Friday February 6

There were a handful of games (5) on tap on Friday night with Former Islanders making impressions (good and bad, very bad) in 4 of those contests. Here is a look at the success and the sub-cess:

Columbus goaltender Wade Dubielewicz has yet to make a positive impact losing his second straight start as the Blue Jackets were dumped by the host Pittsburgh Penguins 4-1. Dubie surrendered 3 goals on 24 shots to fall to 0-2-0 on the season. He has a paltry .851 save percentage and a bloated 3.86 goals against average having surrendered 7 goals in less than 2 games worth of ice time.


Red hot winger Tim Connolly did it again for the Sabres scoring his 3rd game winning goal in the last 4 games as Buffalo edged the visiting Montreal Canadiens 3-2. TimCo now has 11 goals and 8 assists for 19 points on 19 games. The 3 game winning goals equals his output from last season's 48 game campaign and ties 2 other seasons for a career high. He now has 15 game winners on his career. Canadiens' d-man Roman Hamrlik scored the too-little-too-late goal with under 4 minutes remaining. Hamr now has 19 points (4 goals, 15 assists) on 51 games with 4 points (2 goals, 2 assists) coming in the last 4 contests.

New Jersey backup goalie Kevin Weekes stopped 31 of 32 shots to lead the Devils to a 5-1 win over the host Atlanta Thrashers. Weekes has turned his season around winning his last 3 starts. He improved to 5-4-0 on the season with a .920 save percentage and a 2.41 goals against average. He has given up only 1 goal in each of those last 3 starts. Receiving the secondary assist on the lone Atlanta goal was d-man Mathieu Schneider. Schneider now has 4 goals and 8 assists for 12 points on 40 games and is only 2 helpers back of career #500.

New York Rangers' goaltender Stephen Valiquette suffered one of the most embarrassing losses of an goalies' career surrendering 10 goals on 39 shots as the Dallas Stars crushed the visiting Blueshirts 10-2. After entering the 3rd period down 4-2 the Rangers left the backup out to dry as the Stars brought a 6 goal onslaught. The loss dropped Vali to 5-4-1 on the season and raised his goals against average to 2.87 while dropping his save percentage to .909. It is hard to prove but this might very well be the worst loss ever by an FI goalie.

Check in soon for more updates.