You can have anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant

Anything of course, except a Power Play goal.

I hope everyone out there had a great Thanksgiving weekend. I was in PA with the in-laws and have been watching a great deal of Islander hockey on DVR. On Friday morning the wife and I ventured out and took the plunge on a 32 inch Sony HDTV. So between hi-def Islander hockey and XBOX 360 gaming I put the over/under before I lose my job at three weeks, after which I can write this blog full time.

Andy Hilbert scores the game tying goal last night, how bout that? I wouldn't have let the guy hold my friend's newborn after his open net miss in the previous game against Boston, but he scored via a very pretty screen shot through Ward's legs and past Thomas. Park, positioned perfectly off the left circle, netted the game winner after a rebound generated from a Fedetenko shot.

Lines were tweaked for this game in an attempt to get the top two lines moving. Simon skated with Comrie and Guerin, where he was expected to forecheck and cycle the puck out to his linemates, who are more deft goal scorers. (Let's not forget, however, that Simon has better hands than anyone really gives him credit). I felt this generated some jump for this line, more early on than later.

Fedetenko was lined up with Vasicek and Satan and these players generally posed the most consistent threat. Miro led all forwards with 21.25 in ice time. While I am thrilled with another close win and another sellout, there is cause for concern with the lack of scoring from our top line and anemic power play production. Coming in at 3 for 40 on the man advantage over the past ten games (as reported by Greg Logan), we went 0 for 3 last night. If our top line doesn't score goals, and our power play does not connect, we will not win these one goal games forever.

This win puts us at at a tie with the B's with at least a game in hand on everyone in the conference. Reason to be excited, but not too excited. We have Ottawa to contend with this week, after all.