. There’s no question he was playing hurt when he returned in mid-December, but his production and effort fell so far in January that Nolan felt compelled to shut him down completely in February to eliminate the injury factor as an excuse for poor play. Thereafter, Nolan’s frustration was obvious in terms of his wavering support for Yashin.

“Sometimes, it’s tough with the confidence,” Yashin said. “You start questioning yourself or you start to play tighter. Sometimes, when you shoot the puck, instead of hitting the post and it goes in, it hits the post and goes out. Breaks like that are what make it difficult on any player. From my perspective, I play hockey with whatever ice time I have I try to give my best to this team.”

Yashin said blame comes with the territory as the captain and highest-paid player on the team, and he correctly noted that he never made an issue of the situation to create a distraction for the team. “It’s not about me,” Yashin said. “I never said, ‘Me, me, me, I want this stuff or I want more power play time.’ I know what I can do with support. Players become better players with a lot of support. It’s no question when I got a lot of support, a lot of things went right for me. But I have no regrets about this season at all. I hope my future will be much brighter.”

Yashin’s agent, Marc Gandler, recently said his client would give up the “C” to Ryan Smyth or any other player if that’s what it takes to remain an Islander and avoid a buyout. Whether the Islanders sign Smyth and Blake or not, they can’t ignore the fact Yashin scored 50 points in 58 games. He seemed comfortable at left wing, and if he’s relieved of the leadership responsibility, maybe it would reduce the pressure of expectations. On the other hand, Nolan’s expectations are high for everyone in the locker room.

TED NOLAN & GARTH SNOW: As Snow said, the coach and GM really did become an effective team during the season. They revived the franchise, but the Islanders are at a tipping point after paying such a high price for Smyth at the trade deadline and with 13 unrestricted free agents to worry about signing or letting go. Personally, I will be fascinated to see whether the progress they made translates into attracting enough quality free agents in the offseason to take the next step to contending status. If they lose Smyth, will they go hard after Chris Drury? Can’t wait to find out.

ISLANDERS NOTES: Defenseman Tom Poti is one of the key free agents the Islanders need to retain. He likes to go year-to-year on contracts, but he stated his desire to return. “I have a lot of respect for the coaching staff and for Garth,” Poti said. “We had a great year. I like it here a lot, and I hope to definitely be back. It’s a great group of guys in the room. I don’t know how you could get a better group of guys. With the guys that are signed for years to come, it’s a great nucleus, and with a couple more pieces to the puzzle, we could do some serious damage.”

Backup goaltender WadeDubielewicz, whose mental toughness and skill in net got the Islanders through the last four games of the regular season and into the playoffs, also is unrestricted but would like to return as DiPietro’s regular backup. “I’ve been with the organization since Day 1,” Dubielewicz said. “I’m an Islander, and I want to stay in the organization. I’ve got to be realistic. I’m not going to step into a No. 1 job anywhere. So, being behind a goalie like Ricky with his talent level and his skill level, you can’t ask for a better situation…In the past couple of weeks, they really have shown their appreciation. Teddy said thanks and told me I did a great job and I opened some eyes and proved to some people I can play. It feels pretty good.”

Several calls to defenseman Sean Hill’s agent have gone unanswered in the week since the season ended. Hill’s suspension for the use of performance-enhancing substances was a real shocker. No one is more opposed to the use of such substances than I am, but it would be a shame for Hill’s career to end this way. As much as I admired his toughness on the ice, a quality that defined his entire career, I believe his presence in the locker room was at least as valuable. Hill’s was a voice of reason and honesty, which is why his silence is so troubling now.

Islanders TV analyst Billy Jaffe asked me toward the end of the season to convey his thanks to the fans after his first year with the team. Since I covered 90 of 92 games this season, including exhibitions and playoffs, I only got to hear him twice. But I liked what I heard, and more importantly, I can tell you I’ve never seen a commentator spend more time working the locker room and quietly developing relationships with players and discussing the fine points of the games than I saw Jaffe do on a daily basis. His opinion was a valuable resource for me, and I’m sure those who watch the telecasts will be well-served in the future by Jaffe.

If you recall the blog I did toward the end of the season about six-year-old Cole Botta, the son of Islanders vice-president of communications, Chris Botta, you will be happy to know that Cole has made wonderful progress since undergoing open-heart surgery. Chris said it was hard to slow Cole down on a recent visit to the park. Thanks to Chris and his assistant, Corey Witt, for their invaluable help this season and, most of all, for facilitating coverage rather than obstructing it, as too many teams in pro sports do these days. Thanks also to Deb Kauffman and Howie Rose on the TV side and to radio announcers Steve Mears and Chris King for welcoming me into their midst and sharing their knowledge.

FAQs: Q: What are the chances of 2006 No. 1 pick Kyle Okposo leaving the University of Minnesota after his freshman year to join the Isles?

A: “That decision could come by the summer,” Snow said. “It’s not a rush. We’re not putting any pressure on from the organizational side of things. It’s something Kyle and his family have to talk about. It’s a big change in lifestyle.”

Q: How much talent is left in the farm system after sending Robert Nilsson, Ryan O’Marra and this year’s No. 1 pick to Edmonton for Ryan Smyth and trading this year’s No. 2 pick to Washington for Richard Zednik?

A: In addition to Okposo, Snow mentioned several young players who played with the Isles and Bridgeport, including forwards Jeff Tambellini, Frans Nielsen and Blake Comeau and defensemen Chris Campoli and Bruno Gervais, who were a pair in the playoffs. He said the signing of University of New Hampshire star Trevor Smith, whom he likened to Trent Hunter but with better skating ability, was meant to offset the loss of Nilsson and O’Marra. Smith probably is a couple years away. Snow also mentioned that defenseman Dustin Kohn will be moving up from juniors, and he hopes to sign Sean Bergenheim, who spent last season playing in Sweden.

Q: When will defenseman Radek Martinek return from his fractured leg?

A: He is expected to be ready to go when training camp opens. Snow said Martinek will remain on Long Island during the offseason to undergo rehabilitation.

Q: How is Bergenheim’s knee injury that he suffered at the end of the season?

A: According to agent Marc Gandler, Bergenheim is perfectly healthy and will play with Finland in the world championships. As for signing with the Isles next season, Gandler said discussions haven’t begun, “but both sides are interested in getting a deal done.”

Q: Can Alexei Yashin restructure the remaining four years of his contract worth $26.45 million?

A: Restructuring a contract is NOT allowed under the collective bargaining agreement.

Q: What is the procedure for a buyout?

A: If the Islanders want to buy out a contract, they must do it by June 30 or wait another year. The player then receives an amount equal to two-thirds of his contract spread equally over twice the remaining years. In Yashin’s case, he would receive a total of $17.63 million in annual installments of just over $2.2 million paid in monthly checks for a total of eight years.

Q: How long do we have to wait for another blog from that lazy so-and-so Logan?

A: That depends on when news events warrant it and whether the need to use up accumulated vacation and comp time from this and previous years permits it. Without going into details, this could be the last blog for many months. Then again, I’m hopeful we can work it out so I can cover Islanders news throughout what should be an eventful summer. Have a great offseason.

Back on April 2 when the Islanders still needed a highly improbable four straight wins to qualify for the playoffs, I interviewed Ryan Smyth about his brief time as an Islander, thinking I would write it for the blog the next day before the Isles played the Rangers. As fate would have it, I spent that morning in a hospital emergency room receiving treatment for a painful ailment so I could attend the game that night. Next thing I knew, the Islanders started the winning streak that extended Smyth’s stay a couple extra weeks through the first-round loss to Buffalo that ended last night.

Now that Smyth’s Long Island experience has ended after 24 games, one of which he sat out with an injury, it’s the right time to share his comments about what it has been like to wear another uniform since his stunning trade on Feb. 27 from Edmonton. My first question to Smyth was about a recent poll conducted by The Hockey News in which the Islanders were rated as the third-worst team to be traded to in the NHL. Oddly enough, they finished behind Buffalo and Smyth’s beloved Edmonton.

“Ever since I’ve been here, the organization has been great, the players have been good,” Smyth said. “I have no regrets. The longer you stay, the better you feel.”

The poll indicated the Islanders have a poor perception around the NHL. They also were one of six teams that received no votes (along with Atlanta, Columbus, New Jersey, St. Louis and Washington) when players were questioned about places they would want to be traded.

Smyth suggested that notion might change if the decision by Islanders owner Charles Wang to hire Garth Snow as general manager and Ted Nolan as coach pays off. “I wouldn’t say that,” Smyth said of the negative vibes regarding the Islanders’ image. “With what went on in the start of the year and over the last little while, I think a transition is being made now. You see Teddy and Garth and Mr. Wang taking over and wanting to better this club. You’re seeing a whole new transition of a lot of great things.”

Smyth acknowledged talking with Snow and Nolan about the direction of the franchise. “Obviously, they want to build a winner here,” Smyth said. “I wasn’t here before, so, I don’t have that other side of it. But what I see now is their determination from their standpoint, and hopefully, that can creep into this locker room.”

With 15 free agents on the roster and only 10 veterans under contract for next season, the Islanders clearly have room to make more major changes. Considering they have goaltender Rick DiPietro signed for another 14 seasons, Smyth said he’s certain there is a serious commitment to put a good team in front of DiPietro.

When Smyth first arrived, there still were a lot of empty seats at Nassau Coliseum. But that gradually improved, and he got a sense of what it might be like after getting the opportunity to play in three games against the Rangers plus two home playoff games. No matter what the current condition of the Coliseum, Smyth at least can appreciate the history of the franchise whose dynasty preceded that of the Oilers.

“There’s a lot of speculation as far as a new rink and the surroundings,” Smyth said. “People love their hockey up here. You look around this room [at the practice facility in Syosset] and the Coliseum. Four Stanley Cup says a lot about the history.”

Asked how he felt about the bold move Snow and Nolan made to get him, by trading away former first-round picks Robert Nilsson and Ryan O’Marra plus this year’s first-round pick, Smyth said, “I was an added, extra piece of the puzzle. I just want to fit in and be a part and win.” Referring to his experience last season, when he reached the Stanley Cup Finals with the Oilers, Smyth added, “I was that close last year, and that’s what I wanted to bring in here. For me to comment on what happened in the past, I can’t. But they’re trying to do all the right things.”

Wang, Snow and Nolan are trying, but there’s still one big thing at the top of their to-do list: Sign Ryan Smyth ASAP.

As you already read in “The Smoking Gun” blog below, the Islanders showed a video of Brendan Witt’s disputed game-tying goal against Buffalo goaltender Ryan Miller with 1:42 remaining in Game 4 to reporters from New York’s four major daily newspapers after it was ruled no-goal by referee Mike Leggo last night.

Here is the clip myself and other reporters viewed courtesy of the Islanders. Watch it, and then pick up Friday’s edition of Newsday to read the explanation of Leggo’s call that I received from NHL director of operations Colin Campbell in an interview earlier today.

Leggo offered the following explanation of his ruling to a pool reporter following Game 4: “Rule 78.5 says after a goaltender makes a save, they can’t be pushed into the net after making the save. I deemed the puck was under him and he made the save and then was pushed into the net. After he was in the net, I saw the puck came loose. I didn’t see the puck until he got up, actually.”

Leggo on the reason for looking at the video replay: “I wanted to make sure it didn’t get shot in, that I had the right call, to make sure that he made the save and got pushed in, that it didn’t pop out and someone just shot it in. We felt he was shoved in by the Islander player being aggressive toward the net. We have the ability to initiate a review, but in this case, it was initiated by Toronto.”

In my interview with Campbell, he said he was not aware of Leggo’s comments to the pool reporter, and he differed on who called for the review. According to Campbell, it was Leon Stickle, the replay official on site at the Coliseum, who called Toronto and then served as a conduit for communication between Campbell and Leggo.

Without getting into the roots of the NHL-against-the-Islanders conspiracy theory that pervades the atmosphere at Nassau Coliseum, let’s just consider the evidence Islanders general manager Garth Snow offered to the four major New York daily newspapers last night after Brendan Witt’s game-tying goal was waved off by referee Mike Leggo in Buffalo’s 4-2 Game 4 win to take a 3-1 lead in their first-round series.

Combined with Leggo’s explanation of his ruling, the Islanders’ video is a smoking gun if ever there was one.

To recap the explanation in the game story in today’s Newsday, the video shown to reporters was a head-on view of Buffalo goaltender Ryan Miller as the puck hit him. At the time, Miller was on his knees basically sitting behind the goal line already. The puck drops in front of Miller and lands on the goal line – still not a goal.

Islanders defenseman Witt skates in from the right side untouched and reaches for the puck with his stick. At that point, sight of the puck is lost behind a player’s skate, but you see Witt whack at it. Then, the picture opens up enough to see the puck go through Miller’s five-hole behind the goal line. Now, it’s a goal – a loose puck having been sent under Miller by Witt.

No whistle has blown. Then, Miro Satan comes down the middle, falling toward Miller. But in freeze frame, you could see Satan had not crashed into Miller and Witt was standing to the right of the goalie bent at the waist. Neither player was yet touching the Buffalo goaltender.

Leggo told a pool reporter the replay review was initiated in Toronto, but the NHL replay officials left it to him to make the call after looking at video evidence to confirm what he thought he saw. Leggo cited Rule 78.5, which says that, after a goaltender makes a save, he can’t be pushed into the net. The referee said he deemed Miller had made the save and was sitting on the puck. That was mistake No. 1. The puck clearly was loose in front.

Explaining why he needed to look at the replay, Leggo said, “I wanted to make sure that it didn’t get shot in, that I had the right call.”

That was mistake No. 2. Witt shot the puck.

Had Toronto overruled the call on the ice or had Leggo called the play correctly, the game would have been tied 3-3 with 1:42 left in regulation, and who knows what might have happened?

But with the Islanders still desperate to score, the forwards didn’t come back to help out defensemen Tom Poti and Marc-Andre Bergeron, who let Jason Pominville get loose for a shot. Isles goaltender Rick DiPietro had lost his focus at that point, too, possibly because everyone in an Islanders uniform was frantic to send the puck back to the forwards for another assault on Miller. The puck went in to make it a 4-2 final, but if the scored had been tied, both teams most likely would have locked it down and gone to intermission to regroup for overtime.

That doesn’t mean the series would be 2-2 today. It just means the Islanders would have had another chance to avoid the 3-1 deficit they face today. At the least, it would be nice to see the NHL admit its mistake.

Game 4 tonight is serious stuff for the Islanders, who need a win over the Sabres if they don’t want to face elimination Friday night in Buffalo. At this morning’s skate, coach Lindy Ruff made it clear his team is bracing for the Isles’ best shot, saying, “The Islanders will bring everything they possibly have, and when they do that, they can compete with anybody. We feel it’s do or die for them.”

There’s no doubt a hockey season is on the line tonight, and it’s important to a lot of people. But another story has been going on the past few weeks within the Islanders’ family that reminds us that, no matter how passionate we might feel, the outcome really isn’t “do or die.” The story is about the courage and sunny disposition of 6-year-old Cole Botta, the son of Islanders vice-president of media relations, Chris Botta and his wife, Catherine.

I’m going to skip straight to the happy ending and tell you that the Botta family, including Cole’s twin brother, Luke, and older brother, Aidan, are celebrating Cole’s successful recovery from open-heart surgery on April 4, the morning after the Isles kept their faint playoff hopes alive with a win over the Rangers. As trying as these times have been for the Botta family, they might one day look back on this part of their lives as a series of fortunate events.

Diagnosed shortly after his birth with a heart condition that one day would require surgery, Cole learned not long after his and Luke’s birthday in December that he needed an operation to correct a condition known as subaortic stenosis. It was to be performed by Dr. Jonathan Chen of the Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, who was described in one recent magazine piece as “the Derek Jeter of pediatric cardiology.”

The surgery originally was scheduled for March but was postponed so that it coincided with the final week of the NHL regular season. For Chris, the Islanders’ playoff push and hockey talk served as a diversion from the mounting anxiety over how Cole would handle the surgery. The day after the Isles’ win over the Rangers, the good news everyone in the team office wanted to hear was delivered in the afternoon when Cole’s surgery was pronounced a success.

Members of Botta’s staff visited Cole in the hospital two days after his surgery and presented him with a mini-DVD player. When Cole pressed the play button, he saw a video on which a series of Islanders players sent him their best wishes for a speedy recovery. As Chris tells it, “It did wonders for Cole, who was still struggling when he saw it.” The last person to appear on the video was Isles coach Ted Nolan, who said he was hoping to “win the games this week so we’re still playing when you get home.”

Thanks to a little unexpected magic from backup goaltender Wade Dubielewicz, the Islanders backed up Nolan’s words by winning four straight to reach the playoffs. Chris and Catherine missed Dubie’s poke check at the end of the shootout win over the Devils in the last game of the season because that was the day they brought Cole home from the hospital.

A good story grew better after the Islanders lost Game 1 of their first-round Stanley Cup series in Buffalo. Following the morning skate before Game 2, defenseman Bruno Gervais telephoned Cole at home and told him the Isles were planning to beat the NHL’s top team and that Bruno was going to try to score a goal for him. The same player who had not scored once all season.

Call it good karma, a miracle, mere coincidence or whatever you like, but when Gervais managed to put a soft wrist shot that Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller saw from 55 feet away into the net for the second goal in the Islanders’ 3-2 win, Chris Botta was sure he knew the reason why.

Like many athletes, Gervais is no stranger to superstition. He tried to contact Cole before the Isles’ Game 3 loss but was unable to reach him. In case you’re wondering where things stand tonight, Bruno had a nice telephone conversation with Cole this afternoon. “Bruno has a good heart,” Chris said without a trace of irony. “They mostly talk about Playstation.”

I don’t know if Gervais’ karma will hold up tonight or not against an explosive Buffalo team. It will be fun to find out. But no matter what the outcome, we already know the ending is happy for one little Islander.

By my unofficial count, the Islanders have managed only five shots on goal in seven power-play opportunities (one of which lasted only seven seconds) through the first two games of their first-round series with Buffalo. I could be off because I’m often writing during games and could have missed something. But it’s clear the Isles have experienced great difficulty just getting into the Sabres’ zone to set up their power play.

On the plus side, their last PP shot by Marc-Andre Bergeron produced the winning goal in Game 2 to even the series. We all know Bergeron owns a cannon, but his frustration was evident when I asked if that was the only time in Game 2 that he was able to take his full windup. “It’s the only time in two games,” Bergeron said. “It’s like we haven’t been able to set up the play for so long. They don’t want to let me shoot.”

As the Isles’ coaching staff views the series, the power play has been the difference. In Buffalo’s 4-1 Game 1 victory, the Sabres were credited with two power-play goals, but it felt like three because one came four seconds after the PP expired before Randy Robitaille could come out of the box to get in the play. Then, Bergy got the only power-play score of Game 2.

“We haven’t been doing so good on the power play this series,” Bergeron said. “It’s huge. That’s part of the new NHL is having a good power play. It helped us to make the playoffs, and it’s been tough the first two games, but we came up big with that big goal. We just moved it around a little better. They put a lot of pressure on us. It’s an offensive team with a lot of skill, so, they read the play really well. They’re cheating a little bit on passes, and they’re making it hard on us with the pressure. Sometimes, it’s a matter of outsmarting them.”

Between Games 1 and 2, the Islanders’ coaching staff made some significant adjustments. Alexei Yashin and Miro Satan got no PP time in Game 2 because they were replaced by Robitaille and Richard Zednik and Viktor Kozlov’s time was increased. Jason Blake’s time was cut, but he was able to carry over the blue line twice in Game 2 to help the Islanders get set up.

“Ultimately, on the power play, you have to win a one-on-one battle sometime to get possession, and then, you have to make a couple skill passes,” Isles assistant coach Danny Flynn said. “We made a couple of adjustments, and I thought we were a little better in Game 2. If we look at our statistics on the power play, since we got Ryan Smyth and Marc-Andre Bergeron, our power play statistics have been one of the best in the league, and it’s made a substantial difference since the first half. In a series like this, we’ll constantly look at tape and meet as coaches and try to give our players information.”

Flynn said Blake’s ability to carry the puck is one of the options the Isles have to get set up, but they have other possibilities available that simply require the right read. Because of the obvious pressure Bergeron receives, he would like Tom Poti on the other point to take advantage of the room he’s getting to shoot more and Flynn agreed.

“Tom Poti is so unselfish that he looks to pass almost every time," Flynn said. "We’ve encouraged him a lot to shoot, and he’s taken some strides to put some pucks on net to keep them honest when they want to shade Bergy.”

Robitaille acknowledged the coaches were upset with the Game 1 PP performance, and he welcomed the changes and the chance to get involved on the power play. “It was more so just to get a different look and maybe jump-start some other guys,” he said of the lineup moves.

But as Flynn said, there are going to be times when the Islanders just have to dump the puck in and win the battle for possession against the speedy Sabres. “They’re very quick and they get on you and pressure you,” Robitaille said. “When you have control, they’re a little bit passive, but until you get control, they’re fighting tooth and nail to get control of it.”

GAME 3 PREVIEW: Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff sounded like a confident man coming into Game 3 this morning at the skate. He admitted the presence of Islanders goaltender Rick DiPietro gave the Sabres problems in the first period, when they fell behind, 2-1. DiPietro’s puckhandling was a major adjustment from that of backup Wade Dubielewicz.

“We didn’t react well to it,” Ruff said. “After that, I thought we made some adjustments and covered lanes and covered areas. He’s still going to make plays. He has that capability. We want to limit that ability. We’ve played against him enough. It was a little adjustment from Dubielewicz to him. We know he’s going to take advantage, but we want to try to trap him at the same time.”

Ruff noted that he spent the middle portion of Game 2 shuffling his line combinations and moving players to different positions. After being outshot 16-10 in the first period, the momentum switched to give the Sabres a 24-16 advantage over the final two periods.

“We did have a period of time where I don’t think we gave up a shot for almost 17 or 18 minutes, and we had some real good chances,” Ruff said. “That last 30 minutes was typical of how we want to play. The first 30, I’m going to give them some credit for how hard they played and they won races to pucks. In the last 30, we started to win those battles, which made a difference.”

Sounds like Ruff believes the Isles got a one-game boost from DiPietro’s return, and he expects the Sabres to regain control tonight. The fly in his ointment might be the fact that Buffalo goaltender Ryan Miller let in two long drives from the point. Miller was upset yesterday when questioned about it, admitting the goal by Bruno Gervais was soft. Anyone would have had trouble handling Bergeron’s booming shot. But clearly, the Isles need to put pressure on early to see if they can rattle Miller.

It’s official. Rick DiPietro will be announced as the Islanders’ starting goaltender against Buffalo in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series tonight at HSBC Center. Wade Dubielewicz, who started the past six games and compiled a 4-2 record, will be the backup. He was up on an emergency basis from Bridgeport but was fully recalled today to fill the backup role ahead of Mike Dunham.

This will be DiPietro’s first start since he suffered his second concussion in 12 days on March 25 against the Rangers. DiPietro practiced yesterday and again this morning in the pregame skate. “I felt good,” DiPietro said this morning. “I expected yesterday to be a little bit rusty. You’ve got to get your lungs back and your timing, but I’ve been riding the bike a couple days. We’ll see what happens.”

Officially, Islanders coach Ted Nolan says naming his starting goaltender for Game 2 against Buffalo will be a game-time decision tonight. But after looking sharp in the pregame skate, Rick DiPietro said he’s as ready as he’ll ever be following a 20-day layoff since his last concussion.

Describing the conversation he anticipated having with Nolan this afternoon before the game, DiPietro said, “I think we’ll sit down and have a talk and see where he stands and where I stand and come to a decision. I’ll tell him how I feel. He’ll ask me if I can play, and I’ll say, ‘Yeah, I feel like I’m good to go.’ And then, he’ll make the decision.”

Following his first concussion March 13 in Montreal, DiPietro sat out only one week before returning. This time, he took nearly three weeks to recover, consult with a couple of neurologists and take the necessary tests to receive medical clearance. He has been symptom-free for more than a week, experiencing no headaches or nausea.

“I feel like we’ve gone through all the proper steps,” DiPietro said, “so, I feel comfortable I’m 100 percent…I don’t have a crystal ball. I can’t sit here and tell you how things will go if I play, if they’ll go good or bad. But at the end of the day, I feel like I’m a big part of this team, and I want to do anything I can to help win and contribute.

“There’s pressure any time you play in the playoffs and with my situation. But if I didn’t feel comfortable going in there and if I felt like I was going to be detrimental to the team’s success, I wouldn’t go in.”

DiPietro acknowledged the likelihood he will be rusty at the outset, and he might have to battle through fatigue. But his plan is to keep it simple, make smart plays, not get caught out of position and not waste too much energy overhandling the puck.

Since rejoining the team in practice, his enthusiasm is the obvious sign that he’s raring to go. Asked if he feels a bit like a caged animal, DiPietro said: “You could say that. I’ve been taking it out on my arcade game at home. I have every high score now for the last three weeks. Anything I could do on the off time to compete and get that adrenaline flowing, but it’s tough to find things to do that compare to this. Even at practice, you feel rejuvenated and full of life.”

Maybe his presence will have the same effect on an Islanders squad that needs a big game tonight on Buffalo ice to return home with a split.

It looks as though all systems are go for Islanders goaltender Rick DiPietro to return to the lineup for Game 2 against the Sabres Saturday night at HSBC Arena. It came as no surprise to Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff, who described the situation succinctly: “Desperate times, desperate measures.”

This is DiPietro’s second time around the concussion track in a month. The first time, he did not undergo a neuro-psychological test before returning against Tampa Bay after a week on the sidelines. But this time, DiPietro has consulted with an independent neurologist and has gone symptom-free for a week and has passed the test he failed shortly after suffering his second concussion on March 25 against the Rangers.

Despite a more cautious approach, Islanders fans have to hope this isn’t a case of the tail wagging the dog. Of course, DiPietro wants to take part in the playoffs, and he certainly has the ability to make a difference. But it’s still been less than three weeks since he suffered a recurrence of symptoms after suffering blows to the head against the Flyers and then the Rangers.

Two small moments caught the eye today as DiPietro went through his first practice and the interviews that followed. Toward the end, after taking a series of shots, DiPietro was unsteady for just a split-second and then hunched over looking as if he were trying to catch his breath. That’s when his workout ended, and he skated off bent over in a resting position. The other noticeable reaction came during the interview session when a TV cameraman suddenly turned on a bright light on DiPietro’s face, and he seemed to reel slightly, shading his eyes.

It could have happened to anyone, it could be nothing, it could be a reporter looking for something that isn’t there. If DiPietro plays in Game 2, as most expect he will, you just have to hope the steps that have been taken this time are sufficient to protect DiPietro from himself for his sake and for the long-term future of the team.

You know the Sabres will test him early with a barrage of shots and try to crash the net to see how he handles it. Collisions always are a possibility in hockey. But DiPietro said he’s not worried. “It’s hockey,” he said. “It’s a rough sport. Whatever happens, happens. But I’m confident I’ve done everything in my power to be 100 percent.”

Even before the Islanders tee it up with Wade Dubielewicz in goal in Game 1 tonight against the Sabres’ loaded lineup, coach Ted Nolan knows there’s a good chance decision time will be upon him soon. Does he stick with “Dubie,” the hot goaltender who saved the season with his stellar play in four straight wins that earned a playoff berth, or does he throw Rick DiPietro straight into the playoff fire after a layoff of more than two weeks to recover from his second concussion of the season?

DiPietro met with a neurologist this afternoon and was expecting to take the neuro-psychological exam he must pass in order to be cleared to return to practice with the Islanders’ full squad. The team likely will not announce the results until tomorrow. But the Isles’ top goaltender came away from his third straight individual workout earlier today feeling upbeat about his condition.

“I skated again this morning and felt good,” DiPietro said. “I’m optimistic I’m going to do well, but I don’t want to sit here and tell you one thing and then not do well on that test. It’s all dependent on the test. I’ve been symptom-free, which is a positive thing. As long as I do well on that test and can be cleared by the neurologist, then, we’ll go from there.”

Before returning from the first concussion he suffered on March 13 in Montreal, DiPietro went through one full practice and then the morning skate on March 20 before facing Tampa Bay that night. The playoff schedule is a tight one with games every other day, but it’s conceivable DiPietro could pass the test, take part in practice tomorrow, go through the skate Saturday morning and be ready to go for Game 2.

“In playoff time, anything is possible,” DiPietro said. “It depends on how badly they want me to get up there.”

If not Game 2, then, Game 3 Monday night at the Coliseum certainly is a possibility, assuming he passes the test. So what happens if Dubie stays hot tonight and DiPietro is cleared to go before Game 2? Does Nolan then have a tough decision to make?

“No, there’s no decision there at all,” Nolan said after today’s morning skate. “We’ll make that decision when [the time comes], but we know exactly what the decision will be when Ricky comes back.”

To these ears, that sounded like an unqualified endorsement of DiPietro as long as he’s healthy and handles practice without any recurrence of the symptoms. Logically, it has to be that way. DiPietro was doing a brilliant job of backstopping the Islanders’ playoff push before suffering the first concussion and even went 2-0-2 before suffering the second concussion. Against the Sabres’ cavalry of goal scorers, his athleticism and puckhandling ability would go a long way toward blunting Buffalo’s attack.

That’s not to say Dubie hasn’t earned consideration to continue, especially if he plays well in Game 1. In eight appearances this season, Dubielewicz has a 2.06 GAA and a phenomenal .934 save percentage. Nolan credited Dubielewicz with restoring the Islanders’ belief they could make the playoffs when everything was going wrong after losing DiPietro for the second time.

“You talk about underdogs, I don’t think Wade’s really an underdog,” Nolan said. “This guy has [been an AHL All-Star and was a Hobey Baker Award finalist in college]. He’s had a great career. The only thing he didn’t have is the opportunity. Now, he has the opportunity. He’s the real deal. He just loves the game, he loves the competition, and he’s a treat to be around added into the good guys we have on this team.”

Either way, the Islanders can feel confident with their goaltending, though DiPietro’s playoff experience could make the difference when this series heats up. When you think about it, Buffalo is the team that might be on shaky ground in goal with Ty Conklin and his 3.44 GAA and .879 save percentage as the backup in case starter Ryan Miller goes down. In any case, it will be interesting to see what happens if and when DP is cleared to practice.

Much will be made over the next few days of a playoff matchup between Islanders coach Ted Nolan and the Buffalo organization that cut him loose after he was named NHL coach of the year in 1996-97 with the Sabres. The hard feelings are real, and the key players still are in place. Darcy Regier, who left the Islanders’ front office to replace John Muckler as general manager, gave Nolan a token one-year offer that he turned down and eventually hired Lindy Ruff to replace him as coach.

Newsday columnist Mark Herrmann wrote a nice piece on how the Islanders reacted after clinching a playoff spot on Sunday by congratulating Nolan. They understand how much this series means to him and also to Miro Satan, a former Sabre, who is booed whenever he plays in Buffalo.

But a grudge only goes so far as motivation, and what happened between Nolan and the Sabres was 10 years ago. When I asked captain Alexei Yashin if he thought the team wanted to win for Nolan, he made a good point. “We all want to beat Buffalo, especially when they did very well all season long,” said Yashin, referring to the Sabres’ status as President’s Trophy winners with the most points in the NHL. “It’s some kind of measurement. You can measure yourself. When we play together and play for each other, we’re a very good team.”

Yashin finished the season on a good roll with 10 points in his final 10 games. Since moving from center to left wing on a line with Viktor Kozlov and Satan, he has been relieved of some defensive responsibility in the middle of the ice but has done a better job skating his wing and working the corners.

Yashin laughed when asked if he were stunned to make the playoffs by winning four straight games at the end to get in with Wade Dubielewicz replacing injured Rick DiPietro in goal. “It’s just a great feeling,” Yashin said. “We missed the playoffs last year. It’s just great to have this feeling back when we made it three years in a row before.

“Buffalo is a very strong team, but we believed in ourselves the last few games against very good, strong teams, and we beat Buffalo [once] this year, too. If we believe in ourselves and play for each other, you never know what’s going to happen. The last few games, we played playoff hockey. Every game for us was a decision-making game. You were in or you were out. We played with urgency, and it’s great to see the team like that.”

It’s great, too, to see Yashin responding down the stretch in important games. With the offensive load more evenly distributed throughout this Islanders team, maybe Yashin will get a little less defensive attention and maintain that pace into the playoffs.

NEWSDAY PREVIEW: Coming in Wednesday’s Newsday is a 2,300-word package profiling Dubielewicz and updating DiPietro’s status and bid to get back in the lineup and the return of forward Richard Zednik. Ordinarily, I don’t bother readers with the details of my job, but for those who wonder why the blog sometimes is posted late in the day, it takes time to answer a bunch of e-mail in the morning, cover practice, transcribe 4,000 words of notes, write 2,300 words for the paper and then blog another 600 words. When I’m done here, I’ll finish making travel arrangements and spend the night filing previous travel expenses. Yeah, I know, it beats working for a living.

Goaltender Rick DiPietro was on the shelf, and the Islanders had lost three straight, including back-to-back games to Eastern Conference powers Buffalo and Ottawa by a combined 11-6 margin to fall to 11th with a week left in the regular season. They were down to third-stringer Wade Dubielewicz in goal, and except for the 42 saves he made against the Senators, Isles coach Ted Nolan said everyone else “mailed it in.”

If ever there was a dead team walking, it was the Islanders. The idea that they could beat the Rangers, Toronto, Philadelphia and the Devils and get the help they needed to pass three teams to get the eighth playoff berth was preposterous. Shaking his head over what the Islanders accomplished with their 3-2 shootout win Sunday in New Jersey to reach the playoffs against Buffalo, Jason Blake recalled the feeling a week ago.

“I just think it was the lack of effort,” Blake said of the bitter taste after losing the way the Islanders did to the Senators. “When you’re competing for a playoff spot, the way we basically got manhandled by Ottawa was disappointing, and the effort was disappointing. It was a wakeup call. Either we start playing good hockey, or we’re not going to make the playoffs. We stuck together, and here we are facing Buffalo.”

On the Sunday after that Ottawa loss, Nolan called a team meeting that lasted exactly 11 minutes to reflect on the situation the Islanders were in after 78 games. “We sat down and decided we’ve got to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and start working and you never know what happens,” Nolan said.

“The next [game], we had a great game. There’s no better antidote than playing the Rangers. That got our emotion back. Dubielewicz had a great game, and then, we played the Leafs. That’s got to get you going again. So, we were pretty lucky to play the people we played when we played them and with the meaningfulness of the games.”

When Dubielewicz won the shootout against the Rangers by stopping the likes of Michael Nylander, Brendan Shanahan and Jaromir Jagr, it restored some belief in the locker room. The Islanders already had regained a measure of their former identity by playing a physical defensive game with a strong forecheck against the Rangers, and they continued to embrace the style that had been so successful earlier.

“It’s the character of our hockey team,” Blake said. “With four games left, we knew where we were at in the standings, and we knew what we had to do. We needed some help, and Teddy stressed for us to go out and play hard. We did it, and it feels great.”

No one on the Islanders has forgotten the contribution backup goaltender Mike Dunham made early in the season and at a couple of other critical junctures before things went wrong for him and the team defense after the first of DiPietro’s two concussions. The loss of DiPietro clearly underlined his MVP status and how he cleaned up a lot of mistakes in front of him.

But when you get right down to it, the Islanders know they couldn’t have saved their season without “Dubie.” His play was nothing short of inspirational, which is why he was named the NHL’s No. 1 star for the past week.

“I do have to say the big part is Wade Dubielewicz the last four games,” Blake said. “He’s the reason. Ricky and Dunny all year, but he’s one of the big reasons. He did the shootout against the Rangers, did the shootout against the Devils. These guys are world-class players. But Dubie played unbelievable. He should be very proud of himself and what he’s done. It’s great. We’re fortunate to be in the playoffs, and I think after the last four games, we deserve to be here.”

NEWSDAY PREVIEW: For the latest on DiPietro’s status, the full story is coming in tomorrow’s Newsday. Although his two concussions nearly derailed the Islanders playoff hopes, his determination to return from the first concussion when he probably should have been sitting out longer, in hindsight, actually made a playoff berth possible. The Isles got six of eight points in the last four games DP played and beat out Toronto for eighth by a point in the end…Forward Richard Zednik, who has been home in Slovakia the past two weeks because of a serious family illness, is expected to return for the playoffs. His availability will be determined by his conditioning. Noted as a clutch performer in the playoffs, Zednik’s presence might get the fourth line, which produced Richard Park’s three goals in the past two games, even more involved.

In case you haven’t already seen it, here’s the schedule for the Islanders’ first-round matchup with top-seeded Buffalo in the Eastern Conference playoffs:

Game 1, Thursday, 8 p.m., TSN: Islanders at Buffalo

Game 2, Saturday, 7:30 p.m., Versus, TSN: Islanders at Buffalo

Game 3, Monday, April 16, 7:30 p.m., Versus, TSN: Buffalo at Islanders

Game 4, Wednesday, April 18, 7:30 p.m., Versus, TSN: Buffalo at Islanders

Game 5, Friday, April 20, 7 p.m., Versus, TSN: Islanders at Buffalo

Game 6, Sunday, April 22, 7 p.m., Versus, TSN: Buffalo at Islanders

Game 7, Tuesday, April 24, TBD, TSN: Islanders at Buffalo

I will be posting a blog later this afternoon after covering the media session.

The Road to the Stanley Cup playoffs just got a little easier for the Islanders. Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur, who has beaten them six straight games, including three shutouts, is sitting out this afternoon’s must-win game at Continental Airlines Arena. Brodeur made the decision after talking with Devils president and coach Lou Lamoriello on Saturday and again this morning.

Obviously, Brodeur’s decision could have a major impact on the playoff race. The Islanders must win to get in as the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference to play Buffalo. If they get one point or less, then Toronto is the eighth seed.

Scott Clemmensen, the man with the loneliest job in the NHL as Brodeur’s backup, gets the starting assignment. Brodeur started 78 of the previous 81 games, so, Clemmensen will be making only his fourth start of the season. He’s 1-1-1 with a 3.47 goals against average and a save percentage of .880. His last start came on Feb. 25, and he last played in relief of Brodeur for 32 minutes on March 17.

“I can’t make the decision for [other] people,” Brodeur told reporters before today’s game. “It was for us.”

Describing his meeting with Lamoriello, Brodeur said, “If I wanted to play he had no problem with that at all. But we talked about it together like we always do. We talked about just playing a little bit, playing maybe a period or two periods. Then, I was like well, it’s not training camp. It’s kind of hard to do that, get Clemmer in the middle of a game. You never know what’s going to happen and for him to get an important game like that is going to be good for him.”

No doubt, Brodeur’s decision will meet with an avalanche of criticism in Toronto. “I understand,” Brodeur said. “We all have a lot of friends in Canada and a lot of them are Canadien fans or Leaf fans and when it was 5-3 for Montreal [on Saturday] I was getting all these calls. You can’t please that, but hopefully we’ll win so I won’t have to deal with it.”

Even with Brodeur out, the Devils’ defensive style and neutral-zone trap has made it tough for the Islanders to get many quality shooting opportunities. They will have to be patient this afternoon and hope to force some turnovers of their own. As Ryan Smyth said, “They know their system; they stick to their system; there’s not a lot of mistakes being made, and they’ve got guys who can capitalize in transition. We have to play simple, hockey, basic hockey, get the puck in deep and no turnovers at the lines because they thrive on that.”

Last call for the Isles? Did I write that just last Sunday?

Chances of a sudden turnaround against the Rangers and Toronto to remain alive for a playoff berth looked awfully grim at that point. The fact the Isles have pulled out of what looked like a season-ending nosedive to rally behind goaltender Wade Dubielewicz and reach their last two games with a chance is a testament to the leadership coach Ted Nolan and general manager Garth Snow brought in to the locker room.

The toughness defensemen Brendan Witt and Sean Hill have displayed all season was a critical factor in controlling the top scorers for the Rangers and Leafs, and Tom Poti has shown an edge to his defensive game when needed as well. But it was particularly heartening for the Islanders to see the Mike Sillinger-Trent Hunter-Ryan Smyth line produce the first two goals, one on the power play, in the Isles’ 5-2 win over Toronto.

All season long, the combination of Sillinger, Hunter and Andy Hilbert set the tone for responsible two-way hockey the Isles could count on game in and game out. Now that Hilbert is fighting to stay on the ice with a shoulder injury, Nolan has replaced him with Smyth at left wing the past three games. The impact finally showed up on the scoresheet against the Maple Leafs, but it was equally important against the Rangers in holding the Michael Nylander-Jaromir Jagr combination to one goal.

Dubielewicz has earned every bit of the praise his play has received, but Nolan felt compelled to point out the help he’s had in front of him. “I think probably the most important guy the last couple games was Ryan Smyth,” Nolan said. “He’s really leading this team with the way he’s preparing himself. The intangibles sometimes are missed because of lack of goals. Andy Hilbert, at the beginning of the year, was playing great hockey. He just wasn’t putting the numbers on the board. The last two games, Ryan’s leadership has really stepped up.”

Smyth and Sillinger have shown the chemistry they have on the power play, but putting Smyth on a line with Hunter is a little tricky because both like to work in front of the net. “We’ve talked about it,” Hunter said today after practice. “I think we’re both the kind of players that, when we get that puck down there, we like a little bit more space. When you know where a guy wants the puck and where he’s going to put it, we kind of read off that. It might have taken us a couple of games to get familiar with each other, but I think we’re comfortable now.”

The Islanders’ first goal against Toronto came with Hunter tying up the Leafs’ defense in front so Smyth had an open shot when a drive by Sillinger rebounded to him. The second goal on the power play was a thing of beauty with Hunter holding the puck below the goal line as Sillinger glided from the left side toward the slot with a Leafs defenseman caught in between.

“We kind of had that defenseman in a spot where he didn’t know whether to go with me or stay with Silly,” Hunter said with a smile. “We had a kind of two-on-one with him, and I was able to just slide it under his stick and Silly made a great shot.”

Sillinger said his line felt close to scoring against the Rangers but didn’t get the bounces. That didn’t stop them from working hard against Nylander and Jagr, and the goals came the next game as they were shutting down Mats Sundin.

“That’s the way you shut down those guys is you’ve got to be responsible defensively, but you have to make them work in their zone,” Sillinger said of matching up with opponents’ top lines. “Ryan and Hunts are fantastic in the corners and do a great job. They want that puck, and they want to score goals as well. That’s a way to keep them off the [scoreboard] is to make them play in their own end.”

It will be tougher to get the matchups they want Saturday in Philadelphia and Sunday against the Devils at the Meadowlands because the home team gets the last change. But if Sillinger, Hunter and Smyth – a line of leaders -- keep it going at both ends, that’s usually when the Islanders play their best hockey.

If Toronto provides the last bit of help the Islanders need to make the playoffs by beating Montreal Saturday night, a team that was on life support less than a week ago might control its own destiny in the last game Sunday, and who beyond the Islanders’ locker room would have bet on that?

“To control your own fate is a big thing,” Hunter said. “We’re not quite there. We need to win tomorrow and get some help. Our goal from the start has been to make the playoffs. The guys haven’t given up at all. The attitude has been very positive, and guys are getting more excited as we go.

“We’ve got some great leaders on this team, and they’ve done a great job keeping it positive. There’s no one in this room who doesn’t believe we can make it.”

If you witnessed the Henrik Lundqvist incident with the Ice Girls, could you e-mail Newsday reporter Jim Baumbach. He can be reached at jim.baumbach@newsday.com and is looking to speak with fans who were there and saw it. Thanks.

Imagine. If little Wade Dubielewicz hadn’t stopped the likes of Michael Nylander, Brendan Shanahan and Jaromir Jagr in the shootout to beat the Rangers last night, the Islanders’ playoff hopes would be over. They would have been eliminated if they had lost in overtime or the shootout.

Toronto and Montreal, the teams fighting with the Isles for the eighth playoff spot, play their final game of the season against each other Saturday night, and one has to win. If the Islanders had lost the shootout to the Rangers, they still could have gotten to 91 points and a possible tie with the Maple Leafs, but they would lose the tiebreaker in that case because they would have one less win than the Leafs.

It’s still a longshot, but here is how the Islanders can make the playoffs: 1) They must win the remaining three games at home Thursday against Toronto and on the road Saturday at Philadelphia and Sunday at New Jersey to finish with 92 points. 2) Montreal must lose at the Rangers on Thursday and Saturday at Toronto without gaining more than one point by reaching overtime.

The tiebreaker scenarios explain why the above two conditions must be met. There is one tiebreaker the Islanders can win. If they tie Toronto for eighth with 92 points apiece, the Isles would qualify based on beating the Leafs in the season series in points gained. Both teams have four points in the season series now. The Islanders must get two points tomorrow night, so, even if Toronto gets a point for reaching overtime, it doesn’t hurt the Isles.

If Montreal reaches 92 points, the Isles are eliminated because the most wins they can get is 40, and the Canadiens already have 42. As mentioned above, the Isles would lose a head-to-head tiebreaker with Toronto at 91 points based on fewer wins, and in the event of a three-way tie for eighth with 91 points, Montreal would qualify based on having the most wins.

So, the Islanders' season really was riding on the outcome of that shootout against the Rangers. Although the Islanders had a 1-0 lead after the first period, the Rangers had a 17-9 advantage in shots on goal, and it seemed only a matter of time before they took over if they kept shooting at that rate. It was 2-2 at the end of the second and 31-16 in shots in favor of the Rangers.

But in the third period and overtime, it was the Islanders who generated the best chances and played the toughest on defense. Coach Ted Nolan said that playing the Rangers brought out the fighting spirit his team showed earlier in the season, and you could see it the whole game in how physical they were with the Rangers.

Sean Hill ran Ryan Hollweg into the boards in the first period and kept pummeling Sean Avery at every opportunity, once giving Avery a facewash. After one whistle, defenseman Tom Poti put a hand in Avery’s face and shoved him backwards onto his rear end. Brendan Witt and Hill got in front of some hellacious shots with painful results. If it was the Islanders’ last stand, it was a good one.

I’ll be writing a lot more about Dubielewicz and what he accomplished against the Rangers in tomorrow’s Newsday, but the biggest thing is that he provided the breath of life in that shootout. “I closed my eyes and crossed my fingers,” Nolan said. “[Jagr] is a great player. The way Sean Hill and Brendan Witt battled against him the whole game and almost the whole series. To see the way they compete and to see the way Dubielewicz stood up in overtime and the shootout was great.

“Goaltending is very important. We know how important Ricky [DiPietro] is to this team. When he went down, we lost a lot of our team. Dubielewicz, with the way he played the last two games and particularly tonight, he gave us that sense of hope.”

“I don’t believe in giving up until the last song is sung,” coach Ted Nolan said after the Islanders’ 5-2 loss to Ottawa Saturday night.

I’ve seen the inside of a few bars in my lifetime, and I know the feeling. You’re having a nice time, you’re not ready to go home, and then, the bartender gives last call, pours the final drink and turns up the lights. That’s where the Islanders are at.

Closing time could come as soon as Tuesday night. Here’s the simple scenario for elimination: No matter what the Rangers do against Toronto tonight, the Islanders will be eliminated from Stanley Cup contention if they lose to the Rangers Tuesday night at the Coliseum and Montreal wins at home over Boston.

That combination of results would give the Rangers 91 points (or more if they get points against the Leafs tonight) and would give the eighth-place Canadiens 90 points. Tampa Bay, the other one of three teams currently in playoff position that can be caught by the Islanders, already has 90 points. With three games left, the best the Islanders could do is 90 points, and they would lose the tiebreaker by virtue of having fewer wins.

At the moment, the Islanders still can reach 92 points if they win their four remaining games. But the tiebreaker situation means they only would qualify if the ninth-place team had 91 points or less. In other words, drink up.

The loss of goaltender Rick DiPietro because of two concussions suffered 12 days apart crippled a team that already was hurting on defense because of season-ending injuries to Radek Martinek and Freddy Meyer and, most likely, Bruno Gervais. Since DiPietro suffered his first concussion in the first period on March 13 at Montreal, the Islanders have given up goals in 15 of the 17 periods without DiPietro. During the four games he played before suffering a second concussion on March 25, DiPietro allowed goals in seven of 12 periods plus two overtime goals.

The Isles are 0-6 in the stretch without DiPietro and have given up at least five goals five times. They were 2-0-2 with DiPietro and allowed as many as four goals just once.

“This game is won from your goaltender out,” center Mike Sillinger said after the Ottawa game. “You’ve got to play defense first. Look at all the top teams in the league. Look at Buffalo, Detroit, Dallas, New Jersey. They’re all built around defense first. You’ve got to have a good goalie, and from that, you’ve got to have good defense. You’ve got to play good team defense. As of late, we haven’t been doing that.

“Not only that, we’re playing without a [No. 1] goalie. When you don’t have good team defense, and you hang these guys out to dry, it’s not easy winning hockey games. When we were successful before, we were scoring three, four, five goals a game, but on the same side of it, we were playing good team defense. Now, it just seems like whatever we do, if we make a mistake, it’s in our net. It’s not from lack of trying. Maybe it’s from overtrying and pressing. That happens when you have your backs against the wall.”

Sillinger saw a certain symmetry in back-to-back losses to Buffalo and Ottawa this weekend. Both games were tied at 1. In Buffalo, the Sabres’ Thomas Vanek made a smart move, starting behind the net from the left side and then coming back to the left post to stuff a shot past Mike Dunham, who was expecting Vanek to pop out the other side. In the Ottawa game, Mike Comrie made a great individual move to beat defenseman Deron Quint, playing his first game for the Isles, and then ripped an open shot past Wade Dubielewicz. At least, the Islanders kept it close against the Senators at 2-1 going to the third period. Then, an errant shot bounced off the back wall right to Comrie’s stick for an easy shot over Dubielewicz, who had come out on the first shot.

“We’re getting untimely goals scored against us, and we’re falling apart,” Sillinger said. “We’re too far behind to catch up at the end.”

The Isles could say the same thing about this season. The final horn hasn’t sounded, but it looks as if they’re too far behind to catch up now.