Isles pay the price for paying the price

DALLAS -- Jack Capuano wants to see his team -- specifically, his forwards -- block more shots.

"We have to be able to pay the price," he said. "We've done an OK job on the penalty kill, but we need to have that same mentality five-on- five."

Paying that price is a sign of a team that's willing to do anything to win. But the cost can be high.

The Isles entered Saturday's game with the Stars here with 386 blocked shots this season, good for a very respectable seventh in the league. But they were already missing their top shot blocker among their forwards, Jay Pandolfo, who is out 4-6 weeks after taking a shot from the Devils' Mark Fayne off his foot, breaking it.

And their top shot blocker among their defensemen, Andrew MacDonald, missed Friday's game in Chicago with a deep leg bruise from blocking a shot by the Sabres' Thomas Vanek on Tuesday.

It's one thing to develop the identity of a team willing to make sacrifices, but there is a flip side -- the Rangers under John Tortorella have developed the same identity, but a poorly placed Zdeno Chara blast ended Ryan Callahan's season in the spring and hurt the Rangers' chances in their brief postseason appearance.

Without Pandolfo, who was ninth in the league among forwards with 25 blocks, the Islanders' defensemen have tried to pick up the slack. The team blocked a season-high 19 shots in Buffalo, four each by MacDonald, Travis Hamonic and Steve Staios. Without MacDonald and Pandolfo on Friday, the Isles blocked 17 -- five by Milan Jurcina and four by Mike Mottau.

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"I think you notice those kinds of numbers more when you win," MacDonald said. "Maybe the lanes are a little more open on the PK without Jay there. He's such a smart player that everyone needs to pick it up when he's out."

Bailey finding his niche

Josh Bailey has worked into his third-line role far better over the last two weeks than he did at the rough start of his season, with a goal and two assists in his last five games after amassing that same total in his first 18 games.

His longtime road roommate, Blake Comeau, was waived on Thanksgiving.

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Aside from seeing his friend go, Bailey didn't view Comeau's departure as any sort of wakeup call.

"It's obviously sad for me because he's a good friend," Bailey said. "I know what I have to do and it really doesn't have anything to do with his situation."

Comeau, who was claimed by the Flames, had his first goal and assist of the season on Thursday. He's got two points and is a plus-1 in four games with Calgary.

Plus/minus

Plus: The Islanders got their first point of the season Friday when trailing after two periods (0-10-1).

Minus: They also dropped to 0-5 in overtime/shootout games and haven't scored in six shootout attempts.