A late goal adds some drama. The third period starts with a 2-1 Islander lead. LIVE IT!

8:56 pm – Ouch ouch ouch Hunter gets drilled into the Penalty Box door which opens and cuts him in half. Stretcher on the ice but Hunter leaves on his own, JUST IN TIME to let the Rangers tie it at 2. That woahh ohh song combined with the horrible bzzzzzztttt sound of their goal horn is nauseating.

9:00 pm – Maybe they are dismayed about Hunter, but the Isles look terrible here. Typical third period for them so far.

9:01 pm – Bad angle goal from Rosz$isval and the Rangers jump ahead 3-2. Will I actually blog the rest of this game? It’s dodgy at best.

9:02 pm – Not so fast! Comeau tallies off a Lundqvist rebound and it’s now 3-3. Offensive bonanza! Call someone on your cell and wave at the camera!

9:06 pm – Another Ranger powerplay, a super dirty “Spencer” hit behind the net wasn’t called on the kill, Isles starting to hold their own again in this period.

9:08 pm – All the play is in the Isles defensive zone right now. They’re being forced wide most of the time but this much pressure is tough to hold off for long. Okposo got drilled hard, again, but got right back up.

9:11 pm – Naslund’s years of playing with murderer Todd Bertuzzi pay dividends here as he scores some pinball off-brand goal to make it 4-3. Waiting for Billy or Joe to incorrectly describe this as “Old Time Hockey”.

9:15 pm – Rangers landing some really hard hits in this period.

9:16 pm – Ladies, if you’re trying to land a husband perhaps you could try one of these EzCombs. Includes ‘stylish’ dvd.

9:17 pm – Another Ranger powerplay because, why not? I don’t even know what the penalty is for or who it’s on. Isles should go super hard for a shorthanded goal here.

9:22 pm – Streit shuts down a potential 2-on -1 nicely. Idiot bitters cheering loudly for Prucha, who is not on the ice.

9:23 pm – Another goofy Ranger goal, this time from Nigel Dawes and it’s 5-3. 4:47 to go. Billy Jaffe about to start spinning how this 11th loss in a row on the road for the Isles is “something to build on”.

9:25 pm – Richard Park gets hit hard. Two minutes for racism.

9:28 pm – Last minute. MacDonald to the bench, though I don’t know why.

9:29 pm – I = pessimist. Comrie burries a weird bouncer and it’s 5-4. Timeout!

9:32 pm – 5-4 final. Another awful Isles third period despite what the score says. That is all for me. 11 losses in a row on the road and no end in sight. Nite!

Many things happened in period 1! Fights, a goal, several other sports things! Continue onto part 2!

8:00 pm – Campoli is the best player on this team by far.

8:04 pm – Kalinin isn’t sure what team he is on or what hockey is. Fans hate him for not being perfect. Naslund STONED by MacDonald. A sympathy penalty against the Isles for slashing. Welfare.

8:06 pm – Rangers PP is starting to buzz a bit. Redden denied by MacDonald with the glove. Isles look like they’re about to take another penalty or give up a goal.

8:11 pm – “Happy as a clam” is a buffoon expression that has no place anywhere, especially in hockey. Billy Jaffe doesn’t belong on tv most times.

8:14 pm – Woooahhh Prucha made a real nice deflection in front that MacDonald was positioned perfectly for. They follow this with a .wav file of someone yelling Lets Go Rangers over the MSG PA system.

8:15 pm – A 9 hour delayed penalty in which every Ranger touched the puck twice ends in a Scott Gomez goal at 8:29 of the second period. He’s still overpaid.

8:18 pm – Paul Mara with a penalty right off the faceoff. Semi-can-openerish.

8:22 pm – Marc Streit is a terror on that point sometimes. Flashes of Bob Beers.

8:24 pm – Another Islander penalty. Hooking on Campoli. They need a big kill right here. Joe Beninati just said that hockey is “a whole lot of fun”.

8:29 pm – Tambellini has no confidence in himself anymore, which is why he takes impossible to score on bad angle shots like he just did. Desperate.

8:31 pm – This Kalinin can’t even stand on skates anymore. He’s tripping on thin air when no one is within 10 feet of him. The Islanders will sign him to a lifetime contract as soon as possible.

8:33 pm – 8 trillion chances for the Isles off a terrible Redden play. No goals though they took a ton of shots on that shift. Streit gave someone a bad bruise with a blocked shot.

8:35 pm – LATE BACK-BREAKING ISLES GOAL. Okposo tips in a Freddie Meyer shot with 10 seconds left in the period. Ranger fans sprint for the prime rib and the flamboyant light up mugs. Period 2 ends with a 2-1 Islander lead. Follow me to part 3!

Well hello! My Rangertard roommate is taking a break from sending me emails about leaving “major lights” on in our apartment to co-live-blog the NATIONALLY TELEVISED Islanders vs. Rangers slapfest with me. We unfortunetly get ‘Joe’ Beninati and Billy Jaffe instead of Hottie Howie Rose calling the game, but it’s all good. Puck is about to drop. LET’S GET BUSY.

7:14 pm – Joe Beninati alludes to the “brave souls” wearing Islanders jerseys at the game. I love when national guys parachute in to do these games.

7:15 pm – Beltway Insider Billy Jaffe scoops on DP’s groin tightness, which will go away the day after his contract expires in 23230912.ˆ

7:16 pm – The bitters get the “Potvin Sucks!” chant going. None of these people know what this means.

7:17 pm – FRITZ VS ORR ! Fritz bleeds everywhere, brief fight, fin.

7:20 pm – My roommate isn’t sold on this Marc Staal person at all.

7:21 pm – Okposo gets drilled a SCRUM is in progress! Dawes and Comrie (seriously?). HDuff is concerned! Comrie landing some blows against Dawes and the refs step in. Spicy!

7:24 pm – The Islanders medical staff has a new solution for all injuries: very firm hugs. Such an uncomfortable looking video, what with all that swaying going on. Prucha dives and the Rangers get a powerplay.

7:26 pm – Paul Mara is terrible on the point and I feel a shorthanded goal coming on. Billy Jaffe agrees and references the 2 “shorties” they scored against the Rangers last year. Jeff Tambellini has 1 more goal than I do so his presence on the powerplay makes infinite sense.

7:29 pm – Scott Gomez makes much money. I don’t get it and Spence doesn’t either. So very overrated.

7:30 pm – The guy in this Sleepy’s commerical is nightmare inducing. Get away!

7:31 pm – Bill Guerin being interviewed on the bench by a blond person. Has never scored a goal on Lundqvist which is sort of interesting. Interviewer putting hand on shoulder, Guerin trying  not to notice.

7:32 pm – SNARK from Joe Beninati: “The Islanders are allergic to their white sweaters, having lost 10 in a row on the road”. Catskills humor at MSG, I love it.

7:34 pm – YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS. Hunter smushes Kalinin into his own man, Kalinin coughs it up to Hunter who sets up Sillinger (he’s still on this team?) for his SECOND goal of the year and the ISLES ARE UP 1-0. Billy Jaffe might have called Kalinin a d-bag. I don’t have tivo.

7:37 pm – Kalinin touches the puck and the bitters shower him with boos. Kalinin is now Marek Malik.

7:39 pm – Brian Engblom AND Keith Jones in the studio between periods. BE looks like a cross between Butters from South Park and an ice cream cone and Keith Jones is worse.

7:42 pm – Paul Mara convulsing and yelling at whoever about the dumb penalty he just took. SUCH a grizzly with that beard. Drury gets stopped on a shorthanded attempt by MacDonald and THAT IS IT for period one. Join me for part 2!

Get some rest pal.

• The  question of whether Matts Sundin is more boring on or off the ice continues. [Newsday]

• Lindy Ruff said some bad things about Ryan Miller, who was unable to counter with a Mom joke in the time allotted to do so. [Buffalo News]

• Everyone is ready to admit that Brett Hull is an idiot for signing Sean Avery and that everything wrong with the Stars is all their fault. [Star Telegram]

• The Sabres, who are currently for sale, have strongly denied that they are for sale. Oh and they might move to Hamilton! Brrr! [Toronto Star]

A few years back, the Islanders traded for Rob Blake, but LA said no we didn’t sign anything and gave them Jason Blake, a legendary center from the Orlando Solar Bears of the IHL instead. They let him play every shift for two years, allowing him to blossom from a scrap heap “Anitolé” into a decent guy who almost score 30 goals. Then he realized he wasn’t making the money, so he scored a shitload of empty net goals and lifters to get to 40 in his walk year. When free agency following the season, he tried 100% to put the Islanders out of business by signing with the Maple Leafs for all the money, and then shut down Canada’s government. He lived up to his absurdly high priced contract by scoring no goals or points and eating the Little Cesar’s Pizza as a healthy scratch, in the press box. The geeky Canadian media wrote a whole lot of feel bad words about him being a sad sack, and then promptly flipflopped (calling him “lovely”) when he had ONE GOOD GAME against his former team, who is in the last place.

• The last time he was in Montreal, Patrick Roy gave up 9 goals, yelled at the owner and then ran home with all his equipment on. Everyone will get together on Saturday and pretend none of it ever happened when Roy has his #33 finally retired against the Bruins. [Sporting News]

• Jordin Tootoo is exactly like this guy Brice I played with once. He skated around like crazy smashing into everything and everyone whether they were on his team or not. All this did was make the other team win by alot more. [Tennessean]

• The Senators and their dumpster trash fans suck hard this year but that’s got nothing to do with Alex Auld. [Globe Sports]

• Chris Osgood might have benefited a bit from being on some legendary teams (ie: The 2001 New York Islanders), but he’s about to be 13th all-time in wins. He is a very nice man! Hah, also at the bottom of this post is a fun blurb about Chris Chelios “not feeling good” about his injury (broken leg). [Freep]

You may have seem him on your internets yelling lately as he is apparently about to be terminated, but here are many more for your enjoyment!

The saggy titted bitters or “columnists” employed by the Vancouver Sun were all full of the snark this week as the overhyped and eternal non-champion Canucks rolled into Long Island. The columns in their dying papers spoke of the Isles as “perrenial doormats” and the like, before they bitchslapped Vancouver 2-1 in a shootout on Monday night behind another stellar outing from the McDonald in net. Howie Rose was all how ya like me now after the win, and the responses were desperate  excuses related to the ice combined with more thumb sucking about the Islanders being bad.

They talk often about the lack of the “C” on the jersey for their drip captain / goalie Roberto Luongo (his teammates call him “Louie”) also.

["Going Down A Hard Road" Vancouver Sun]
["Luongo Ready For New Memories" Vancouver Sun]