^{(Photo: The Canadian Press)}

Given that the Isles' playoff hopes were crushed like ours, there really wasn't much to be said in terms of destroying somebody's playoffs hopes in this game. Still, it's always nice to see the boys win and the Senators cruised to an easy victory over the Islanders, whom I really do feel sorry for given the pathetic state of their team, especially with all of the injuries their team has gone through. Also, it's always nice to see Dean McAmmond again.

Chris Neil, Mike Fisher, Dany Heatley, Nick Foligno and Daniel Alfredsson all scored for the Senators as the boys are now FINALLY above .500 and have won seven straight games at home. This would have been really useful earlier in the season but NEVER MIND THAT. At one point the Senators were up 4-0 before Josh Bailey finally got the Isles on the board.

This was a bit of a snoozer after the game was 0-0 after the first period, but it was actually a bit of a scrappy affair with Fisher getting into it a bit and the whole entire team mixing it up a bit after whistles. Mike Comrie missed the chance to suit up against his former team after missing his third straight game with the flu.

There's not much to be said about it from now except...this is actually making me a little bit excited about next season. I know, it seems silly given that the make-up of the team really isn't all that different but heck, if they can play well with this group, why not? I don't know what this means for our coaching situation. Has Cory Clouston done enough to remove the "interim" tag from his title? I would think that Bryan Murray is hard-pressed not to given how much better the team has been since he took over. However, my greatest fear would be to have a redux of this season and we're all just back to old habits again. And frankly, it's an indictment against the team that we can't yet fully trust this team not to do that.

Congrats to Neil who played in his 500th NHL game and congrats to Brian Elliott for owning the franchise win records for a rookie netminder.

The boys are now out on six-game road trip starting in New York tomorrow. Don't miss the OBC Live-Blog right here for the game against the Rangers!

Labels: brian elliott, daniel alfredsson, home win, josh bailey, mike fisher, New York Islanders, nick foligno