[ThePundit]

I'm still in shock. In Ryan Smyth's debut, The Islanders were winning 2-0, with 2 1/2 minutes left in the game - and wham bam bam - they lost 3-2 in OT. That was as brutal a point as you can earn.

Smyth factored in on both goals. He made a nice pass to a wide open Mike Sillinger who scored. And on Bergeron's goal, the net had come off its moorings and Smyth put it back on just before Bergeron scored. Did anybody else see the replay of that?

I never saw that happen before.

[ThePundit]

The Islanders sold 600, nine-game mini plans for the rest of the home games this year, since acquiring Smyth.

RYAN SMYTH NIGHT
Can’t wait to see what the walk-up is tonight for a weeknight game against the Blues that figured to look like one of those depressingly small early-season crowds. Last I heard yesterday, the Islanders had sold 600 of the nine-game playoff push ticket packages since acquiring Ryan Smyth, and I would imagine that number has grown since then.

As great as the Coliseum can be when it’s rocking, as it has been in several recent games (Pittsburgh, Toronto, the Jason Blake chant at the end of the Philadelphia game the other night), we all know there’s a big difference between the hockey culture in American cities compared to what it is in the Canadian venues Smyth is used to.

I thought it was interesting, as I alluded to in my story for tomorrow’s Newsday on Smyth’s introductory press conference, that he and his wife visited New York City earlier this season when he was rehabbing an injury. It’s not surprising that he got choked up about leaving Edmonton, where he always will have a sentimental attachment. But maybe he and his wife will treat his trade to the Islanders as an opportunity to have a New York/Long Island adventure at this point in their lives. He always can spend the summers in Canada and make his home there when his career ends.

On the Islanders Beat: RYAN SMYTH NIGHT