Preseason Ends Tonight in Florida

Tonight is the end. No more scouring the net for news on the Isles preseason. No more sitting through atrocious Bruins announcers like we had to over the weekend. (Seriously, you should be ashamed of yourselves, Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley.) No more watching the other guys open in Prague and Stockholm, either.

Tonight, this is it. The last audition.

The big news is that Rick DiPietro and Josh Bailey apparently traveled with the team to Florida. Bailey, now with his new entry-level contract, as been MIA with an undisclosed injury. The new rule in the NHL this year is that you can be as vague or as forthcoming as you want when reporting injuries so the Isles number one pick from this past summer could theoretically be out with anything from just being sad to spinal removal. My guess is that it is somewhere in between.

Anyway, depending on how he looks in the morning skate, Bailey may be playing against the Panthers tonight. The Isles signed him to his entry-level contract and can give him a nine-game audition at the NHL level before they decide to send him back to junior or not. Considering they told him to get a place on the Island, I am thinking this is the way they're going to go.

The other "new" guy in the lineup tonight may be Rick DiPietro. You know him: fifteen year contract; out since March, etc. Ricky has not faced his teammates in practice at all this camp and has been pretty much working on his own. In his absence, Yann Danis and Joey MacDonald have been handling the net duties and each has performed admirably. MacDonald was particularly sharp, in my opinion, against the Bruins on Saturday. Garth Snow may have known something about MacDonald that we didn't...and isn't that a good thing, considering that the man is the general manager of the Islanders?

Causing less buzz around the Island in Jeff Tambellini. He's played in two games and done zilch. Seems to me that a guy who feels that he has been screwed by the previous coach might have found the jack to nut up and at least put some points on the board. He's also been nagged by undisclosed maladies this camp, but Jeff, c'mon, dude. Do it or don't do it.

Jeremy Colliton has had a long look in camp centering the fourth line. Mitch Fritz seems to be the new guy who'll keep the opponents honest. Seeing him skate next to Mike Comrie was quite the sight this weekend. Fritz goes 6-7 and Comrie goes something much smaller. But give Fritz credit, he has had to show that he can keep up in the new NHL and he must be skating well enough to be kept around by Scott Gordon.

On the blueline, Andy Sutton has had surgery (according to Chris Botta; injury again undisclosed) and Chris Campoli has also missed time. Guys like Chris Lee (who scored the OT winner the other night vs. the New Jersey Devils) and Brett Skinner have been eating up the ice time. Our old pal Bruno Gervais seems to be trying to push the offensive part of his game and Thomas Pock has been recycled from the Rangers and did not look out of place at all in Boston. That's a good thing.

Jack Hillen, too. Wow. I thought he played very well against the Bruins. With so many defensemen on one-way contracts, something is going to have to give once Campoli and Sutton make their returns to the lineup.