Isles Look for 3rd Straight on Snowy Sunday; Podcast Posted

The Islanders take on the Canadiens tonight at 7 PM on a very snowy day on Long Island.

The ironic aspect of this game is that just last season, Long Island was hit with it's biggest snowstorm in years on a December day when they played the Canadiens. I attended the game, being the nut that I am.

Many fans chose to stay home for that one, and I don't see where the situation would be any different here.

For those of you who are heading out, please be careful and use your best judgement. While it doesn't seem to be awful right now, take into account that that most likely will not be the case a few hours from now.

We hope that you all enjoyed your Christmas, for those of you who celebrate it, or Boxing Day for those of you who are up North. To everyone else, well, we hope you're enjoying the holiday season. We have been, which is why we sort of disappeared the last couple of days.

Since I last wrote, the Islanders had an excellent effort in which they defeated the Devils 5-1. Josh Bailey, who could have easily walked away with two goals in the Tampa game, made up for those missed opportunities on Thursday. His steal and fake of Martin Brodeur on the first Isles goal was an awesome play all around, and the sign of a much more confident 21 year old. He'll need to continue that this week against tough opponents in Montreal, the Rangers, the Penguins and the Red Wings.

Prior to that game I had said the Islanders needed the same exact effort as they had for half of that Tampa game. They did exactly that, and walked away with two points in a rather convincing fashion.

Despite the Devils, and more shockingly Brodeur's struggles, that was a good win for the Islanders. Young players like Bailey and John Tavares were excellent and noticeable and confident. Tavares has been putting together some nice games, and now he has goals in two straight games. Blake Comeau is keeping up his decent play as of late as well and added a goal of his own against the Devils.

Meanwhile, the Islanders prepare to face a team that they haven't fared well against in recent history. Rick DiPietro is now off the IR, but it is Dwayne Roloson with the start - as it should be right now. Matt Martin will also be returning after serving his two game suspension.

Sean and I got together early this morning to record a podcast before the snow started. You can download and listen to the podcast here.

We covered a wide variety of topics, and were sure to give plenty of time to the Nelson Peltz rumors and our thoughts on Charles Wang and Garth Snow on Gary Bettman's show on XM's NHL Hour.

We'll have more later after the game.

-CH

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