The Islanders went through the first half of the game with one, possibly two (if you're being generous) quality scoring chances - capitalizing on one of them as Matt Moulson tried to make amends for knocking out Mark Streit for the season with a hit from behind in training camp by easily putting away a backhand deke on the shaky J.S. Giguere. Moulson probably had enough time to make the deke to his backhand, put down his stick, crack open a beer after which his forefathers were named, decide it's not cold enough, go to the beer store and grab a fresh pack, show his ID, drink it, return the empty to the store, and shoot the puck in, all while Giguere was slowly moving to the left side of the net. It's hard to fault a goalie when he only lets in two goals, but by comparison to his geriatric counterpart at the other end of the ice, he looked very shaky while facing almost nothing of difficulty. Giguere's adventure continued as he was bailed out in the third by Mike Komisarek of all people, reaching back to prevent a goal. If Komisarek's stick wasn't 15 feet long that puck would have been in the net.
If Ron Wilson likes the game played the "right way", with good old fashioned fire wagon hockey and a high tempo offense, Islanders bench boss Scott Gordon certainly does not give a damn. As soon as the Islanders got the lead, they were sitting back, lulling us all to sleep, trapping, really ruining the game. I guess the guy has to make a living and how else is this rag-tag bunch of minor leaguers going to win games, but he really should have known even Dwayne "Rock and" Roloson himself could not preserve a one goal lead the entire game.
Kris Versteeg had a goal called back - on a complete blown call; the puck made contact with his stick and it appeared slightly above the cross bar. However, when the play is a high stick that is not directly into the net; the crossbar is not the measuring stick; the players shoulder is. The stick was nowhere near Versteeg's shoulders. Additionally, the blown call was made by linesman Lonny Cameron from 60 feet away in the neutral zone. A horrible call that probably had a hand in the outcome. Mr. Cameron, I hope you have trouble enjoying your post-game lobster dinner after that abomination of a call.
Versteeg had me yelling at the television just moments before, as he was wide open in front of Roloson, but tried a lazy "slide it in on the forehand" deke that Roloson had tons of time to get over on. Giggy would have had that one (he's a good goalie, not so much on dekes). Joe Bowen kept going on about what a great move it was, but on the replay you really appreciate how wide open he was and how he could have taken a little extra time to elevate the puck the 6 inches necessary to score. I never understand on a deke like that how a professional can expect to score without raising the puck. Anyway, I digress. Versteeg also had a clear breakaway in overtime but shot the puck well over the net; maybe he should have slid the puck along the ice afterall. The Lethbridge, Alberta native needs to get things going if he hopes to have any chance of meeting Jim Ralph's prediction of "60 or 80 assists" this year.
Then the Islanders won the game the only way they could. Moments after Nikolai Kulemin was hauled down with no call, Brett Lebda for some reason took a goaltender interference penalty in overtime, which we all know is always the kiss of death in 4 on 3 especially in this type of situation. Sure enough, they get one shot, a long one timer that it didn't even look like Tavares got all of, and Giguere looked like Homer Simpson trying to punch Drederick Tatum, appearing to swing over the puck with his blocker hand as the shot beat him on the far side.
It's disappointing to lose the first game of the season at home, against the New York Islanders, which should have been two points. But the good thing is that the Leafs did not give up, and they carried the play the entire game. They weren't really able to generate many high end scoring chances, but were able to tie the game up and at least get the point for the overtime loss. The down sides were too many shots missing the net, mainly from Phaneuf and Komisarek, and not being able to bury goals when they had chances against Roloson AGAIN. But hey, 9 out of 10 points to start the year is not bad at all. At least the Leafs bashers can stop saying, "The team's going to go 82-0 this year" sarcastically; that was really clever.
Next game for the Leafs is this Thursday against another New York team that can't (or shouldn't be able to) score: the Rangers, missing Marian Gaborik. I think Giguere has opened the door for Jonas "Gusty" Gustavsson to run with the ball for a little while if he can have a solid game.
