Thursday October 30

With over 40 Former Islanders puttering around the NHL we may or may not live in an FI Golden Age but a waning one since that number declined by dougle digits since last season. Yet while there are 3 and a half dozen FIs playing across the league activity seems to be low. Even stable FIs have not been contributing points-wise and wins. Last night was no exception as FIs made impacts in only 4 of the 12 games around the league. Let us take a look:

Columbus center Michael Peca received a secondary assist on the team's insurance goal as the Blue Jacket's walked away from Colorado with a 4-2 win over the Avalanche. Peca has had 2 points in his last 3 games and now has 2 assists on 5 games this season.




Calgary defenseman Adrian Aucoin received the secondary assist on the team's game winning even strength goal 5:40 in to the 3rd period as the Flames held off the visiting Boston Bruins for a 3-2 victory. Aucoin snapped a 5 game point-less run and now has a meager 2 points (1 goal, 1 assist) on 10 games this season. For some reason, Boston captain and d-man Zdeno Chara was credited with the third star of the game honor. If anybody knows why clue us in.

Phoenix center Olli Jokinen scored for the first time since the opening game to snap a 6 game tally-less drought as the Phoenix Coyotes handed the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins a sad 4-1 defeat. And Sidney Crosby might be injured, again! O-Jok opened the scoring 7:53 in to the 2nd period to net his 2nd goal of the season. Jokinen is on his standard point-per-game pace with 8 points (2 goals, 6 assists) on 8 competitions. The score was Jokinen's first non-powerplay goal since February 10 while still with the Florida Panthers, a span of 31 games in which he netted 6 extra man goals. Winger Miroslav Satan provided the lone goal for the Pens, a powerplay netter, only 37 seconds after the Jokinen score. The goal was his team-leading 5th of the season and it snapped a 3 game point-less drought. Satan now has 7 points (5 goals, 2 assists) on 11 games. Five of his points (4 goals, 1 assist) have come with the extra man. Satan also received a 10 minute game misconduct penalty midway through the final frame after arguing a hooking call against him. Soapbox: These refs are taking these too seriously. Satan complains, that is what he does. They need to stop being bothered by players arguing calls and instead should focus on what is really going on at ice level not what they perceive/expect is going on. A misconduct penalty for a whining Satan is like swatting a fly with a frying pan... a little bit of overkill.

Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo was unbeatable blocking all 28 shots he faced for his 2nd shutout of the season as the Canucks blanked the host Los Angeles Kings 4-0. The goose egg was the 40th of Luongo's career and the Canucks' captain improved his season record to 5-4-0. He has also brought his numbers back to almost normal after surrendering only 1 goal over the last 2 games. Luongo is sporting a much leaner 2.66 goals against average and a respectable .911 save percentage. His play has see-sawed since he opened the season going 3-4-0 in the 7 starts between the blankings. The next game Luongo plays in will by the 500th appearance of his career. Finally finding the net was winger Taylor Pyatt who scored the team's 4th goal. Pyatt has 2 points (1 goal, 1 assist) on 10 games this season. He snapped an 8 game point-less drought and a 10 game goal-less stretch dating back to March 30. T-Py's start can only be described as arctic so we hope he can turn it around soon.

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