Biron has kept working despite uncertainty

The world is round; ends can be beginnings. Marty Biron, an example of how optimism never killed anyone, may be starting his final week as an Islanders goaltender, even as he rides a personal eight-game unbeaten streak (6-0-2).

The Islanders, likewise, have been staring down their official elimination from postseason play for a week, but they have stubbornly staved off meaninglessness by winning four of their last five games and picking up a point in nine of their last 12. They play Montreal at Nassau Coliseum Tuesday.

Collectively, they seem to have settled on an outlook voiced by Biron in summing up the 2009-10 season. Even though, as he said, "the future is kind of in limbo," he has decided, "Let's keep working, keep working hard."

The team, of course, is in the midst of developing young talent and making incremental but clear progress.

But for the 32-year-old Biron, signed last summer as a free agent, this season turned into a sort of theater of the absurd: waiting for a fellow who never really arrives, with franchise goalie Rick DiPietro in the role of Godot.

The preseason idea was that Biron and Dwayne Roloson would share the goaltending chores while DiPietro rehabbed from knee surgery. So all along, Biron saw the possibility that his Islanders career could be "a one-year deal; I didn't know if I'd be here the whole year or a month. I really didn't know how it was going to play out."

DiPietro ultimately appeared in a mere eight games, but Biron's early assignments in the nets seemed to coincide with poor offensive support and Roloson assumed the No. 1 job.

Subsequently, there were just enough glimpses of DiPietro to keep Biron on the bench.

"It was a very tough start to the season," Biron said, "and after I sat out a while and Ricky came back [for a month in January], it was really tough" being temporarily sent down to the Bridgeport farm. "But I just went and got back to the fun of playing."

At that point, with the trade deadline approaching, "it was so weird," said Biron, who expected to be dealt elsewhere, until DiPietro disappeared again with knee swelling in early March. Whammo: Since the Olympic break, Biron has gone 4-0-2, and Roloson is 4-6.

His work has dovetailed with the team's insistence on hanging in there.

"He's been able to stay focused," coach Scott Gordon said of Biron. "It hasn't been the easiest of circumstances, but I'm happy about his play."