Tuesday November 27

Three games were up for grabs on Tuesday as 6 teams battled for the all important mid-season points. Former Islanders are kicking it in to high gear with many shaking off early season rust. Let us take a look at their contributions from Tuesday night:

* Somehow, when the Detroit Redwings start super backup goaltender Chris Osgood they keep the shots against low. They did it again on Tuesday as Ozzie turned aside 19 of 22 shots to help his turn record a 5-3 home win over the Calgary Flames. The awesome season Osgood is having continued to get better as he improved his record to 11-1-1 on the year. His .925 save percentage is good enough for 6th in the NHL and his 1.76 goals against average tops the league.

* Their was big FI action as the Montreal Canadiens shutdown the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 in the SO. For Les Habs, Bryan Smolinski received a powerplay assist on the Montreal's 3rd goal. Smoke has 11 points (2 goals, 9 assists) on 24 games since joining the Canadiens in the postseason. Toronto defenseman Bryan McCabe assisted on the 2nd Maple Leafs' goal. McCabe recorded an unbelievable 34:52 of ice time and with the helper has 11 points (4 goals, 7 assists) on 19 games this year. Toronto winger Jason Blake assisted on the opening goal of the game and the tying goal with 18 seconds left in regulation for a multi-point night. He also missed his 5th round sudden death attempt that would have extended the SO frame. Following a cold slump, Blake is starting to warm up with 3 points in his last 2 games. He now has 17 points on 2 goals and 15 assists on 25 games this season. At the 25 game mark last season, Blake had 27 points on 14 goals and 13 assists, quite an offensive fall off for a player who notched 40 goals last season for the first time in his career.

* Roberto Luongo is starting to look more like his old self. He stopped 26 shots to help the Vancouver Canucks blank the visiting Anaheim Ducks 4-0. The shutout was the 2nd in as many games for Luongo who has improved to 11-9-2 on the season with a .918 save percentage and a shrinking 2.28 goals against average. This was his 3rd shutout of the season and surprisingly the first time he has posted back-to-back shutouts since October 5-7, 2005 when he was still with the Florida Panther and only the third time ever he has accomplished the feat.

Thanks for stopping by for all your Former Islander/NHL updates. Check back soon with FIW.