FanHouse AndySutton

Entering Thursday's game against the Islanders, Pittsburgh found itself with a three-game losing streak. Consider the streak over, as the Penguins systematically dismantled New York with a 9-2 thumping at Mellon Arena. The Penguins received hat tricks from both Petr Sykora and Pascal Dupuis (each player's first ever hat trick) as they never let up, while fans chanted "we want 10" during the final minute of regulation.

The Penguins scored four goals in both the first and second periods, before Dupuis completed his hat trick late in the third period. Defensemen Mark Streit and Andy Sutton scored the only goals for New York, as Penguins goalie John Curry picked up his second NHL win (both against the Islanders) making 24 saves.

The biggest problem for the Islanders was the fact they couldn't stay out of the penalty box, picking up 34 penalty minutes throughout the game, including three separate occasions where they handed Pittsburgh five-on-three advantages.

Pittsburgh had eight different players finish with multiple points, including Evgeni Malkin (goal, assist) and Sidney Crosby (three assists) who continue to distance themselves from the rest of the pack in the NHL scoring race. Amazingly, Jeff Taffe, recently called up from the minors, found a way to finish the game as a -1.

Should you feel sorry for the Islanders after a loss like this? Of course not. This is the big leagues, and as long as they're going to keep playing hard and physical (as they did), you should expect the other team to keep clicking on all cylinders in an effort to score as many goals as possible. You never know when the other team could mount an unexpected, late-game comeback.

See that? That is Long Island's newest whipping boy, Andy Hilbert, somehow missing a point blank chance on an empty net during the third period of last night's game against the arch-rival New York Rangers. If he had managed to get the puck in the net, and not his stick, he would have tied the game. Instead, the Islanders could not find the tying goal and the Rangers tacked on one more to win the game, 4-2. This image is not the reason for the ranting and raving that you are about to read, it is simply the icing on the cake for Hilbert-haters on Long Island.

Hilbert has two points all season for the Islanders, despite playing in each of the team's 23 games. Two points. For a winger who is not an enforcer and is supposed to score, those numbers are simply mind boggling. He has, how do you say, as many points as six NHL goaltenders, including teammate Rick DiPietro. Yes, Hilbert has the offensive talent of a goaltender. For the sake of emphasis, it should also be noted that he has as many points as goon Chris Simon and fewer points than offensively-challenged blue liners Andy Sutton and Brendan Witt.

How did this all go so horribly wrong?

Garth Snow's curious creation continues to take shape on Long Island.

How else to describe an off-season that began with the pursuit of Ryan Smyth and Scott Hannan and ended with a total of $11.775-million in contract for next season given to Bill Guerin, Mike Comrie, Ruslan Fedotenko and Jon Sim?

I'll say this much for Snow: He gets the guys that no one else does.

Andy Sutton was the latest to join the troupe on Friday night, signing a generous three-year, $9-million deal and earning some high praise from coach Ted Nolan. (We learn that he's big.)

Sutton's going to likely play some "big" minutes in New York given he's the only new addition on the blue line, a crew that now consists of Witt-Bergeron, Sutton-Martinek and Campoli-Meyer/Gervais. His biggest weakness has always been his mobility, no surprise given he's 6-foot-6 and 245 pounds, but with a cannon of a shot and a mean streak, he's likely to see time on both special teams units.

The contract is a tad hefty, although for a team still well below the salary cap, that's not much of an issue.

Where there's real room for improvement from Sutton is in his conditioning and consistency, and perhaps Nolan may be the one to finally coax that kind of commitment out of the big lug from Kingston. Sutton's always been a late bloomer who has shown a ton of potential, and at 32, he's yet to put all of that together.

He's more of a gamble than Danny Markov, but when you're Garth Snow, it seems you take what you can get.

The Islanders are going to be in tough to compete in the Atlantic Division next season, and more than a few are picking them to finish as the worst team in the Eastern Conference.