Game recap: Maple Leafs 8, Islanders 1

You know those radio ads that claim to have to have the perfect system to amass incredible wealth and will send you A FREE DVD explaining how? Well, I've got them all beat. Just bet the mortgage against the Mets when they face a rookie pitcher and against the Islanders the game after they play the Rangers. It's money in the bank.

The Islanders had to travel to Toronto (home of old friend Darcy Tucker and ex-Islander Jason Blake) the day after beating the Rangers, and with Wade Dubielewicz in net to give Rick DiPietro a rest, you could be fairly certain the Islanders' fifth game in seven days would end badly. But 8-1?

This one was over once Matt Stajan put a shorthanded goal past Dubie late in the second period to give the Leafs a 4-1 lead. It was 5-1 before the second intermission, and that was pretty much all she wrote. Marc-Andre Bergeron made defensive mistakes on both goals, but it's hard to label one guy the goat when you lose by seven.

What bears watching is the seven-defender rotation. I can't see it lasting very long, but who's out? Bergeron, Witt, Martinek and Sutton are all pretty much locked in, and Gervais and Campoli are playing well and deserve to stay in the lineup to develop. But with Berard as the seventh d-man, that means forwards get shafted for time, and one thing we've noticed so far is that other than the top line, there's been no consistency or flow among the other forward combinations. Is it worth having Berard around for a few minutes of power-play time per game?

Meanwhile, Mats Sundin was honored for setting new, all-time team records for goals (390) and points (917) and received a much-deserved ovation from the home crowd. Blake also had a nice assist on Tomas Kaberle's goal in the second period, carrying the puck into the Islanders zone, stopping on a dime and spinning to find a streaking Kaberle with a quick pass. How many times have we seen that before? Great play by a very good player who is missed.