Islanders defeat Rangers 2-1

Bryan Berard was excited to be back on the team he started his career on. He was thankful that Ted Nolan and Garth Snow gave him the opportunity to get a spot on the team in training camp. Well, the Islanders are thankful to have him.

Berard's slapshot on the powerplay midway through the 2nd period ended up being the game winner. Assisting on Berard's goal were Bill Guerin and Marc-Andre Bergeron, who had a goal of his own earlier in the game. It seemed like a perfect set-up for Berard's first game back on the Island. What better way to get into it other than the first Isles-Rangers game of the year? And to score the game winning goal to boot.

Bergeron's goal came in the first period on a rare 3 on 3 with 3 seconds to go in the period. The puck was between Mike Sillinger's skates, and Bergeron skated in from the blue line and wristed a shot passed a surprised Lundqvist.

Rick DiPietro had an excellent game. DiPietro stopped 36 of 37 shots and was a huge reason the Islanders won tonight. Overall, the whole team played really well, but Rick kept the team in the game, especially in the 3rd period. Some kinks still need to be worked on defensively, but the team was much better tonight. Many times they kept the Ranger shots to the outside and looked good on their penalty kills.

Aside from the goal he scored, Berard looked very good defensively. The signing could turn out to be a very good one as the Islander powerplay looked like it improved dramatically overnight. Berard was very active and seemed to be communicating with many of the other players on the PP with him too.

All in all, a very good night indeed. Not the best game both teams could play, but whats important is the final score and the Islanders end up with the 2 points. at 3-1-0 now, the Islanders are still 4 points better than others in the division. Though its still early, its always good to build a lead while other teams are struggling. The ability to do that means that you are just a step ahead of the others and have already gelled. Hopefully, that is the case here and the Isles can keep up their winning ways. They will try and go for 4 wins Thursday night in Toronto at 7:30 PM. The game should be an interesting one.

SURGERY FOR SIM? According to Newsday's Islander beat writer Greg Logan, Jon Sim's season might be over. Logan indicates that he will have surgery after getting another opinion on Thursday, and the surgery could very well end the year for Sim. He injured his knee on a failed check attempt in the home opener against Buffalo, and it looks to be a torn ACL. Hopefully things aren't as worse as they seem and we will see Sim again real soon. Most of us were looking forward to watching him this season.