Tavares 2 Goals Power Isles Over Leafs

 photo courtesy of http://cdn.fansided.com/

Tonight, our Islanders began their five game road trip on a positive note with a dominating 5-3 win over the Leafs.  Here are some of my notes:

-Great to see the first line come to back to life.  It was long over due and I don't think it was a coincidence that it happened in their home towns.  Now, hopefully, they are able to carry it for the rest of the season.

-I may not be a fan of Eric Boulton, but man can that guy fight!

-Solid defensive game today, limiting the Leafs to few shots and making Nazem Kadri a non factor.  The only real breakdown came by Carkner on the first Leafs goal.  If they are able to play pretty close to that the remainder of the season they should continue to be pretty successful.

-Nabby didn't have his best tonight which was evident early on.  It was nice to see the team pick him up though with this big offensive outpouring.

-Good to see the Nielsen line get back on the score sheet after being held scoreless for a couple games.

Without having clinched anything yet, every game is still really big!  To start off the season ending road trip with not just a win but a dominating win is huge!  Hopefully, the team is able to keep the momentum flowing as they head into Winnipeg for their next game and what is probably the biggest game remaining for them.  No matter what happens with other teams, we still have our destiny in our hands which is the ideal situation to be in and its up to us to finish this off and make something of it.

Next Game: Saturday 3:00PM @ Winnipeg

EASTERN	DIV	GP	W	L	OT	P	ROW	GF	GA	DIFF	HOME	AWAY	S/O	L10	STREAK
1	Y - PITTSBURGH	ATL	43	33	10	0	66	30	147	106	+41	17-5-0	16-5-0	3-0	8-2-0	WON 5
2	X - MONTRÉAL	NE	44	27	12	5	59	24	138	115	+23	14-6-3	13-6-2	3-2	5-5-0	WON 1
3	* - WASHINGTON	SE	44	24	18	2	50	21	135	122	+13	13-8-0	11-10-2	3-0	8-1-1	LOST 1
4	X - BOSTON	NE	42	26	11	5	57	22	118	94	+24	14-3-3	12-8-2	4-3	5-4-1	OT 1
5	TORONTO	NE	44	24	15	5	53	24	134	123	+11	13-8-2	11-7-3	0-5	6-3-1	LOST 2
6	OTTAWA	NE	43	23	14	6	52	19	107	92	+15	15-3-3	8-11-3	4-4	5-5-0	WON 4
7	NY ISLANDERS	ATL	44	23	16	5	51	20	129	127	+2	10-11-3	13-5-2	3-1	7-1-2	WON 2
8	NY RANGERS	ATL	43	22	17	4	48	18	108	101	+7	14-6-2	8-11-2	4-4	6-3-1	WON 1
9	WINNIPEG	SE	44	23	19	2	48	21	117	129	-12	13-9-0	10-10-2	2-2	5-5-0	WON 5
10	BUFFALO	NE	44	19	19	6	44	13	114	130	-16	10-8-3	9-11-3	6-4	6-3-1	WON 3
11	NEW JERSEY	ATL	43	16	17	10	42	14	99	115	-16	10-9-2	6-8-8	2-7	1-6-3	WON 1
12	PHILADELPHIA	ATL	44	19	22	3	41	18	119	134	-15	13-7-2	6-15-1	1-2	5-5-0	LOST 1
13	TAMPA BAY	SE	44	17	23	4	38	16	138	138	E	11-8-2	6-15-2	1-3	2-5-3	LOST 1
14	CAROLINA	SE	43	17	23	3	37	17	112	138	-26	8-13-0	9-10-3	0-1	1-8-1	OT 1
15	FLORIDA	SE	43	13	24	6	32	10	102	153	-51	7-10-5	6-14-1	3-1	4-6-0	LOST 4

 photo courtesy of http://www.nhl.com/ice/standings.htm#?navid=nav-stn-main