Former Islanders defenseman Kenny Jonsson retires

STOCKHOLM (AP)—Former New York Islanders defenseman Kenny Jonsson is retiring after a 19-year hockey career that included two Olympic championships with Sweden.

The 34-year-old spent the last four seasons with the Swedish club Rogle and in May he captained the Swedish team that finished third at the world championships.

Jonsson said on Thursday that he made the decision when he realized he wasn’t motivated to begin offseason training.

He played in 705 NHL games, compiling 64 goals and 207 assists in 10 seasons, mostly with the Islanders.

Jonsson was drafted by Toronto and played for the Maple Leafs in 1994-95. He was traded to New York midway through the next season.

He won Olympic gold at the 1994 and 2006 Winter Olympics.



Islanders name Chynoweth assistant coach

The New York Islanders announced today that they have named Dean Chynoweth an assistant coach. Chynoweth will join current Head Coach Scott Gordon’s staff, after serving as the General Manager and Head Coach of the Western Hockey League’s Swift Current Broncos for the past five seasons. Chynoweth is a former first round selection of the Islanders from the 1987 National Hockey League Entry Draft.

"Dean has an extremely strong background of developing young prospects from working in the International Hockey League (IHL) and WHL for the past 11 years," said Snow. "With the youth of our team, he is a perfect fit to show them what it takes to succeed in the NHL. His defensive background from his playing days will also serve as a tremendous asset to our young defensemen."

"I am thrilled to return to the Islanders organization and join Scott Gordon’s staff,” said Chynoweth. “I am very aware of the hockey tradition on Long Island from my playing days and look forward to working with the staff in returning the Islanders to the powerhouse they once were.”

Last season, the 41-year-old Chynoweth led Swift Current to the first round of the WHL playoffs. The Broncos were beaten by the Medicine Hat Tigers four games to three in their best-of-seven series. Through Chynoweth’s five seasons with the Broncos, the team posted a combined record of 162-163-6-1-1 (W-L-T-OTL-SOL). The Calgary, ALTA native started his coaching career in 1998 with the Utah Grizzlies, who at the time were a member of the IHL. Chynoweth spent two seasons in Utah before taking the head coach position with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL. Chynoweth coached the Thunderbirds from 2000 to 2004.

He began his professional playing career at the end of the 1988-89 season, playing in six games with the Islanders, after completing his fourth year with Medicine Hat. He played eight seasons within the organization and scored two goals and 10 assists while compiling 408 penalty minutes in 147 games. He won a Calder Cup during the 1989-90 season while playing for the Islanders’ former American Hockey League affiliate, the Springfield Indians. Chynoweth played the final three years of his career with the Boston Bruins and set an NHL single season personal career best for penalty minutes with 171 in the 1996-97 season.

Around the League

Well, as we all get ready for the really big show of the summer--The NHL Awards Show--it almost seems like nothing is going on in the NHL. And that is true--except that Speculation Time is afoot and we all know how fun, important, and time-consuming speculation can be. But, you know, what else are we going to do?

The Entry Draft is coming up and so far, from what I have seen around the web, the Islanders are planning on taking everyone but Steven Stamkos with the #5 pick. A lot of people seem to want (are begging?) the Isles to draft the dynamic Russian Nikita Filatov on the 20th. He starred for the Russian entry in the WJC this past December and is the #1 ranked European player on the final CSS ranking. Will he be there at #5 a week from Friday? He may be. After Tampa picks Stamkos, many believe that there will be a run on puck-moving defensemen, assuming that no team, trades up to snag Filatov.

I'm still not sold that Filatov is going to be The Guy. I think the Entry Draft has got to be more about picking the best athlete and getting him into the system than anything else. You can't exactly go with need (scoring, in this case) if you aren't picking first overall and Stamkos is sitting there in his tuxedo waiting to go to the prom. This isn’t the NFL where you're all of a sudden committing all sorts of cap dollars to a player who is 22 or 23. The Entry Draft is all about choosing kids who are still, for the most part, still growing into the players and adults they'll become.

Plus, let's not forget the fact that there is no transfer deal between the NHL and the Russians that makes any contract in North America binding throughout the hockey world. Also, with the new Russian KHL starting up, the oil barons who own the teams in the "super league" are not going to think twice about trying to keep and/or lure Russian players home with all sorts of crazy money contracts. It's the Wild West for them.

In other news, Toronto has hired Ron Wilson to coach the Bad News Leafs today. Wilson was fired by San Jose last month. So, let's see. The Leafs--who are completely too screwed up to be called dysfunctional, have hired a so-called name coach who is a known task master and yet, they have not hired a new general manager yet. Hmm. Brian Burke has been refused a chance by the owners of the Ducks to talk to the Leafs brass but in the surprise of all surprises, is very good friends with said Ron Wilson. Burke has one more year on his deal as GM of Anaheim and Toronto has a guy as old as the hills named Cliff Fletcher working as a placeholder until the Leafs GM Search Committee can agree on giving someone the job. I mean, Fletcher couldn't be more of a Caretaker if he was making prison wine in his toilet.

Is it sad to root for another team to lose? I say, no. Been doing that with the Rangers for a long time now. I also get a strange satisfaction with seeing the Leafs constantly mess up because the media in Toronto really enjoyed sticking it to the Islanders during the lean years. Plus, it is going to be fun to watch the Burke Charade as it continues and Wilson is ripping his players in the press. Ron Wilson can talk all he wants about having a Canadian passport (as he did in the Star) and having played for the Leafs but Toronto is not Anaheim or DC or San Jose. It is a totally different animal and that animal is going to hang on his every word and his every lineup change.

I love all of this Brooks-Orpik-to-the-Rangers-talk. Um, does anyone remember when he was playing the wing in December because he wasn't being aware enough defensively? Does anyone really think that the continued employment of Mike Therien as Pittsburgh's head coach is going to drive Brooks Orpik away from the Penguins? The guy is a free agent and man, someone is seriously going to over-pay him. He's sort of like in the seat Adrian Aucoin was in with the Isles. Everybody (including myself) were falling over themselves to pat the guy on the back and after getting a 4 year/16m dollar deal with the Blackhawks, we all know that Kenny Jonsson was doing the real heavy lifting for the tandem back in the day. I'm not dissing Aucoin or saying anything bad about him at all. I am just pointing out that at no time in his career did he enjoy the kind of league-wide success that he had when he was an Islander...and that he partnered with Jonsson the overwhelming majority of the time.

Orpik is going to strike it big all because of that one shift where he flattened half of Detroit (the city, not the team) in spectacular fashion. Good for him. I just hope it isn't with our boys. We need puck movers. Let the Rangers overpay for another guy who gets skated around more often than he makes the play.

I guess that's it for today. We'll try to have something live for the NHL Awards show and some updates as we feel the need. Thanks to everyone who wrote in about the RLB of the WHA vs. USSR game. It was a fun one to do.

Here are all of the Islanders' draft picks for the 2008 NHL Entry Draft:
1st Round: #5
2nd Round: #36, #53 (Ana to Edm to NYI)
3rd Round: #66, #73 (Edm to NYI to Edm to Ana to NYI)
4th Round: #96
5th Round: #126, #148 (Phi to NYI)
6th Round: #156, #175 (Min to NYI)
7th Round: None

And last, you're probably wondering why Ken Stabler's mug shot is included in this post. Well, it is simply because he has one of the most hilarious quotes of all-time. I lifted this straight from the AP story that is everywhere: ...Stabler has long been a notorious drinker. Once when asked about his divorces he reasoned, "All I wanna do is drive around in my truck and drink Jack Daniels... and they just don't understand." Now that, my friends, should be the real Raiders motto. But doesn't he look like a well-meaning-but-hammered Mall Santa in that picture?

Classic Series on the NHL Network

So, I am home sick from work and I have some time on my hands. I decide to watch a DVD of the NHL Network's Classic Series: Toronto vs. the Islanders from 2002.

I've been putting it off, as you can probably understand. It's something I want to see, but not over and over again.

Here's how it begins: Michael Peca (then of the Islanders) is being interviewed and he says, "He's been saying to me on numerous occasions he was, he was uh, he was uh going to try and injure me. Do somethin'."

Guess who he is talking about? Yep. Darcy Tucker.

Then the show goes immediately to the play where Tucker injured Peca by low-bridging him at the knee.

I've said it before and I will say it again: that one play derailed what should have been the rebirth or renaissance of the New York Islanders. Everything was balloons and chocolate pudding until that hit. Since then, we've had to make do with keeping our heads just above water.

The series went to seven games. I am not going to rehash all of them because if you're reading this, you know what happened. But taking a battle-tested team like the Maple Leafs to seven games in an incredibly hard-fought first series should have been the jumping-off point to bigger and better; not the beginning of settling for mediocrity and whatever we can do to make to the playoffs only to whimper out of the first round.

And yes, I am pissed off after watching this show. So many opportunities were wasted and frittered away in 2002. Now we are left hoping for better with a makeshift lineup and coaching magic.

Look--I am competitive as anyone but I am thinking that if the Isles push like hell to make the playoffs that it's just going to be another quick exit like all the others. Maybe we need to not make the playoffs--take a step backward--before the team can take two steps ahead.

Also, does anyone have Kenny Jonsson's phone number? Can we get him to come back?