Thank goodness the Islanders power play has been almost average (where would it be without Mark Streit?!): the Islanders are currently the worst 5-on-5 team by a country mile (that's .55 GF/GA at 5-on-5 as of this posting). The Islanders have four players with 6 goals or more -- and one of them is defenseman Mark Streit; another is Andy freaking Hilbert. A healthy Okposo, Nielsen or Comrie would be nice.
This week at 10-14-2 they hit the road for four and, with how banged up and scoring-challenged they are, I'm not feeling great about where they'll be at the end of this trip. They're 5-8-1 at home, 5-6-1 on the road; that road percentage could easily sync up with the home version after stops in Toronto (tonight), Philadelphia (tomorrow), Pittsburgh (Thursday) and Columbus (Saturday).
The Leafs are the only team they haven't faced yet: They lost to Philly in OT once, and again in regulation in Josh Bailey's debut. They blew third-period leads to Pittsburgh twice -- once falling in a bizarre shootout, once getting blitzed by Malkrosby in regulation. Also blew a lead to Columbus, but salvaged that one in OT on Campoli's double-goal in OT.
With Go-Go Gordon, there's not much match-up relation between last season and this, but we can still review last season's Leafs games just for grins:
- 8-1 loss in Toronto, possibly the last time Andrew Raycroft will win by that margin. Some guy named Mats was big in that one.
- 4-3 OT win at the Coliseum the day after Christmas, with Mike Comrie as your first star.
- 5-4 win in Toronto, with one Bryan Berard (now in Russia) as your hero.
- 3-1 loss at home in Kyle Okposo's debut as the season wound down.