Not really, but I was waiting for it.  I kept my eye on him during those final seconds of the painful Tampa Bay loss, looking for that trademark emotional outburst.  But I didn’t witness it.

 

Earlier in the day, I had contacted my friend, Dr. David, the Tampa Bay 7^th Man of 2004 and asked him if the Bolts could possibly lose ONE more game so the Islanders could celebrate Sillinger’s 1000^th game with a win.  He assured me it wasn’t happening.  “Sorry, Dee.  The Lightening will win tonight or Tortorella will castrate all of them, and they know it.”  By the time the horn sounded, they all looked tired enough not to care about the consequences.  I won’t gloat too much because I know our boys’ day will come when they have to play too many games in too short a period and will be the same dog tired as the Bolts.  Hell, St. Louis couldn’t even stay on his skates.  I’ve never seen him so easy to hit the ice. And normally poised and controlled LeCavalier was visibly frustrated in the third.

 

Notes from the Notebook:

 

1)      I was really impressed with Campoli in warm ups.  Watch him skating backwards.  I know that’s what he’s SUPPOSED to do, but he seems so much better at it this year.  Just stronger and more fluid.

2)      Fedotenko was unstoppable, almost possessed. 

3)      When did the Lightening obtain Brad Lukowich?  I had no idea, but I was willing to smack him around myself after watching him knock Bergie to the ice, clear off his skates.  They both went to the box, but Brad kept yapping. 

4)      Ricky seems to be plucking the puck out of thin air so far, much to the crowd’s pleasure.

5)      There was an ominous feeling at the 3:13 mark of the first.  Shot were even 17-17, and #7 took a 2 minute slashing penalty.  I wrung my hands watching them kill off the penalty, and with only 47.3 seconds left, Tank offered up the insurance goal I was praying for!  And as an added bonus, Roy took a roughing penalty that would have in the box for the start of the third with that clean sheet of ice out there.  NOICE!

6)      I’m not drunk, but there’s a giant carton of Milk in our section.  We’re all looking for the plate of Chocolate Chip cookies.  But it’s nowhere to be found.  As the Ice Girls hand out coupons for Tuscan Milk, Okposo Net Ken pouted “Blog Box likes milk.”  I laughed so hard I almost fell off my chair.

7)      Start of the third and it’s feisty on the Power Play.  If MAB could hit the net with the same intensity he just hit the boards, he’d rip right through it.

      Very few scary moments for Ricky, but there are a few as Martinek loses his stick, and Vasicek gives him his.  There is a flurry of activity in Ricky’s net, but Park saves the day by lobbing the puck over everyone’s head and back into Tampa’s zone.

9)      14:00 mark of the 3^rd, and Tampa has a little breakdown in front of their net and Hunter bangs in the 4^th goal.

10)  Is Sean even ON the bench??  I can’t see him.  Although I can’t see much when I’m sitting as these bar stools are too short for the table.

11)  An eerie quiet came over the arena.  You could hear things you don’t normally hear.  The bench doors banging shut, the chatter of the players on the ice, and sadly for Tampa, the loud CLANG of the puck hitting the post, more than once.

12)  Hilbert became the inspiration for some of the funniest lines of the evening since he couldn’t seem to find the net the entire evening.

13)  A shut out for Rick on a big night for Sillinger.  An Islander fan couldn’t ask for anything more.

 

Due to the Locker Room celebration for Mike, Ted held his press conference first.  I saw Mark Herrmann from Newsday for the first time in person.  He looks exactly like his photo, receding hairline, Dutch-boy hair cut and all.   He looked over at me a few times, but didn’t say anything.  It must have been the shoes.

 

Ted was understated as usual but you could see he was happy.  How could he NOT be happy?  We’ve waited a very long time for a win against Tampa.  St. Louis has been Kryptonite since ’04.  But tonight, he was pushed around and shut down.  You could hear the celebration in the locker room through the walls.  They deserved it.  We all did.

 

Corey Witt brought Vasicek into the room for us Bloggers to talk to.  I’m glad he actually introduced him because at first, all I saw was a young man looking like a wide-eyed, scared rooster.  Once we realized who he was, the questions began.  I’ll get to those later as I really, really need to get to work.

 

Sorry for the typos and misspellings.  I’ll proof read this after.

Have a happy Friday all!