For a change, the New York Islanders gave all their fans at home something to cheer about over the holidays. After lying and dying in front of a nearly full building the day before Christmas Eve, the Islanders got revenge by defeating their rival Pittsburgh Penguins thanks to three second-period goals and Islanders legend Tristan Jarry.

Things got a little hairy there – not a single fan in UBS Arena didn’t have the feeling “here we go again” last night when the Pens made it 4-3 just before the end of the second period – but the Islanders responded extremely well The third option is to largely neutralize everything the Penguins wanted to do and add an insurance goal to allow us all to breathe.

These two teams are back in action today, playing in Pittsburgh at 5:30 p.m. If the Islanders win, they’ll be back at NHL .500.

FIGs come here.

Islanders News

Summaries: LHH | Islanders | News Day | Post | THN | NYI Skinny

Other things:

• A preview of today’s game. The islanders finally let the pig go. (THN)

• Max Tsyplakov was probably the only Islander who had a really bad game last night between his penalties and turnovers and was demoted to the fourth line. (Post)
• During season ticket training on Friday, Patrick Roy apologized for the team’s poor performance at home and promised improvement for them. Saturday was a start! (news day)
• But if this team wants to seriously compete for a playoff spot, it needs to start winning consecutive games. Today is a good opportunity to start. (news day)
• Islanders prospects Danny Nelson and Cole Eiserman led Team USA’s victory over Latvia, which, as you’ll recall, completely upset Team Canada. USA baby. (Islanders | NHL)

Elsewhere

In yesterday’s NHL results you can see that the Rangers were throttled by the Lightning, dropping them all alone to last place in the metro, hehe.

• Oh man, another Winter Classic at Wrigley Field. This time it’s New Year’s Eve instead of New Year’s Day. (NHL)
• The Canucks can’t seem to get it done this season. (Sportsnet)
• The Stars may have violated the CBA through their practice on Thursday. (Sportsnet)