Islanders Bits: Tavares 4 points here, Strome hat trick there

"If Al plays the way he has the last couple of games, I like our chances."

>>Brian Rolston talking about Al Montoya last night

Boy, winning puts people in a happy mood.

You know what else does? A night where The Franchise John Tavares scores four points, while Ryan Strome returns to juniors after two weeks away from competitive hockey and scores a hat trick. That's after Brock Nelson's big weekend at North Dakota, Anders Lee's resumption at Notre Dame, and Kirill Petrov's 6-3-9 in 12 GP in the KHL. Coast to coast, continent to continent, people see reasons to dream.

Yeah, well, that's like, the future, man. These links are about last night:

P.A. Parenteau Post-Game

As a general rule, PAP cracks me up. Plenty more at the official site beyond this video:

In the Tavares video, I noticed him reference not starting the preseason with Parenteau -- almost a plea to stick together?

Islanders Links

Recaps of last night: Our recap | Our +/- thread | Isles recap focused on first line | ... and focused on Tavares' big night | Skinny: No Islander has done what JT did in 15 years. | Brian Compton for the NHL | Newsday ... with more notes from Staple | Bolts view at Raw Charge

• Dwayne Roloson on Garth Snow: "Appreciative is too lenient a word. It's more respect and honor for what he did."
• Rick DiPietro is undergoing baseline testing in case that Brian Rolston shot gave a concussion. Evgeni Nabokov joked about the "baby steps" moving from the press box to the bench.
• Nabokov quite eloquent on the three-goalie setup, actually.
• The Knicks fan who's trying out the Islanders is loving it so far [NOTE: NSFW MS Paint job]. 5-1 wins do that to you. Anyone want to take this guy to a game and teach him the finer points of Corsi telling Smurfs fans off?
• Montoya's .953 is third-best in the league right now among goalies with three or more games.
  
• Kirill B Update: Sounds like Kirill Kabanov will be on a tryout in Sweden next week. The coach, who our resident Swede says works well with youth, calls it a gamble but also something where the Islanders reached out to them. The tryout period extends into November.
• On that note, Prospect Park on KK and Brenden Kichton.
  
• Icethetics actually kinda digs the Islanders reported third-jersey experiment.
• Eric Hornick's 40 in 40-style Skinny.
  
• Danbury Islanders Fan, a frequent poster here on Brooklyn-related issues, has changed his blog about that very topic.
  

Hockey Is Rather Fun, Actually, Links

• Essay on not swinging the pendulum too far toward advanced stats.
• That guy is back.
• Arron Asham finally got his arm free and knocked out a guy. Then he gloated too much. Then he apologized right ater the game.
• Kevin Weekes on the challenge posed by low-angle shots.
• Wow: Nikita Filatov already assigned to the AHL by the Senators. The Islanders totally should have drafted that guy; I mean who needs Travis Hamonic or Aaron Ness?
• I can't really describe how much I loved this: NHL: The Movie! - Battle of California

OT: Steven Wright -- quite the stunning visual -- on Letterman way back when.