More photos » by Paul Sancya - ASSOCIATED PRESS

Radek Martinek: Spans most of the decade, displaying so much potential, so much injury.

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Our fabrication of an Islandes All-Decade Team for the 2000s continues with the defensemen. For the all-decade goalie post and vote, go here.

For my money, three of the better Islanders defensemen made a hell of a trio at the beginning of the decade, while the fourth one only pulled on the NYI crest at the tail end of this span but is fast rising up the decade's points and games played list.

Points -- and points per game -- isn't really the ideal way to rank defensemen, but with the discussion of blueliner quality being so multi-faceted, it's the best shorthand we've got. Plus, while the first job of a defenseman is to help keep pucks out of the net, the ones who are truly elite bring offense to the table, too. As for the balance between one and the other -- we can call that "The Marc-Andre Bergeron Question" -- that's a debate that shall rage on 'till the end of time.

After the jump (which is after the poll, if you're on the main page), some stats for the blueliners who have tallied the most points and games played. You can only vote for one defenseman in this poll, but that software limitation may have an unintended benefit: We'll simply name the top two vote getters to our team.

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More photos » by Paul J. Bereswill - AP

Uh, what's going on here?

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Good news: Hey, the Islanders powerplay actually produced a goal! Bad news: The penalty kill gave up two. The Islanders played well 5-on-5, with Dwayne Roloson and his post bailing them out two critical times in the first period. But their special teams let them down again. In addition to the Lightning's two PP goals, their third goal was scored before the Isles could regroup after killing off one at the end of the 2nd period.

The Isles were booed off the ice at the end, and with results like these that's no surprise.

Game Sum. | Event Sum. | Corsi | Recaps: nhl.com | Isles |

When I said before the game that if the Lightning play up to their talent level, it's their game to lose, that's what I meant. Both on the powerplay goals and in their fantastic 5-on-5 in the first period, Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier moved the puck -- with Ryan Malone twice doing the trenchwork finishing -- at a level the Islanders cannot match. Despite the Isles outshooting the Bolts 38-28, that talent spelled the difference.

We can probably call this John Tavares' first official slump at the NHL level. It's now five games without a point and six without a goal -- his longest of the season in both categories. Tonight he only got one shot on goal, plus two more that were blocked. His line looked far less dangerous than the Frans Nielsen line, something reflected in the balance of shots directed at the net on their shifts.

Still -- and not that he will reach the same heights expected of Stamkos -- but looking at Stamkos tonight and all season long tells you what a difference a year can make for a 19-year-old in the NHL.

[Bit more plus highlights and Roloson's crazy goal-line saves video after the jump.]

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Hot head Steve Downie, previously day-to-day, is in the lineup for the Bolts.

Roloson vs. Smith. Hedman vs. Tavares (?). A recently good Lightning PK versus a recently bad Islanders PP.

You bring the thunder, I'll bring the lightning -- wait, no, that's not right ... How 'bout bring in da noise, bring in da funk?

You know why I think the Islanders could snap out of their little funk tonight? Because the Lightning just snapped a one-win-in-11-games slump (and six-game losing streak) by winning 6-3 Friday over the slumping Blues ... who promptly went to Vancouver and eased by the Canucks (winners of 4 in 5) 3-1. You know: "Any given Sunday" and all that.

I swear, I don't know why I bother guessing because you never know what's going to happen in this league anymore. Somebody will show up, somebody will score, some goalie will stand on his head. Maybe the Islanders' special teams will even wake up.

                  
Tampa Bay Lightning (12-14-9, t-11th) at New York Islanders (13-16-7, t-11th)
7 p.m. EST | Nassau [gloriously unsponsored] Coliseum | MSG+2, radio
Benjamin Franklin wannabes: Raw Charge

There was some scuttlebutt urging the Islanders, so thin on defense, to claim Lukas Krajicek and his $1.475 million from Tampa Bay. The Bolts want to be rid of Krajicek so bad, they were hoping teams would take him for free -- without them having to take "an asset" (read: dead weight) in return. To hear coach Rick Tocchet tell it, Krajicek's defensive methods had become ... unsound: "The thing is, when you're not scoring goals, you can't be at the scene of the crime too many times," Tocchet said.

I am in favor of tinkering to make strides -- as Cliff Fletcher has done in Minnesota -- I'm just not sensing that taking on the Bolts' Krajicek problem is the way to go. He strikes me as more (or even less) of what the Isles already have.

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More photos » by Stephen Chernin - AP

Opponents usually aren't thrilled to see Jon Sim.

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I was wondering about the Islanders' struggling penalty kill, and the notion occurred to me that Mark Streit has been taking a lot of penalties this year: Could his presence in the box be hurting the penalty kill? Perhaps. As the team's best overall defenseman, Streit is also the Islanders' best penalty killing blueliner, so putting him in the box is a double-whammy. But in terms of PK time per game, he actually sees less time than Andy Sutton, Brendan Witt, Bruno Gervais and Jack Hillen.

As it turns out, my perception was wrong: Streit isn't taking any more penalties than he took last year: He had 31 minors in 74 games last year; he has 15 in 36 games this year. So that theory dies on the vine. (Incidentally, Streit's penalties taken per 60 minutes (5-on-5) is similar to Hillen's but less than Witt's and Freddy Meyer's. Defensemen inevitably take more penalties; the better ones take fewer of them without giving up goals.)

But what I did notice when checking out Behind the Net's penalties drawn/taken data could be a counter-argument, or at least a bit of explanation, to the Sim-haters: Jon Sim has drawn the most penalties on the team this year (12), and better yet, he's committed only half as many (6) as he's drawn. Which speaks to Scott Gordon's quote after the win over the Rangers:

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More photos » by Kathy Kmonicek - AP

I feel your pain, Parkie.

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If the Isles couldn't beat the Habs, at least Mother Nature is giving them a good kick in the teeth.

This isn't good. The Islanders powerplay continues to look anemic, the penalty kill continues to look lost, and while Jaroslav Halak made some stellar saves tonight, to call it a 40-save shutout is to flatter the quality of most of the Islanders' shots, which generally came from outside, through zero traffic, or -- when point blank -- with an eye for Halak's torso. Halak played quite well; the Islanders shot quite poorly. It was a shutout earned by both parties.

At the other end, Martin Biron should probably have a complex right about now, because his teammates have scored 12 times at 5-on-5 for him all year, while he and the boys have conceded 25. The increasingly disastrous penalty kill has been particularly awful for him, too, conceding 18 times, including all three goals tonight.

Game Sum. | Event Sum. | Recaps: nhl.com | Isles | Gazette

More to come about the game, but first a rant...

Best 'One-Trick Enforcers are Rather Worthless' Moment of the Night

Yeah, take away the instigator rule and I guess you could say six-minute man Georges Laraque could have attacked Andy Sutton for having the audacity to throw clean hip checks at the blueline. Instead, Laraque challenged Sutton to fight at the end of a (Sutton) shift, and #25 wisely declined. It's just not worth it and it's not necessary. Sutton wasn't throwing head shots and he wasn't endangering people's careers. He was throwing the hard bodychecks that the Don Cherrys and Mike "Strawman Argument" Milburys of the world pretend would somehow disappear if you looked into hits to the head.

The way you deal with that is by hitting back, not by pretending a guy who serves an actual hockey function should sit for five minutes just so a guy who serves no purpose other than sitting for five minutes can try to pummel him.

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Next Game

                

Montreal Canadiens (15-18-3, 4th/NE) at New York Islanders (13-15-7, 4th/Atl)

7 p.m. | Nassau [gloriously unsponsored] Veterans Mem. Coliseum | MSG+, radio

Le blogs: Habs Eyes on the Prize | Inside/Out

Islanders Gameday: Here comes Gainey's bust

posted by Dominik about 12 hours ago

Complete Coverage >

Martin Biron is in. Bruno Gervais just might be is back. Lots and lots of snow already hitting. (What the hey, it's only a blizzard, right? By the way, where I am: zilch. Just grey skies and dry ground.)

If you're in the Eastern blizzard zone or heading to the game, be careful out there. But now you have to represent, given that the Habs fan invasion is in full effect. I like to think of it as Habs fans paying Alexei Yashin's buyout: It's lose-win for everybody.

Remember when that stupid Scott Gomez contract helped keep the Rangers in a wonderful stasis? And then Bob Gainey inexplicably bailed Glen Sather out by taking that deal on for himself?

Yeah, I know, it wasn't that long ago. At least Gainey's getting what he bought (though far, far from what he paid for). Maybe that'll teach him -- Gomez has four goals and 13 assists in 32 games. The way Gainey's tinkered in Montreal lately, it's almost hard to believe now that this guy built the Minnesota North Dallas Stars Cup champions.

                

Robert at Habs Eyes on the Prize has seen enough:

The 2009-10 Canadiens chemistry experiment has been a bust. Would you prefer that it is admitted now, or in three years time?

It's meat, my friends. Time to stick a fork in its butt and turn it over.

An uptick in Carey Price's play and some un-Leafian luck has actually kept the Habs in a better position than they'd otherwise be. Their 33 points are the same as the Islanders but with one more game played; they have the standings look of a rebuilding team that isn't actually rebuilding.

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