The Islanders spoiled Wayne Gretzky’s first trip back to New York as the head coach of the Coyotes, even if The Great One, at 46, was likely still the best goal-scorer at the Nassau Coliseum last night.
Bill Guerin scored twice and Rick DiPietro played well before scuffling at the end of the match, as the Islanders hung on for a 3-2 victory, their second win in eight games.
It was a better effort than the one put forth on Wednesday in Buffalo, when the Isles played shoddily in a 5-3 loss and drew the ire of Ted Nolan.
“The last couple of games we haven’t been doing the simple things,” said Nolan, who benched Bryan Berard.
So Nolan talked to Mike Comrie, who played for Gretzky in Phoenix, before last night’s match, hoping to get the top line going.
“He said if you play a lot of minutes, you have to play responsibly,” said Comrie, who assisted on both Guerin goals. “We generated some chances. It’s something that’s been missing for too long.”
Guerin, who recently went 17 games without a goal but now has three in as many games, liked what he saw from the top line.
“We weren’t just throwing the puck around,” Guerin said.
The Isles still let Phoenix back in the game, allowing a Niko Kappanen power-play goal with 3:55 left. Then Bruno Gervais was called for a slashing penalty with 1:17 to go.
DiPietro (36 saves) kept the Isles in front, but made the Isles nervous. At 19:57 of the third, he got involved in a scrum and then had a punch thrown at him by Ed Jovanovski.
“That’s not something I want to get into a regular routine of doing,” DiPietro said. “But there’s only so many times you can be hacked and whacked.”
Nolan wasn’t pleased with it.
“We like Rick’s competitive spirit,” Nolan said. “But we don’t need him getting into fisticuffs. We’ll definitely talk to him.”
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Gretzky’s return to the Garden, where he ended his career as a Ranger in 1999, doesn’t come until Sunday, but he said it was good to be back in the area.
“It’s different as a coach than as a player,” Gretzky said. “But I know people come to see there team first. They’re die-hard and will root for the Rangers.”
He’s still involved in a rebuilding process in Phoenix and Comrie believes he’ll succeed.
“When you think about great players in any sport who have coached, they usually think at such a high, unique level, it’s probably frustrating to have players that don’t think like they did,” said Comrie. “One thing about Wayne, he had so much patience with his players.”
Islanders 3 Coyotes 2