By Alan Hahn

If there was ever a time for Oleg Kvasha to realize the potential others - especially the Islanders - have seen in him, it is now. The 25-year-old was moved into injured Alexei Yashin's center spot between Arron Asham and Mariusz Czerkawski.

Coach Steve Stirling thinks it might be "his best position. "You know, we've been talking about it for years but never really had the opportunity to give him the chance," Stirling said Friday after Kvasha had a goal and an assist in the Islanders' 4-3 overtime win against the Devils.

"He sees the ice real well, he can make a play," Stirling said of the 6-5, 230-pound Kvsaha. "He's pretty good down low. He isn't bad on faceoffs and he can shoot the puck. He's a disher more than he's a shooter."

Kvasha played 14:52 against the Devils and stood out the most in his 3:08 of power-play time, where his goal and assist on consecutive power plays in the second helped the Islanders take a 3-0 lead. Kvasha also won 6 of 11 faceoffs, the weakest part of his game.

"It's a challenge for me," he said. "I'm going to try to do my best, do better defensively and play good hockey."

Stirling was pleased and said he believes "there's better" to be seen of Kvasha "as he gets more comfortable with the position." He also called a decision a week ago to move Kvasha off Yashin's line to center a fourth line with Justin Papineau and Mattias Weinhandl "a blessing in disguise" because it put him on display at center.

There still won't be as much pressure on Kvasha to duplicate Yashin's numbers, or log his minutes. That will be done by committee. "History dictates that a lot of teams play better as a team when one key guy goes out," Michael Peca said. "I think knowing that our top offensive player is out for a period of time, and one of our leaders, it usually pulls everybody together. Now we're going to have to rely on each other a little bit more."