By Brian Bohl
The goaltender generated headlines by simply skating on the ice. There were no shots fired at the netminder who didn't wear pads. No wingers buzzed the crease trying to create scoring chances. And there were no chants from the crowd.
Joey MacDonald was named of the NHL's Three Stars of the Month for his solid November. But Rick DiPietro made news by simply getting on a rink after his Oct. 27 knee surgery. "It's been a long time," DiPietro told reporters. "I've been looking forward to getting back or at least getting on the ice."
MacDonald has allowed the Islanders to stay within .500 following DiPietro's second knee surgery of the year. In the third year of a 15-year contract, DiPietro will undoubtedly get the chance to earn his starting job back as soon as he is healthy.
In the meantime, MacDonald has done a stellar job trying to shed the career minor leaguer tag. The 28-year-old continues to thrive with the first sustained playing time of his NHL career, making 14 straight starts from Nov. 3-29. During that span, he went 8-5-1, recording a .916 save percentage.
MacDonald entered the season with just 17 games of NHL experience in brief stints for the Isles, Detroit Red Wings and Boston Bruins. But the seven-year pro provided coach Scott Gordon with something DiPietro has not been able to deliver: consistency. MacDonald led all goaltenders in minutes played (842) last month and also faced the most shots (439) while finishing tied for the most wins in November.
Considering MacDonald's career numbers before the season opener and it was questionable if the Halifax, Nova Scotia native would even make the roster. Yet he earned the league's third star, joining perennial All-Stars Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin for the November honors.
Gordon continues to rid the hot hand, keeping MacDonald between the pipes. While the Islanders enter Wednesday with an Atlantic Division-low 22 points, the club is still just four points behind Carolina for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
At least Gordon's job security should be solidified for the time being. The first-year coach appears to have he backing of general manager Garth Snow, especially with the 10-12-2 record despite DiPietro playing in just three games before the operation. That's in contrast to Carolina, which fired Peter Laviolette Wednesday.
Laviolette led the Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup championship just two years ago. But like his too-brief reign as the Islanders coach, Laviolette was let go despite a solid record and a history of success.
Gordon is the Islanders fifth coach since 2003, a run of instability that started with Laviolette's dismissal. Whether Gordon can avoid his fate is uncertain, though MacDonald's hot play could keep the heat off him, at least until DiPietro returns.
As for the former No. 1 overall draft pick, DiPietro gave his understudy praise and said the team is improving its propensity for blowing late-game leads.
"I think they played well," DiPietro told reporters after practice Tuesday. "We had a couple of breakdowns late in games that have cost us some wins, but the effort's been there.
"The system's working well and Joey's played really well."