Gordon to the Olympics and Other Notes

Newsday and Point Blank were amongst the first to report that Islanders coach Scott Gordon has been named an assistant coach for the 2010 USA Olympic hockey team under Toronto's Ron Wilson.

Kyle Okposo--to no one's surprise--has been asked to the US Olympic training camp in Chicago this July. Okposo did very well for the US team in the World Championships after the Islanders season ended.

Here is the entire list of invitees to the American camp:

Goalies: Ryan Miller, Jonathan Quick, Tim Thomas.

Defensemen: Tom Gilbert, Tim Gleason, Ron Hainsey, Erik Johnson, Jack Johnson, Mike Komisarek, Paul Martin, Brooks Orpik, Brian Rafalski, Rob Scuderi, Ryan Suter, Whitney Ryan.

Forwards: David Backes, David Booth, Dustin Brown, Dustin Byfuglien, Ryan Callahan, Chris Drury, Scott Gomez, Patrick Kane, Ryan Kesler, Phil Kessel, Jamie Langenbrunner, Ryan Malone, Mike Modano, Kyle Okposo, T.J. Oshie, Zach Parise, Joe Pavelski, Bobby Ryan, Paul Stastny.

Strange to note--as they did on NHL Live--that only 5 of these players have previous Olympic experience: Langenbrunner, Modano, Gomez, Drury, andRafalski.

Also worth mentioning is that while these players have been invited to camp, none are guaranteed to make the team. So a guy like, oh, let's say Rick DiPietro, could still make the team if he comes back and is okay and gets some major wins and playing time under his belt.

Islanders Team Report--Yahoo! Sports

Inside Shots

All eyes will be on the Islanders at the June 26 entry draft because they control the first overall selection.

But whether they grab center John Tavares or defenseman Victor Hedman as their key building block for the future, coach Scott Gordon knows the key to the future is the health of goaltender Rick DiPietro(notes).

“To me, the most important thing is going to be Ricky,” Gordon told Newsday. “No matter who we draft, it’s going to come down to what we do in net. No matter how good you are, you’re going to break down. You can’t underestimate the value of the guy in net.

“You saw Ricky’s value the previous year when he played so well the first half of the season. When he got hurt, they went from being a playoff contender to struggling. You have to have a guy who is able to run with the ball. No matter who we draft, it gets overshadowed by who’s in net.”

The last-place Islanders lost an NHL-high 582 man-games to injury last season, and none were more significant than DiPietro, who was limited to five appearances because of two surgeries on his left knee.

“It sounds like everything is going well with Ricky,” Gordon said. “I spoke with (Isles trainer) Garrett Timms, and he’s very encouraged. That’s music to my ears.

“We’ll have to see how everything goes through training camp. The first step is to get him healthy and see where he’s at.”

The Islanders will seek an experienced NHL backup via free agency this summer after going through most of last season with unproven Joey MacDonald(notes) and Yann Danis(notes), who are both slated to become unrestricted free agents, between the pipes.

Season Highlight: It’s hard to pinpoint many bright spots from a dead-last campaign. But in a season defined by growing pains for a slew of young players, resurgent veteran Doug Weight(notes) recorded his 1,000th NHL point in January and wound up third on the team in scoring (38 points) despite missing 29 games because of injury. The 38-year-old center also was rewarded with a one-year contract extension in early April.

Turning Point: The first red flag flew atop Nassau Coliseum as soon as goalie Rick DiPietro was unable to play in the season opener. The team’s franchise goalie underwent two surgeries on his left knee and ended up appearing in just five games because of complications, pretty much torpedoing any chance the Isles had of remaining competitive this season.

Notes, Quotes

• Coaching legend Al Arbour’s plaque at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto will not be altered to add the extra game and regular-season win the NHL acknowledged he earned when he came back to coach the Isles for one night in 2007, according to a report in Newsday. Referring to similar comebacks by Scotty Bowman and players Gordie Howe, Mario Lemieux and Guy Lafleur after their inductions, a Hall of Fame spokeswoman said it is policy not to change any existing plaques.

“While we respect the Hockey Hall of Fame’s position regarding its policy on induction statistics, Al Arbour’s 740 wins and 1,500 games coached (both totals with the Islanders) are milestones that will forever be recorded by the New York Islanders and NHL record books,” Islanders president Chris Dey said in a statement.

• John Tonelli, an integral member of the Islanders’ four-time Stanley Cup champions in the 1980s, faced charges of driving while intoxicated in Westchester County, N.Y., after state police say he crashed his car along Interstate 684 and abandoned his Lexus at a highway ramp in Harrison, N.Y. Tonelli, who scored 325 goals with five NHL teams, assisted Bob Nystrom’s game-winning overtime goal in Game 6 of the 1980 Stanley Cup finals against Philadelphia, giving the Islanders their first Stanley Cup title.

Quote To Note: “Hopefully we’ll score more goals. I don’t expect we’ll be a dynamic offensive team, but we’ll be going toward that. Kyle (Okposo) was our leading goal scorer last year (with 18 goals). I’d like to see everybody improve like Kyle did in the second half to the point where there was less thinking and more action. That’s part of the development process. And we did it with a ton of injuries. Now, it’s a question of everybody having better health.”—Isles coach Scott Gordon on the Isles failing to have a 20-goal scorer for the first time in their history last season.

Roster Report

Most Valuable Player: D Mark Streit’s(notes) signing for $20.5 million last summer drew some snickers around the NHL, but the Swiss-born former Canadien proved to be a bargain and far more than the power-play specialist he was branded as in Montreal. Streit led the Isles with more than 25 minutes per game and finished seventh among all NHL defensemen in scoring with 56 points despite missing eight games with injuries.

Most Disappointing Player: LW Jeff Tambellini(notes) wasn’t a disappointment to those who didn’t think he could put up big numbers at the NHL level. But the Islanders have to wonder if it’s ever going to happen at this level for the former first-round pick and AHL scoring whiz after Tambellini had just seven goals and 15 points in 65 games.

Free Agent Focus: GM Garth Snow actually went 2-for-2 with the free agent signings of D Mark Streit and C Doug Weight last summer. And with immediate holes all over, it makes sense that the Isles will look to supplement their young roster again with a few more veteran bargains.

After career minor-leaguers Joey MacDonald and Yann Danis were forced into 49 and 31 appearances, respectively, the Isles also might seek to find a proven NHL backup as insurance in case starter Rick DiPietro continues to be plagued by injuries.

With Weight re-signed to a one-year extension in April, forwards Dean McAmmond(notes), Mike Sillinger(notes) and Andy Hilbert(notes), defenseman Thomas Pock(notes) and the two backup goalies are the only significant regulars slated to be unrestricted free agents.

Player News:

• RW Kyle Okposo(notes) improved his chances of making the 2010 U.S. Olympic team with a strong showing for semifinalist Team USA at the recent World Championships in Switzerland, according to Islanders coach Scott Gordon, who served an assistant to head coach Ron Wilson. “With the exception of a couple of players, I wouldn’t take anybody on (Team USA) over him, and when he gets older, there might not be anybody I’d take over him,” Gordon told Newsday about the 21-year-old Okposo, who scored 18 goals as a rookie last season.

• C Mike Sillinger underwent season-ending hip surgery for the second straight year. Yet, despite appearing in only seven games for the Isles, the 37-year-old center is planning to attempt a comeback next season. It almost certainly will not be with the rebuilding Isles for the unrestricted free agent, who has played for a record 12 NHL teams in a 16-year career.

• LW Jon Sim(notes) didn’t sulk when he was banished to AHL Bridgeport after the trade deadline, posting 13 goals and 23 points in 18 games with the Sound Tigers. With one season remaining on the three-year, $3 million contract he signed with the Isles before the 2007-08 season, the 31-year-old Sim will attend training camp in September barring a trade or a buyout.

Islanders' Rick DiPietro done for season

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

New York Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro is out for the season because of continuing problems with a surgically repaired knee.

The 27-year-old goalie has played only five games and won't see any more action this season, a person familiar with DiPietro's condition told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team had not made the announcement.

A conference call with DiPietro's doctor and Islanders general manager Garth Snow was scheduled for later Tuesday.

The Islanders (12-29-5) will enter this weekend's All-Star break with the fewest wins and points in the 30-team NHL.

BILL'S REACTION: Is not one of surprise. We'll have more to come on this and any other breaking news.

Streak at 14 losses on the road; Jeff scores his second; Trevor Smith gets his first NHL goal

Islanders Team Report from Yahoo! Sports
Inside Shots

It would be comical, if only it weren’t so ominous for the Islanders.

Rick DiPietro now is experiencing swelling in one of his surgically repaired knees, so the oft-injured goaltender missed his third straight game as the dead-last Isles concluded a terrible 0-4-0 western road trip with a 5-2 loss Thursday night in Calgary.

Without another game until Tuesday at home against the rival Rangers, DiPietro will get the weekend to rest further and will be reevaluated by the team’s medical staff once the Isles return to Long Island.

He has appeared in just five games this season, following summertime hip surgery and operations on each knee, including an arthroscopic procedure Oct. 31 to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee. DiPietro also missed a handful of games in recent weeks due to a groin injury.

“From a medical standpoint, he’s cleared to play. With the (knee) surgery that he’s had, he’s expected to have some swelling. That’s been normal,” coach Scott Gordon said of DiPietro, who is in just the third year of a record 15-year contract. “We’ve been very cautious about how he’s going to respond.

DiPietro practiced Wednesday and appeared on target to play one night later against the Flames, but Yann Danis was summoned to fly across the continent from AHL Bridgeport to serve as Joey MacDonald’s backup once DiPietro was deemed unavailable.

“We just feel that it’s in his best interests to give (DiPietro) the night off and make sure that everything is going the way it’s supposed to go. If anything, just err on the side of caution,” Gordon said. “He could have played all (four) games (on the road trip). That’s why he’s been here.

“But it hasn’t made the progress that was to be expected, so, rather than just throw him in there, knowing that he’s medically cleared to play, we just figured we’ll hold off and get him back to New York and reevaluate and go from there.”

Flames 5, Islanders 2: It wasn’t exactly a road trip to ring in 2009 with a bang, as the Islanders continued free-falling towards a crack at the No.1 overall draft pick in June with their four straight loss out west Thursday night in Calgary.

The Isles clawed back from an early 2-0 hole to tie the score, including rookie Trevor Smith’s first NHL goal, but Calgary’s Daymond Langkow scored just 55 seconds later and the Flames beat Joey MacDonald twice more in the third as the Isles fell to 3-16-2 in their past 21 games.

Notes, Quotes

• D Mark Streit gets to go back to Montreal in style, as a first-time All-Star. Streit, who left the Canadiens to ink a five-year, $20.5-million deal as a free agent last summer, was named the Islanders’ lone representative for the Jan. 25 All-Star Game in Montreal.

“It’s ironic that I’m going to go back where I played three years and made my first steps in the NHL,” Streit said. “I have a lot of great memories, it was a great experience playing for the Habs. But going back there and playing at the Bell Centre, it couldn’t get any better than that.”

• D Radek Martinek, who’s been limited to 11 appearances this season due to multiple shoulder problems, returned to the lineup Thursday for the first time since Nov. 29. But Martinek’s return coincided with an injury to another regular defenseman, as D Freddy Meyer sat out the game with a groin injury.

Quote To Note: “We’re at the point where there’s going to be a bigger responsibility on our young guys. There’s a lot of opportunity for these guys and it’s good to see them try to make the most of it.”—Coach Scott Gordon, after the already-out-of-it Islanders opened the second half of the season by completing an 0-4-0 road trip with a 5-2 loss Thursday in Calgary.

Player Notes:

• LW Trevor Smith, appearing in his fifth game since a recall from AHL Bridgeport, notched his first NHL goal in a 5-2 loss Thursday in Calgary.

• LW Jeff Tambellini, who was sent to the minors after not scoring in any of his first 23 games, has two goals in his past seven appearances.

• D Mark Streit, who was named to the All-Star team for the first time in his career earlier in the day, recorded an assist and leads all NHL defensemen in points with 33.

Medical Watch:

• G Rick DiPietro, who has appeared in just two of the Islanders’ last 34 games due to multiple injuries, missed his third straight game Thursday with swelling in his surgically repaired knee.

• C Doug Weight sat out his second straight game and remains day-to-day with an undisclosed injury to his lower right leg.

• D Freddy Meyer is day-to-day with a groin strain suffered Jan. 5 in Edmonton.

• C Mike Sillinger, who has appeared in just seven games since undergoing season-ending hip surgery last February, is out indefinitely after suffering another hip injury Dec. 29 against the Rangers.

• LW Andy Hilbert suffered a hairline fracture in his left foot Dec. 26 against Toronto and is expected to miss 2-to-4 weeks.

• D Andy Sutton suffered a broken right foot on a blocked shot Dec. 19 in Minnesota. He is expected to miss at least 6-to-8 weeks.

• C Frans Nielsen has been practicing with the team but hasn’t played since suffering multiple leg injuries Nov. 21 in New Jersey.

• C Nate Thompson missed his 12th straight game since suffering a fractured ankle Dec. 13.

Newsday's Greg Logan reports that DP is injured. Are we not surprised?

From Newsday:

DiPietro's out -- again

One game into his comeback from a second knee operation in a span of five months, Islanders goaltender Rick DiPietro is hurt again. He took part in the pre-game skate today at Madison Square Garden but will miss tonight's game against the Rangers with a strained groin.

Yann Danis, who was sent back to Bridgeport yesterday, was recalled on an emergency basis this afternoon to back up Joey MacDonald. At this point, it seems all information regarding DiPietro's ailments is suspect until you either see him in the lineup or not.

Islanders Team Report from Yahoo! Sports

Scott Gordon asks the Islanders to forecheck so aggressively during games that he often backs off on his team in practice.

That all changed Friday, when Gordon punished his players with a super-hard skate following numerous breakdowns and lazy plays in a season-worst 9-2 loss Thursday at Pittsburgh.

“You say, ‘I don’t want to kill them in practice and not get it in the game,’” Gordon told Newsday. “Well, now I’m at the point where it doesn’t really matter. This needs to be addressed, and it probably should have been addressed three games ago.”

The losing continued Saturday night in Columbus, the Isles’ sixth straight defeat and their eighth in nine games entering Tuesday’s return home against Washington. The Isles (10-18-2) have given up an NHL-worst 110 goals.

“It’s been an ongoing situation where we have not backchecked with awareness and purpose,” Gordon said. “We have to play with more desperation and more purpose all the time. When you’re not doing that, you become easier to play against. That’s not what we want our team identity to be.”

Blue Jackets 3, Islanders 1: Well, at least it wasn’t 9-2. Since that was the bloated score of the Isles’ previous game Thursday in Pittsburgh, perhaps this represented progress back into respectability. But perhaps not, as the Isles meekly completed an 0-4 road trip and fell to a mind-boggling 2-7-1 in their history against Columbus. Goalie Joey MacDonald and the Isles’ defensive efforts clearly were sharper than they’d been in the Penguins debacle two nights earlier, but their offensive woes continued with just one shorthanded goal on 25 shots against Jackets rookie Steve Mason. During their six-game losing streak, the Isles have scored fewer than three goals five times.

Notes, Quotes

• C Mike Sillinger, at 37 and five NHL games removed from February hip surgery, probably wasn’t the best candidate to survive coach Scott Gordon’s punishing “bag skate” on Friday. And he didn’t. Sillinger strained his groin and sat out Saturday’s game against Columbus.

“I guess it’s a mini-training camp for me, and the tightness with my hips is going to go to other areas,” Sillinger said. “It’s just a minor tweak, but I’ve got to be able to skate. It doesn’t help whenever you have one hip compensating.”

• C Doug Weight has been a rare and surprising bright spot this season, leading the Isles with 27 points and moving within four of reaching 1,000 for his NHL career.

“To play as long as I have and to be successful and to be coming up on that mark, I’m very proud of it and very excited about it,” Weight told Newsday. “It sounds like I’m answering in the politically correct way, but I want to mix it in with some wins. It’s more enjoyable around your team.”

Quote To Note: “It’s tough, but we have got to try to keep it positive and try to do the things that we know that work for us. We can’t be too negative. We have to keep on going. We can’t quit here.”—Winger Sean Bergenheim, after the Isles lost their sixth straight game Saturday, 3-1 at Columbus.

Player Notes:

• G Joey MacDonald returned to goal after getting yanked after one period in a 9-2 loss Thursday in Pittsburgh. MacDonald stopped 32 of 35 shots in a 3-1 loss to Columbus.
• RW Richard Park notched his second shorthanded goal of the season, and the seventh for the Isles, second-most in the NHL.

• LW Jon Sim returned to the lineup, replacing injured C Mike Sillinger, after being a healthy scratch for the first time this season Thursday in Pittsburgh.

Medical Watch:

• G Rick DiPietro, who underwent arthroscopic surgery Oct. 31 on his left knee, has resumed skating in full equipment and hopes to return by late December.

—C Mike Comrie, who underwent offseason surgery on his right hip, has resumed skating but missed his 16th straight game since Nov. 11 with inflammation.

• D Bruno Gervais was placed on injured reserve and missed his ninth straight game with an undisclosed leg injury.

• D Radek Martinek, who’s been limited to 10 appearances this season, went back on the injured list with a shoulder injury suffered Nov. 29. He is expected to miss 3-to-4 weeks.

• C Frans Nielsen will miss 8-to-12 weeks after suffering multiple leg injuries, believed to include a high-ankle sprain, Nov. 21 in New Jersey.

• RW Kyle Okposo missed his 12th straight game since suffering a right wrist injury Nov. 17 and is expected to be out until mid-January.

• C Mike Sillinger, who missed the first 24 games due to February hip surgery, lasted five games before exiting the lineup again with a strained groin. He is day-to-day.

Rick on Injured Reserve; Champions League Hockey on TV

Right now I am home sick and to my surprise, while flipping through the channels I came across Champions League Hockey from Europe. The game is HV71 (of Sweden) versus Espoo (Finland) is a repeated broadcast but it is still great to see. The teams are fighting for first place in Group B action. Not a hundred percent sure what that means but it has been a pretty good game so far. Also, and I may be wrong on this, but the guy doing the play-by-play sounds like Steve Mears.

Here is a link to the Champions League schedule from Universal Sports HD.

This is the third try at starting a European Champions League and apparently revived in an attempt to compete with Russia's Kontinental Hockey League.

OK, so now that you know that, Chris Botta has a bit on his blog that Rick DiPietro and his mysterious malady have landed on IR. Of course we have no real indication as to what the injury possibly could be or for how long DiPietro will be sidelined.

Speaking of Steve Mears, he breaks news on islanderspointblank.com that enforcer Mitch Fritz will be in the lineup tonight and that Jeff Tambellini will be returned to the press box for tonight's game in Philadelphia.

Rangers 4; Islanders 2

My sister's father-in-law was a codebreaker for our government in Korea. How do you think he would handle this one:

Rick DiPietro is cryptically listed as being "day-to-day" with "a lower body injury" that he suffered on Saturday night against the Hurricanes. The injury, whatever the actual diagnosis, is "unrelated to his previous injuries."

(Sound of Bill scratching his head.)

Well, for starters, my sister's father-in-law wouldn't be of help because he knows as much about hockey as I do about quantum physics. He likes sci-fi...LOVES sci-fi, so I think we all know what kind of help he'd be able to give us. Second of all, for all of us that love the game and the Islanders and everything that goes with it, even we don't know what to make of this convoluted attitude toward truthiness that the organization is wrestling with.

All the not-lies and un-truths do is make losing that much worse. Let's face it: while a lot of us have been begging the team to go all in with the rebuilding from scratch, seeing the Isles lose to the Rangers is never easy. It also makes it hard to swallow when the team seems to be playing footsies with the truth on injuries for no good reason other than to prove to the fans and the media that they can.

But what about last night? Well, I hope someone in Joey MacDonald's neighborhood gives him a lot of candy on Friday because he has sure earned it. He may have inadvertently kicked in the first Ranger goal (Drury; to the excitement-that-made-us-uncomfortable of Micheletti) but otherwise, he was making big saves all over the place. Whatever the goalie coaches are doing with the guy, it is working.

Nice to see Kyle Okposo get his first of the year last night. Kyle is going to be growing up right before us this season and let's not forget that the kid has nothing more than a handful of AHL games and a few NHL games to prepare him for big minutes this year. Now, um, can we get Jeff a goal? Pretty please?

I got a message from a reader who is not related to me who asked how much longer we have to wait before we pull the plug on young mister Tambellini? My reply: Dude, get a grip. Snow gave him two years to send him the "we're behind you" message and they're going to give him every chance to play himself out of a role entirely. I like the way he is going to the net in these last few games. Billy Jaffe mentioned it in the home opener that when Tambellini is cutting toward the nets and not the boards that he gives himself a much improved lane to move and angle to shoot. Seems obvious, but let's remember that cutting inside is a move that someone playing with confidence is going to make. The move to the outside is the safe move for the players well being. If Tambellini is making that cut inside toward the slot, he is good. The goals will come. Sometimes you just have to get that first one.

Still, our boys got stomped on. The Isles are now leading the Senators (WTF?) in the TANKING FOR TAVARES (TM) Sweepstakes that may or may not end with Ed McMahon in front of the Coliseum with a bunch of ping pong balls in the middle of April.

Thursday the boys travel to Philadelphia which could be still burning if the Phillies win the World Series. Stay tuned for more unnecessary soap opera stuff from the locker room as well.

Rangers. The Freaking Rangers.

Well, the DP drama continues. Is he hurt? Is he not hurt? Coach says yes. Team calls up Yann Danis to carry MacD's bags tonight. Botta vs. Logan in one of the stranger faceoffs in our time.

Let's face it: weird shit follows this team around like a bad girlfriend.

The Logan vs. Botta debate is nothing I am going to touch. You know why? Because I know nothing about it. When Linzi and I started this website, I knew for a fact that I was not going to cover pissing contests. My only "deal" (for lack of a better word) with either of the websites is that I am super-glad each exists so that we can get some straight-shooting and news about the team we all love. If there is a professional beef or whatever, out official position is that we hold out hands up. While we are linked from Greg's site--and we love the feedback we've gotten from the traffic funneled our way--we rarely post or make comments there. I've done it maybe twice on the Botta site and that was to get some clarification regarding Mark Parrish's PTO contract with Bridgeport from a guy who would know a heck of a lot better than me.

So, tonight we have the Rangers. No Ricky. No Brendan Witt (for how long?) and no Freddy Meyer (for what, exactly?). Brett Skinner has been called up to the main roster according to multiple sources. He's been enjoying one heck of a start in the American League after what was termed a good camp with the Isles. So we will see him in action tonight.

Ricky was, as you all know, pulled after the first period Saturday night against the Whalercanes. He had a couple of giveaways where he was trying to force the play with the long passes and man, that one he handed to Iron Hands Chad LaRose was a stomach punch. Sing along with me, because we all know the words: Rick needs to trust his defensemen and not try to do too much. Scott Gordon told Point Blank the same thing we've been hearing for years. FOR YEARS.

Joey MacDonald came in and played admirably for the remainder of the game. The Isles put up a team-record 60 shots on Cam Ward (by the way, Ward is pretty good) and even a PENALTY SHOT with seven-tenths of a second on the clock wasn't enough to pull the Isles through to tie Carolina.

Seriously, though, Dougie, right in the breadbasket?

Oh, and Kyle Okposo, Frans Nielsen, and Jeff Tambellini haven't scored yet this year. Bergenheim has 2 and he plays like hi pants are on fire every shift he is out there. Nate Thompson took one for the team in a fight with Tim Gleason. The size difference was almost as funny as when Lou the sandwich girl told Chuck that their vast height differences intrigued her last season on "Chuck". Different kind of dance partners, I know, but Nate gave it a shot and it did fire the team up for a while.

Last, I know you all saw the hit on Brandon Sutter from the previously mentioned Doug Weight. Legal hit; Welcome to the NHL. The Carolina players knew it too because no one stepped in to start a fracas or anything with Weight as Doug looked over to see if the kid was okay. Doug is a classy dude and known throughout the league as a good guy and not a cheap guy. Big thumbs up to Chris Campoli, too, who was right there playing Sundance in case someone was going to come after his teammate, bad shoulder and all.

Saturday Night: Panthers 2 Islanders Zee-ro

There are two universal truths in hockey....

Actually, there are more that two, but I am going to talk about two so for the basis of the conversation, let's say that is all there is.

Two. Two universal truths.

The first universal truth is that if your team does not create second chances, you're not going to win. The second is that if the other team has possession longer that your team does, you're probably not creating many scoring chances.

So, right there, we've figured out the game of hockey. Possess the puck and create chances to score. If you don't do that, you are most likely not going to win.

Exhibit A: Saturday night, Sunrise, FL. Panthers 2; Islanders 0.

What I liked:

Kyle Okposo. The guy can flat out move and he has a sneaky fast gear that can take him around defensemen. They're not used to him yet. He blew by Bouwmeester twice to try and push the play. Still, like Billy Jaffe said, Kyle (and a lot of the kids) have got to learn to make shooting their primary option and get away from the instinct to make the perfect play. There's simply not time at the NHL level to try and score video game goals night after night.

Jeff Tambellini. We've seen glimpses of Bridgeport Jeff so far this year and we need more of it. When Tambellini used his speed to set himself up for scoring chances, he is dangerous. When he tries to take it outside the defense and to the boards, he just gets himself out of position.

Rick DiPietro. I thought Ricky settled down fine but didn't we all just throw up in our mouths after that first goal went in only 24 seconds into the game? And yet, his lateral movement seemed fine and he even was able to make a couple of those Ricky Saves that only he can make.

Mark Streit. Seriously, what was all the bitchin' about? He has onlyproven to play a pretty solid two-way game and let's face it, when he has the puck on the PP, you inch forward thinking something could happen.

What I didn't like:

The power play. Lack of chances.

Even strength. Lack of chances. Lots of shots but no real quality.

Puck possession. We didn't have it enough. Sure, the Panthers are a speedy bunch but they are still the Florida freaking Panthers. The Isles didn't initiate tempo enough. Was that because the Panthers were just that much better at it? Hard to say.

Scott Gordon's boys can go back to the drawing board for a few days. The Isles are off until Thursday, when That Avery Guy and the Stars invade from Dallas. Marty Turco is playing at his usual playoff level by letting in a lot of soft goals (in the games I have seen anyway) so this is a team that could be had.

Anyone else tired of CJ Papa yet? Where do we write to see if we can get Deb back?

What is it that they're not telling us?

So, you know, yesterday, I'm watching the Isles game and it's 5-0 and Joey MacDonald looks like Ronald McDonald back there and the fans start the chant for DP! DP!

I mean, it makes sense, right? Goalie looks bad and he gets the hook. Happens every so often. Pull the guy out of there before his confidence goes south. Get the backup some PT. Mike Keenan does it after he sneezes. C'mon, guys, let's get Ricky in there!

And yet, there was Rick...sitting on the bench...wearing a cap...smelling his catching glove...and not making eye contact with anyone who has authority to put him in the game.

The Sabres torch MacD for another couple of goals after Trent pots one for the good guys and we end another fight-filled Kid's Day on the bidness end of a 7-1 loss.

Look--we all are thinking it. Many of us are trying to make sense out of it but you just can't. The Isles are protecting their injury reports better than the government protects visiting foreign dignitaries. Everything is ballparked as a lower-body injury or an upper-body injury and it is just useless. I'm getting an upper-body injury wondering why the heck they have to keep these government secrets so tight.

There is no right or wrong here. The Islanders--and any other team in the league don't have to be truthful about the injury situation of their players--but it helps, you know? The whole thing comes off as petty and cheap because they can't be honest with their fans.

The whole DiPietro thing is stranger than a guy you don't know asking you for money. If he's hurt and isn't able to play, then why does he sit on the bench? If he isn't ready to play, then don't have him backup Joey MacDonald. Bring up Yann Danis for a bit so he can wear a cap for a while in case they need him. Having the franchise player sit on the bench when he is in no condition to play--which, of course, is only speculation on my part because the Islanders are playing some weird game here--is not a logical move in any way, shape, or form.

Scott Gordon told Newsday that he prefers to have his goalies battle through tough spots rather than yank them out to save whatever shred of professional confidence that they have. That's fine. In fact, since he is a former goaltender, Gordon would know what it is like to poop in the punch bowl and then watch another guy mop up the mess. That's cool. But don't they realize that when you play this silly game that fans and people in the media are only going to speculate about the "real" motives in player moves and whatnot because you're not giving them anything factual to work with? In the real world, we need something. Plus, there's the whole idea that being forthcoming and honest with the fans is good business because, in the end, we are the ones buying the tickets and jerseys and Center Ice packages.

It is always something with this team. An organization secure in their vision and abilities to realize that vision don't lower themselves to weird cloak and daggers bullshit.

With that, I will leave you with the last paragraph from Greg Logan's game report from today's Newsday. Read between the lines at your own peril.

....But the suspicion is that MacDonald knew no reinforcements were coming if he got in trouble. Asked if he knew DiPietro wasn't available, MacDonald said, "Yeah," then caught himself. Backtracking, he added: "Well, I don't know about that. Like I said, I just kept on concentrating and tried to keep battling."

And it is only the third game of the season, Islander fans!

Birthday boy Lee nets OT winner for Isles

By IRA PODELL, AP Hockey Writer

NEWARK, N.J. (AP)—Chris Lee scored 2:28 into overtime on his 28th birthday Friday night, lifting the New York Islanders to a 3-2 preseason victory over the New Jersey Devils.

Lee snapped a drive that beat backup goalie Kevin Weekes on New York’s 20th shot. Fellow defenseman Bruno Gervais, who turned 24 Friday, earned an assist. The Islanders got the win after losing a 2-1 lead late in the second period.

“I don’t think the goalie saw it, and to be honest I didn’t see it go in, either,” Lee said. “It was a delayed celebration, but it was a great feeling. This is definitely the best birthday present I’ve ever gotten.”

After recording only five shots in the first period against Islanders third-string goalie Yann Danis, the Devils got even on Zach Parise’s power-play goal with 26.4 seconds left in the middle period.

New York couldn’t get the puck out of its zone during New Jersey’s third power play of the period—a high-sticking double-minor against Jeremy Colliton.

Devils defenseman Anssi Salmela slid a diagonal pass from the left point to Parise in the low right circle. Parise snapped a shot that beat Danis for his fifth goal of the preseason.

The Devils went on a 5-on-3 power play 13 seconds later when Lee was sent off for hooking. New Jersey enjoyed that manpower edge for well over a minute into the third period, but couldn’t take the lead.

It wasn’t for a lack of trying, though. The Islanders killed off the penalties only to go short-handed again at 2:04. The Devils pumped in five shots and hit the post with two other attempts. Patrik Elias slid the puck through the crease, but it caught the right post.

“At 5-on-5, I thought our guys did a tremendous job,” first-year Islanders coach Scott Gordon said. “I’d be surprised if they had more than 15 shots 5-on-5. The majority of their shots came on the power play, particularly the 5-on-3.

“When you’re short-handed for pretty much six consecutive minutes and close to eight, you’re going to lose momentum.”

New Jersey took a 1-0 lead 3:32 in on its first shot. Johnny Oduya let go a drive from above the left circle that hit the right post and caromed in.

The Islanders tied it on Andy Hilbert’s stuff shot near the right post with 4:29 left in the first period, and Kurtis McLean made it 2-1 for New York 2:55 later when his drive from the left point seemed to hit Salmela in flight and take a dip past Weekes.

That was quite a change from Wednesday on Long Island when the Devils defeated the Islanders 3-0 behind a 17-save effort by No. 1 goalie Martin Brodeur.

“Every game you play you want to win,” said Mike Comrie, one of the few Islanders veterans in the lineup. “When you’re playing a division rival, you just expect a lot out of everybody. It’s nice to get a win but we know we have a long road ahead of us.”

The Devils outshot New York 12-0 in the third on Friday before the Islanders recorded their first shot of the period shortly after the 13-minute mark. Until then, New Jersey had showed mostly lackluster play.

“For the first half of the game, that’s exactly what we were,” Devils coach Brent Sutter said. “We did a much better job in the second half of having some assertiveness and puck pursuit. Our forecheck was a lot better, there wasn’t as many gaps. The shots on goal showed that.”

Danis finished with 28 saves. Regular backup Joey MacDonald also dressed, but New York’s No. 1 netminder Rick DiPietro is close to returning. He skated with teammates Friday morning and is expected to get the start Monday when the Islanders finish their preseason schedule at Florida.

The Islanders and Devils will open the regular season against each other next Friday in New Jersey.

Notes

The Islanders are expected to be without defensemen Andy Sutton and Chris Campoli for several weeks. Sutton is out because of hand surgery. Campoli is sidelined by an injured shoulder, not the one he dislocated last season that knocked him out for the season in January. … Veteran forwards Bill Guerin and Doug Weight sat out for the Islanders. They are expected to play the final two preseason games.

New Hockey Cards!

I love it when I find the new hockey cards each year. It's one of the three barometers that we are getting closer to hockey season; along with The Hockey New preview issue and exhibition football.

Upper Deck's Victory set is always the first out, so you can imagine how happy I was to see the boxes at our local Target. I picked up one of those boxes that has ten packs (plus a "bonus" pack--why not just say eleven?) for $9.99 yesterday. My wife and I ripped them open and as you have probably figured out, all we want really is Islanders. We don't mind getting cards of the stars and all, but our boys always are more important.

So, guess how many Islanders I got in a box of 11 packs and 66 cards? That's right: zero. Didn't get any Rangers either, which we are oddly okay with. Still, with 250 cards in the set and getting 66 cards in the box, you'd figure that the odds are pretty good that we would get some Isles, but we didn't. We did get Crosby and Ovechkin and an oversized Tomas Vanek card (yawn).

So, out of (let's say) five stars, I would give this rip about a two. One star for getting Crosby and Ovie and one star for just being happy that there are hockey cards out. We'll also give Upper Deck some credit for improving the design of the cards, which are much more appealing than last year's Victory set.

The Islanders players in the set are cards 71-76: Rick DiPietro; Bill Guerin; Miro Satan; Trent Hunter; Mike Comrie; and The Tank.

Thanks to The First Lady of NYIFORLIFE.com, my wife Linzi, for the photo. She's also the webmistress for this site as well.

More Fantastic News

I hope you all read Newsday today to catch the latest exchange between our GM and our coach.

If you didn't see it, here you go:

When asked about Wade Dubielewicz not being resigned by the team, Ted Nolan completely contradicted a comment made the day previously by Garth Snow. The GM had said that before last season, Dubie had not shown up to training camp in shape and therefore, the coaching staff did not have confidence in playing him...which lead to over-playing number one goalie, Rick DiPietro.

Nolan's response: "It was news to me."

Nolan was also much more diplomatic when discussing Dubie's Islander career; thanking him for the effort and reminding us that the team would have never made the playoffs if he hadn't made The Pokecheck during the shootout vs. New Jersey. But we don't get that in an article where both men are quoted. We get it in two separate articles that literally and figuratively are on different pages. Nice work, guys.

So what do we make of this? Well, for starters, the communication between Snow and Nolan is breaking down again. There's been rumors for some time about discord amongst the Islanders Brain Trust and what we are reading is not going to make those rumors go away. We know that Snow and Mr. Wang are hell-bent on going with the kids this year--a move we support and think is long overdue, quite frankly--and we also know that Ted Nolan has voiced his opinion that he doesn't think this is the best tact for the team to take. Throw in the reluctance of the team to extend Nolan in the last year of his contract and what you see is that they don't know if Ted Nolan is the right kind of guy to play the nurturing role while the kids develop.

Then you get the news that Rick DiPietro had minor knee surgery this week and that this potentially huge news was disclosed not in Newsday or on a fine news source like NYIFORLIFE.com, but that Rick himself spilled the beans on (of all things) The Bubba The Love Sponge Show on Sirius satellite radio.

Seriously. Not on XM's NHL Live, but on Sirius channel Howard 101. Yeesh.

Whether or not the surgery was minor or major is of no importance other than we are one injury away from starting Joey MacDonald in 2008-09. No, this is much deeper than that. It is another organizational breakdown of communication. There was no one involved with the team to either counsel Rick to shut his yap about surgery (because is makes the fans nervous at this point) or to have it on the website or in the paper to get the message out there that it isn't anything major and that The Franchise is okay.

Look--I know what it is like to work in an office where you don't all get along and where you may not trust the person sitting next to you. It sucks. Totally sucks. But it is even worse when you have this alleged discord while running a sports franchise because you're essentially messing with the public trust. The Isles like to think that they are making all sorts of important headway in the community to grow the next generation of Islanders fans and to a point, the work they are doing has been successful. But the one thing that really puts butts in the seats and creates goodwill between the organization and the fans is a winning team. Drama does nothing but create feelings of "more of the same" in regards to the New York Islanders.

I'm sick of reading about and I am sick of caring so much about a team that seemingly has to take two or three steps backwards after they take one step forward. The Isles need to get their shit together for the sake of the people who care about the team. I know this is true because I am like the most patient person ever with this stuff and now I am just getting tired of it.

I had hoped to write something about the upcoming draft this week. I also had thought about writing a post about the game from Monday night because it was simply one of the most enjoyable and fun games to watch in my thirty years of watching this game we all love. I had also hoped to post another Retro Live Blog but in all three cases, I couldn't, because the Islanders gave me something to complain about.

So, you know, thanks for that, guys. Now shut up and figure it out.

DiPietro and Snow Join NHL Goalie Council

The NHL decided that it was time to take a look at shrinking goalie equipment--as long as they can keep the guys safe--in an attempt to try and amp up the scoring in the league. It's an idea that needs to be addressed...even if it seems like we are trying to fix stuff that may not be broken year after year.

The Islanders GM Garth Snow will be representing the league-side of things and Rick DiPietro will be one of the consulting players. Funny that Snow would be one of the go-to guys on shrinking the dimensions of goalie equipment because many point at him as the guy who introduced and benefited from using the over-sized shoulder pads, pants, and goalie pads in the 1990s. It's almost like hiring a thief to sit in on meetings about protecting your home from burglars.

Other members of the (is it a...?) blue ribbon committee are Doug Risebrough of Minnesota, Jim Rutherford of Carolina (and a former Detroit goalie) and Dallas' co-GM Brett Hull. The representing players chosen by the NHLPA are: Martin Brodeur of New Jersey, Ryan Miller of Buffalo, Dany Heatley of Ottawa and Mike Cammalleri of Los Angeles. The PA chose two skaters and three goalies for the job; a good mix, I think.

The Goalie Equipment Working Group will meet shortly after the Stanley Cup playoffs end and before the Entry Draft; on or around June 11 in Toronto. According to the Globe and Mail, if the working group decides changes to the dimensions of goaltender equipment are warranted--but that the goalies wearing the (theoretically) smaller equipment will not be jeopardized--then the recommendations will be forwarded to the Competition Committee for consideration.

It's also worth mentioning that in the past, league committees and the GMs have simply passed legislation regarding player equipment without seeking input from the Players' Association (insert RBK uniform jokes here). Now, under new NHLPA Executive Director Paul Kelly, there looks to be a bit of a break in the relationship between the players and ownership that is healthy as the game we love moves forward

Rick DiPietro on Versus

Look out for DP on Versus this week. The Islanders all-star goalie will be an in-studio guest analyst from Monday - Thursday during the Stanley Cup Playoffs coverage.

DiPietro out for season, will have surgery on right hip

UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP)—Goaltender Rick DiPietro will miss the rest of the New York Islanders season because of hip surgery. The operation is Wednesday in Vail, Colo.

DiPietro is finishing the second season of a landmark 15-year contract. This marks the second straight year that the team’s 26-year-old goalie needs hip surgery. The left one was operated on after last season’s playoffs. Now the right one needs repair.

DiPietro was injured during the All-Star skills competition in January and has played through the pain since

Here I sit broken hearted...

I keep hearing this old song from the 1980s in my head...I think it is Loverboy..."It's o-ver! It's o-ver! It's oooooo-veeerrr!"

The Isles dropped a clunker to the last-place Lightning last night, 8-4. The good news is that our boys go right back at 'em tonight in Florida to meet the Panthers. The bad news is that with 71 points in 71 games, they're just about ready to call for mid-April tee times.

Another thing I just calculated: the Isles are fifth from the bottom in the entire NHL right now. It goes like this: Los Angeles (60); Tampa (68); Atlanta (68); St. Louis (69); and the Isles. How many ping pong balls does fifth-worst get in the entry draft lottery.

Ben Walter--up from the Bridge because Josef Vasicek came down with the flu--scored his first goal as an Islander on the power play. So right there, that is something positive. Of course, having a recent call-up playing on your power play isn't exactly standard operating procedure. Besides, Vincent Lecavalier had a hat trick for the hosts so that kind of negates any good will from Ben Walter. But good for him.

The other Islander goals were scored by Bill Guerin (a nasty wrister in the first); Ruslan Fedotenko (a breakaway kicked in by the Tampa goalie doing his best Darren Puppa imitation); and Mike Comrie.

Then, to add injury to insult, we have this headline in today's Newsday: "Nolan at odds with DiPietro after blowout loss."

Just what we need. The coach and the franchise are allegedly not getting along. These things tend to get overblown because they make good copy in what has turned out to be a completely unsatisfying season.

Nolan on Ricky, from Newsday: "We ask him over and over again not to play the puck as much," Nolan said of DiPietro. "He's one of the best puck-handlers in the league, but you just can't overhandle it. When you overhandle it, you get yourself in trouble a little bit."

Again, Islanders coach Ted Nolan: "The only thing you can do is keep going through it over and over again. You can't do that. You've got to let our defense handle it a little bit more. He just wants to play it. What can you do?"

DiPietro response, also from Newsday: "Whatever."

Indeed.

Islanders Team Report courtesy Yahoo! Sports

Inside Shots

In the middle of an interview on a top-rated local radio program Thursday, Islanders general manager Garth Snow was asked if Ted Nolan’s decision to start backup goalie Wade Dubielewicz for the third straight game that night caused him to raise an eyebrow.

“One eyebrow or two?” Snow replied.

Snow already was on record earlier in the week that he expected All-Star starter Rick DiPietro back in the lineup Thursday on the back end of a home-and-home series against the rival Rangers, even though Dubielewicz had filled in admirably in a 4-3 shootout victory two nights earlier at Madison Square Garden with DiPietro skipping his second straight game due to the death last week of his grandmother.

The Isles’ ongoing struggles on the power play were more of a factor than was Dubielewicz’s play in Thursday’s playoff-damaging 4-1 loss, and Nolan undoubtedly will switch back to his workhorse starter for Saturday’s visit to Philadelphia.

Still, DiPietro, who returned from Massachusetts in time to practice with the team Wednesday and again at Thursday’s morning skate, has 13 years remaining after this season on a 15-year contract. Thus, it was big news that Nolan had the pucks to stick with Dubielewicz, who entered the game with 13 wins in his NHL career.

“I was told I wasn’t playing,” said DiPietro, who sports a lackluster save percentage of .886 over his past 16 starts. “At the end of the day, that’s a coach’s decision. Dubie played well the last game and got us that win in the shootout. It was unfortunate I was away a couple of days and missed time.”

Nolan also wasn’t pleased that DiPietro announced the decision to the media before he did.

“Ricky has to concentrate on being a goaltender and we’ll concentrate on coaching the team,” he said. “We’re in the business of winning games, so you’ve got to go with the hot goaltender — if that’s the case — or you come back with our No. 1 guy.

“Either way, it’s a tough decision. But actually, it’s a good decision. You want tough decisions to make. If it’s easy, the competition isn’t there. So, a hard decision is better for the team. It’s a great position for us to be in deciding which goaltender should go because they’re both very adequate.”

Rangers 4, Islanders 1: Whatever you think of Ted Nolan’s daring decision to stick with backup Wade Dubielewicz for a third straight game despite All-Star starter Rick DiPietro’s availability, know that goaltending wasn’t to blame for the Islanders’ latest anemic loss. Heck, instead of manning the door at the end of the bench, maybe DiPietro’s vaunted stick-handling skills could have proved helpful at the point to aid another wretched performance by the Isles’ putrid power-play unit. The Isles went 0-for-5 with the man-advantage, including three straight power-play opportunities with the game within reach in the second period. With their fifth loss in their last seven games, the low-scoring Isles slipped to five points behind the eighth-place Flyers in the Eastern Conference, with a visit to Philadelphia on tap for Saturday.

Notes, Quotes

• D Bruno Gervais (concussion) skated Thursday for the second consecutive day, but Isles coach Ted Nolan said there is no timetable presently for his return to the lineup. LW Jon Sim, who had surgery in October to repair a torn ACL, also has resumed skating on his own, but it remains doubtful that he will be back before the regular season is over.

Quote To Note: “I thought Dubie did well. He had a breakaway against him, then a re-direction on the second and third (goals). It certainly wasn’t Dubielewicz’s fault. He played a strong game and kept us in. Rick (DiPietro) will have two practices under his belt and he’ll run with it from here on in.”—Coach Ted Nolan, on his decision to give backup goalie Wade Dubielewicz a third straight start in Thursday’s 4-1 loss to the Rangers.

It Had To End, Really

Well, the Isles six game win streak had to come to end eventually, and it did yesterday in the matinee against the Devils.

The Isles dropped the game 4-2 and despite Chico Resch's obvious appreciation for Rick DiPietro, Ricky was not as sharp as he needed to be. It's no secret to anyone who watches the Islanders that the team is going to go as far as DiPietro can take them. Yesterday, he was not his strongest and it had to be expected.

The big news for the team came before the game when it was announced that Trent Hunter had signed a new 5 year deal. On the other end of the spectrum, it was also announced that Mike Sillinger would be undergoing season-ending hip surgery. While the team has played well in his absence, the guys are going to miss Sillinger's leadership on and off the ice.

Bruno Gervais also made his return to the lineup after missing the win streak.

Live Blog: Isles in Montreal; First period

2:01--We are live in Montreal. It's Hockey Night (afternoon) in Canada. It just feels like a bigger deal to be on Hockey Night in Canada. Old friend Kelly Hrudey thinks the Isles don't think our boys are very good. He's polite about it but with the flu ravaging the team and with the Islanders not scoring goals, Kelly and Ron MacLean think it's going to be an easy one for the Canadiens this afternoon.

2:03--Jim Hughson and Greg Millen are the broadcasters. Am I the only one who thinks of Hughson and the EA NHL games when you hear his voice?

2:07--Brendan Witt with a penalty less than a minute in. Whoo. Montreal spends over a minute peppering DiPietro. Not good...

2:17--The crowd is sick! Freddy Meyer takes a hold. Isles PK unit is gonna be tired...

2:19--Bruno Gervais blocks a shot. Must be cool for him to be playing in Montreal...

2:26--Big saves by Ricky as the Isles seem to have found their legs. Unreal leg save on a redirection by DiPietro's training partner, Christopher Higgins. The Canadiens seem to be playing at a different speed than the Isles are...

2:31--Why can't US TV stations mic the crowd like the CBC does? Too often it comes off like church on TV. Here, the crowd is so into every little thing...

2:32--Comeau is skating on the top line with Miro and Comrie. Comrie leads the team in scoring with 37 points and that is the lowest team-leading total in the NHL. Again, not good...

2:35--Martinek gets a hold. Third penalty in a row for the Isles...

2:38--Another penalty. Comeau levels Higgins from behind into the boards. He is down on the ice and Berard comes to help out when the rookie gets jumped. We got us a scrum in Montreal...

2:41--Higgins clearly turned and saw him coming. He knew he'd get pounked. Still, you hate to see that. Higgins is back on the bench and Comeau is in the box...Plekanec bumps Freddy as the Isles enter the zone and gets a trip. We are 4-on-3 right now with 2:15 left...

2:42--One-timer by Bill Guerin hits the crossbar...

2:43--Komisarek and Comrie are going at each other...Komisarek gets a hook at 18:44...Ted Nolan calls a TO to settle the boys down. The Isles have been badly outplayed in the first 15 minutes of the game and are lucky to be tired at zero right now...

2:47--Canadiens survive a frenzy of activity by the Isles to end the period.

Let's take a breath and regroup

Did you feel the same way I did? Did it feel like we were back to those days when the Senators whooped up on the Islanders just a little bit?

Not a lot of good comes out of a 5-2 game. Oh, sure, you can say that there was a late empty-netter so the score was really only 4-2, but who are you kidding? A game at home with clearly the best team in the conference and it didn't seem like the crowd or the Islanders were aware of the importance of the matchup.

Rick DiPietro, fresh off an All-Star game where he both shined and seemed to be having a heck of a lot of fun, played as a mere mortal. The defense was confused by the Senators forwards all night--a Senators team awash in turmoil (Google Ray Emery) and ravaged by injury to one of their top players, Dany Heatley.

Simply put, when the Islanders made mistakes, the Senators capitalized...no pun intended. Sure, by splitting the season series with Ottawa 2-2, it was an improvement over the usual series outcome with the Senators that we'd come to expect. But after last night's uneven, unemotional effort, the Islanders learned a lesson they already should have known: to beat the Sens, the Isles need to play as close to a perfect game as is possible. Ottawa simply has more talent out there than New York does. And with the playoff seeding being as it is, if the Isles are to squeeze into the eighth and final playoff spot in the east, guess who they're most likely going to play? Exactly.

Ottawa began with a confident jump and staked a 2-zip lead early in the first in a 35-second span. Goals by defensemen Andrej Meszaros and Chris Phillips came before most of the crowd had even settled in. Dean McAmmond added one on a pass from Mike Fisher at 6:38 of the second and it was 3-0, Ottawa.

The Isles did regroup to make it halfway interesting on goals by Sean Bergenheim and Bryan Berard. Shortly thereafter, another gift from Marc-Andre Bergeron--the Isles coughed it up 21 times last night--and Mike Fisher conversion and the game was all but sealed. Jason Spezza drove in the last spike with an empty-netter at the end.

If there is any good to come out of a loss--and I am of the Parcells-ian belief that there is something you can pull out of any situation--it's that we can hope that the Islanders players understand what it is going to take in this sprint to the playoffs. Effort is the key ingredient for this team that has to rely on hustle and being willing to make the sacrifices to win close games.

The Los Angeles Kings are in on Thursday night. They've got 43 points as of right now; statistically the worst team in the NHL. The Islanders need to take these two points.

Rick says a bad word on live TV; No one perishes as a result

Yes, that was Ricky dropping the F bomb on live TV during the skills competition. I'd be swearing too if I had split like that to make a sick save on Marian Gaborik.

Who amongst us didn't throw up in their mouth when Rick complained about hurting his hip to Tim Thomas? The half-empties amongst us were sure that DiPietro was hurt and was jeopardizing the rest of the season by taking part in the skills competition and the All-Star game. I tried to stay positive as well...by using an ancient mind trick I first learned about from someone much wiser than I while in college: I tried not to think about it.

So on Sunday, I did what you did: I turned on the game and man, it started out funny. DiPietro was mic'd up again for Versus (see, they didn't hold a grudge) and just as Doc and Eddie were talking to him, he gave up a goal twelve seconds into the game. Rick wasn't pissed or anything; he kind of laughed it off. Then he shut out the West for the rest of the period and Alex Ovechkin had two goals for the East. That's when I checked out of the game. Rick said he was fine when asked about the hip and he played pretty well. He was funny and engaging while being mic'd up and showed a wit as quick as his glove when he had a chance.

Thanks for all of the feedback on the new site and the 1988 Royal Rumble blog. I was going to do one for the skills competition but it seemed a little too ESPN-ish to do that so I dropped the idea. We'll also be doing another live rundown of another wrestling event in the future. I'm kicking around the idea of doing either the 1992 or 1997 Royal Rumbles (I really like the Rumble gimmick, can you tell?) or maybe the 24/7 replay of the first Clash of the Champions from 1988. We'll see.

The Isles are back at it tomorrow at the Coliseum entertaining the Ottawa Senators before the Los Angeles Kings touch down on Thursday night. Doesn't Thursday sound like a great chance to get Dubie back in the cage?

How Do You Say "Stinker" in Chinese?

I'd check Altavista, but I am much too lazy.

The Isles squandered another 2 goal lead today and lost in OT to the visiting Carolina Hurricanes with children's teams and General Colin Powell in attendance.

Andy Sutton's crosschecking penalty gave the Hurricanes a PP in OT and Cory Stillman scored at the 52 second mark to give the visitors the extra point.

Billy Jaffe said it in the second period: the dogs were out tonight. I'm not sure why it is, but it always seems like afternoon games are (shall we say) a little less spirited than the ones played at night. This one was no different--totally devoid of emotion and grit even though there were lots of kids in the rink on this Martin Luther King Day.

The Isles were paced by Andy Hilbert and Miro Satan and opened up the 2-0 lead about halfway through the second. Hilbert's goal came on one of those weird Coliseum caroms. Freddy Meyer tried to dump the puck into the zone but the biscuit hit the boards and popped right into the slot. Hilbert flipped a nifty backhander over Cam Ward and the Isles took the lead with 3:17 left to play in the first.

Scary moment as the second ended when Ricky DiPietro seemed to flop wrong on his right knee and he was slow to get up. A couple of stretches and Flexes and we all held our breath to see who would be leading the team out to the ice to start the third period.

Billy and Howie suggested that Dubie could be making the start tomorrow night in Carolina for the second part of the home-and-home. Makes perfect sense because you know that Rick is going to start the game in Boston on Thursday and then he is off for the All-Star festivities next weekend. Besides, you don't send a guy to Bridgeport for conditioning purposes and then not use him after he gets his confidence up. Expect Dubie tomorrow night.

Good news was that Radek Martinel and Brendan Witt made their returns to the lineup this afternoon. Radek had missed the last 13 games with a bum ankle and Witt missed the last four with an ankle issue as well.

All-Star Rick DiPietro

Newsday reports that Rick DiPietro will be representing the Islanders in the Eastern Conference team as a reserve for the All-Star game scheduled Jan. 27 at Philips Arena in Atlanta. This will be 26-year-old Ricky's first All-Star game..and it is gonna be so cool. Rick is just starting to get his props throughout the league. A hyper-competitive guy like Rick is going to be fired up during the skills competition.

Also, Jeff Tambellini will represent Canada in the American League All-Star Game later this month in Bighamton. Tambellini is also putting up Kyle Okposo in his home now that Okposo has made it to the Bridge. That's what I call a fun fact.

And yes, I stole that picture from our good friends at nhl.com. I have it on good authority that the NHL is not litigious in any way and understands that the internet is the freaking wild frontier!

Isles Downed by Oilers; Canucks Tonight

Anyone else notice that Rick hasn't won since he hurt his knee the other night?

This Western swing has not treated our boys kindly. OT loss in Colorado--on a shot that DiPietro should've made--and a gak 4-0 blanking last night in Edmonton. The Isles should be treating games against teams like the Oilers--teams with losing records--as important games where they should not settle for less than two points. But here we are.

DiPietro is probably fired up to play against Roberto Luongo tonight, as he should. Luongo was essentially sent to Florida just so Milbury could shock the hockey world and pick Ricky first overall back in the day. Luongo hasn't really had a ton of playoff heat but he has done one thing Rick has yet to do--get out of the first round of the playoffs.

Now, saying that, does that mean Luongo is better than Rick DiPietro? Right now, I would not make that trade. Luongo has a little more experience than Rick does and yes, he was really good in the NHL Rock the Rink game for the PS1, but then again, so was Taylor Pyatt. To me, Luongo does not have the intangibles of a player like Rick DiPietro and he does not bring what Ricky can when he is in good form.

Was Milbury fleeced by the Panthers? Well, yeah. Kinda. But you have to recall that at the time, the Islander organization is not what it is now. Guys with talent and huge upsides had to take on bigger, more substantive roles than they were ready for. That's why players like Todd Bertuzzi and Eric Brewer blossomed when they left the Island. The teams that traded for them had time to let them grow and had infrastructure in place within the organization that allowed for the guys to mature at a reasonable pace. The Isles needed them to wake up, jump out of bed, and start vacuuming the house. Vancouver and Edmonton were able to allow for Bertuzzi and Brewer to have some coffee first and ease into it. Of course, both have regressed professionally but that's a column for a different day.

Let me ask a different question: what the heck happened to Ruslan Fedotenko? He and Josef Vasicek have been in-freaking-visible of late. These guys are counted on to chip in with the Scoring by Committee Plan as devised by Ted Nolan and Garth Snow. Instead, both guys are getting about the same ice time as I would if I were on the team.

Miro Satan is missing in action as well. This leaves the bulk of the scoring square on the shoulders of Bill Guerin and Mike Comrie. Both of them, by the way, have been known as streaky players. I guess Ted Nolan is really happy they're both on a bit of a hot streak...last night notwithstanding.

What does this mean going forward? Well, obviously, it means that the Islanders as constituted need to pick up the scoring. This is not new to any of us who follow the team, is it? in fact, if the first half of the season had a theme to it, that's what it would be: we need to score more.

And I'm not sure how the heck they are going to do it.

Game night: Avalanche; WJC Update

The NHL checked DiPietro's pads and it looks like he is not going to be suspended, according to many reports.

Tonight the boys are in Colorado to take on the Avalanche. As previously posted, the 'lanche will be without Joe Sakic and Ryan Smyth.

Interesting bit on Chris Botta's blog regarding Smyth and the way he left the Islanders this past summer. You really should check it out and you can find it here: http://nyipointblank.blogspot.com/

Team Canada will be the four-time defending world junior champions next year when the WJC is held in in Ottawa. Forward Brad Marchand led the way with a goal and an assist and Matt Halischuk scored at 3:36 in overtime as Canada beat Sweden 3-2 in the gold medal game of the world junior hockey championship today in the Czech Republic.

Live Blog Update on the WJC...and more!

Robin Figren has just scored for Sweden to tie up the game between the Tre Kronor and Russia. Figren has 5 goals in the tournament and has been getting talked up big by the TSN crew of Pierre Maguire and Gord Miller. Pierre even called him a steal for the Islanders in the third round. Seriously, he is one of those players who literally pop when you're watching them play. I like his hockey sense and wow id he good with the puck on his stick. The goal he just scored showed that he has excellent patience as he waited for the Russian goalie to go down before calmly taking a few extra strides before roofing it to tie the game.

Isles got out of the game last night with a point against the Panthers even though they lost in OT. Gotta admit that I missed the game. Demon flu still has got me by the shorties. Thank goodness for paid time-off and teenagers playing hockey in the middle of the day!

Bad news coming out of the game is that Ricky is facing a possible two-game suspension for using new goalie pads that had not been poked and prodded by the NHL suits. Sounds like a legit mistake as Rick figured the league had checked them before he even got them but of course, NHL Dean of Boys Colin Campbell will have to rule on it...but c'mon, we know it is gonna be two games. That's the rule.

Noon WJC update: The game is going to OT. Ten minutes of OT and then a shootout if necessary.

Mike Sillinger scored 3 points in his return from a bit of a lay-off. Silly got 5 full days off and that is a good move by Teddy to give some of the older dudes a rest when they can. Plus, you know, the hip flexor injury is kind of painful.

Speaking of injuries, former Islander Ryan Smyth has a broken ankle so he'll be missing the game tomorrow night when the Isles invade Colorado.

12:16: Pierre is in love with Figren's game. It's a full-on man crush.

12:19: Mikael Backlund scores in OT for Sweden. The Swedes are guaranteed their first WJC medal since 1996. Thanks Gord. Darryl Sutter has invented a new face for being excited. Picture the regular face any of the Sutters would make if you stole food off their dinner plate. Yep, that's the one. Backlund is Calgary property, by the way.

Darren Dreger of TSN is reporting that the NHL asked Rick DiPietro to change his pads during the first intermission of last night's 4-3 overtime loss to the Panthers at the Coliseum. DiPietro, as we know, played the first period in new white leg pads, then returned for the second period wearing his old orange and blue pads.

More to come if I feel like it!!

DiPietro & Martinek Updates; Okposo signed!

Greg Logan is reporting that the results of Rick's MRI showed that there was "no significant structural damage" to his left knee. We'll see if he plays tomorrow night vs. the Devils.

Also, Shawn Bates' season is over after two games. Bates had hip surgery before Christmas and is out for the year. First I had heard of the surgery, too. The Isles take the line Bill Belichick does with the Pats and don't offer much regarding injuries.

Radek Martinek is also listed as day-to-day (but aren't we all) and is rocking a walking cast on his right leg. I guess this means more lessons from Professor Witt for young master Bruno Gervais.

The big news today is that Kyle Okposo signed his entry-level contract and will be with the Isles at the end of the World Junior Championships. Okposo has, from all accounts, been playing well for the US team, with a goal and two assists. American teammate (and Islander prospect) Rhett Rakshani scored in the US opener and is playing on a line with Okposo.

Robin Figren of Sweden has 3 goals and an assist for four points. Sweden faces tournament overlord Canada tomorrow at 1:30 eastern time. Check out his freakish goal below.

Ricky injured; Isles win in OT; Blake gets booed

One thing we all could have warned any of our Maple Leaf-loving friends (If we were to have any) about Jason Blake was his propensity to try and do too much by himself at times. It could be maddening for me watching him dipsy-doodle through the neutral zone, only to get the puck separated from him and for the opposition to go the other way on a scoring chance.

So, you know, in overtime, we'd sort of seen that thing before.

Blake must've been over-excited to make his return to the old barn, even though he was hearing some boos last night. (Memo to Toronto sports writers: we pay for the tickets and we can boo who we want.) Truth is that Blake has been squeezing the stick a little too tight all season. He's only scored a handful of goals and has failed to click with Mats Sundin. The guy also has become really, really good at hitting the post if last night was any indication. (Jason, I've been there in my meager playing days and it sucks.)

In a lot of ways, it was a fitting end worthy of being written by Vince McMahon back in the day when storylines made sense: guys bolts town for big bucks, comes back, causes new team to lose to the old team. Sounds almost NWO-ish, doesn't it?

In overtime, after the boys killed a Richard Park penalty, Park redeemed himself by pick pocketing Blake as he fiddled and diddled and tossed a shot at Toronto goaltender of the moment Andrew Raycroft. Raycroft dished up a nice, fat rebound and Mike Comrie put it in the back of the net with 9.6 seconds to play in the extra frame. It was Comrie's second of the game and his team-leading eleventh goal of the season.

The real news came in warm-ups, however. Ricky tweaked his left knee and tried to gut it out but after giving up two in the first, he pulled himself from the game and Wade Dubielewicz started the second. Dubie must have found some of that old Spring of '07 magic in Frosty's hat because he played solidly in his first action in almost a month. (Remember December 1 vs. Atlanta? Yeesh.)

DiPietro will be evaluated today but did not make the trip to Ottawa for tonight's game against the Senators. Soundtigers goalie Joey McDonald has been summoned from Bridgeport (where he won 5-4 last night over Hershey and that is his picture with this post) to back up Dubie tonight.

The Islanders also played last night without Radek Martinek, who was nursing a sore leg. Funny, but I wasn't able to find word anywhere online if would be playing tonight against the Senators. In Martinek's absence, Bruno Gervais was elevated to the top defensive pair and played over 27 minutes.

Rick DiPietro Goalie Mask

Click on any image to see it full-size.


(Above: Right Side)



(Above: Top)

Bad News Friday

Look at Eli over there. The man is truly confused. Is he worried about the Islanders' scoring woes? His own play and the way the guy gets ripped for every little thing? Or is he taking the news about Evel Knievel's passing particularly hard?

Nope, I bet it is none of those reasons. I think Eli is as perplexed as we all were to read that Ryan Hollweg allegedly threatened to rip the stitches out of Radek Martinek's face during the game on Thursday against the Rangers.

What? Ryan Hollweg? White Hat to Chris Simon's Black Hat? Yep, he apparently said that to Martinek the first period scrum after Colton Orr tried to mug Mike Comrie and Radek came to his aid. Classy organization Dolan has going on over there, eh?

And since we are all friends, you can admit it. You didn't think Evel would ever die either. The guy had more replacement parts that a second-hand Terminator and used to drink like he was gonna win something for it, but we all kinda thought the guy was indestructible.

The TV peeps seemed to enjoy playing that slo-mo tape of Evel's crash in Vegas at Caesar's Palace in '68 at well. Fairly gratuitous stuff at this point. Still, it is some shocking footage.

Evel had apparently made nice with Kanye West for some reason just a few days ago. Hopefully the ego allowed him to make nice with Robbie, his son and heir to the throne for best drinker and daredevil.

So, that being said, Eli needs the Islanders' scoring to pick it up so he can get that look off his face there that we all have. Andy Hilbert has missed more open nets this year than you can shake a stick at (literally) and while you have to admire the fact that Nolan rolls him out there because the guy is making a great effort, something has to change. You can't blame Hilbert for the whole team shutting it off because he isn't playing with Bill Guerin or Mike Comrie or any of the other guys who aren't putting the puck in the net. DiPietro is going to keep our boys in most of the games anyway as he continues to ascend in the league, but goals are goals. We need them.

It's easy to also look at the guys who left the team in the off-season but if you check the stats, they aren't lighting up their new teams either. Kozlov has found his level back in DC and the Caps, by the way, are the worst team in the league. Jason Blake zoo pass to TO is not working out the way he'd like. Blakie only has 2 goals this season and the Leafs organization is under seige for poor play, poor management, weird guaranteed contracts, and disturbing pictures of a certain Leafs rookie.

The salary cap has made the NHL a no-trade league for now so the Islanders are going to have to look within for the goals and PP help. According to Newsday, Nolan is considering using Miro on the half-wall a little more on the top PP unit with Mike Comrie and The Tank--who always busts a good effort for his team. The Captain is going to slide down to the second unit with Mike Sillinger and Dancin' Stan's little boy Trent.

Tonight against the Thrashers may be a place to sit DiPietro as well. The guy has played 18 games in a row. Dubie started that debacle in TO that ended badly (we shan't rehash here) but also looked way solid in relief of Super Rick in the Al Arbour game in early November.

The Thrash have improved quite a bit since GM Don Waddell took over the bench after firing noted hard-ass Bob Hartley. Should be a good one tonight on the Isle.

All Over The Place

First, a Quick Giants Rant--It just dawned on me that the Giants are
playing the Bears this week. If Tom Coughlin kicks it to Devin Hester
even once he should be fired on the spot. I think I am close to
advocating blowing up the Giants Miami-style and starting over from
scratch. Just get a do-over. If there's one anything worse than being
a fan of a consistently-average team, I don't know what it is. I
suffered (and so did my friends, who showed patience listening to me,
sorry 'bout that) with some truly heinous Islanders team that were an
affront to professional sports but at the very least I could blame inept
management and coaching for the crappy teams. With the Giants, they are
always middle ground. They aren't exciting when they win and they
aren't exciting losing either. Since that Niners playoff debacle, the
Giants are a hard team to summon any emotion for. I never get too
excited or too bummed out watching them. The organization has to do
something to change the collective feeling of antipathy coming from the
fanbase.

Giants Rant, the Second--How ugly are those freaking sideline caps the
Giants wear? With that round white stripe in the middle, it looks like
a Kleenex dispenser.

WWE 24/7 Review--November was a good month. We all know I am not a huge
huge fan of the Monday Night Wars-era but the channel did give us one of
the best shows from the past, the April 21, 1997 edition of RAW. You
may know it as the one where Stone Cold went Stone Mental and attacked
Bret Hart in the ambulance after he had injured him earlier that night.
The show ended with Brian Pillman attacking his former WCW partner and
trying to break his ankle until HBK made the save.

Overall, a great show with the Bill Watts-esque storytelling playing out
through the whole show. WWE did something similar with Ric Flair's
retirement angle this past week on RAW and when they decide to get
behind something, they can really deliver. Let's see if they keep it up
until Wrestlemania, where it is speculated that the Nature Boy will
retire.

December's Hall of Famer is Jesse Ventura. Yawn.

Now, to the Islanders--Can I say it again? We need to get some goals.
Shawn Bates is expected to get some spot minutes tonight against the
Senators, but does that mean more goals? I am thinking that Bates will
instill a bit of life into the team because he is a popular player with
his teammates and with the fans who really busts his backside. Whether
this translates to the score sheet, we will have to see.

I know that the Islanders have DiPietro and Guerin on the All-Star
ballot, but don't we all have to make the case for Brendan Witt to be in
the game? Witt has been just great all season long blocking shots,
marking every team's top players, and playing big minutes. The entire
Islander defense corps has been off-the-charts so far. Radek Martinek
is playing some outstanding hockey with Witt as his partner. Andy
Sutton has found his niche on the team and knows his role well. He's
been blocking shots and clearing the crease all season long. Mad props
to the Islanders pro scouts who again came up with the right men for the
jobs this summer.

Saying that, Ricky absolutely has to make it to the All-Star game this
year. Witt deserves to go as well. And if Mike Comrie can rediscover
the game he had at the beginning of the season, he could be a candidate
too. My guess is that once he picks it back up, guys like Tank and The
Captain will be scoring more as well.

How come it is so hard to beat Ottawa? I could see the pressure for a
guy like Alexei Yashin playing against his old team with the vitriol
between player and fans and all but that should not affect the rest of
the team. Besides, Yashin is gone counting his rubles.

Hopefully tonight is the night that the PP gets fixed because we all
know what is happening tomorrow night: more Rangers.

Mr. 100

Well, Ricky has about 400 to go to catch Brodeur, but anything the guy does now should not surprise us. Honestly, there's a comfort level in net that fans of the team have not enjoyed in a very, very long time.

Think about the maturation of his game over the past few seasons. When he came up, DiPietro tried to do too much. He tried to make saves that were too dramatic. He tried to make big up-ice passes before the red line was taken out of the game. Rick relied more on athletic instinct to make saves and play his position than he did by playing sound angles. It was an exciting style, but not good exciting. DiPietro was all too often flopping around on his stomach like a fish gasping for air. It was desperate. Maybe he didn't have much trust in the skaters in front of him at the time and maybe he felt a measure of athletic arrogance back in the day. But now, seriously, no one can touch him. It's correct to say that Rick DiPietro is one of the top goaltenders in the National Hockey League. It's no longer a stretch for a fan of the Islanders to talk him up and try and give DiPietro guy a little rub. It's now a fact.

Last night's game against the Rangers was almost perfect. We also got to see a little of the fire Rick has in his belly when he dropped a glove on Sean Avery after Avery has whacked him in the crease. We also got to see the man play some positionally-sound goaltending and in a matchup with the alleged best goalie in the game (Engblom said it on Versus and Stan said it on MSG), DiPietro continued his mastery of the Rangers. Rick gets up to play these big games and man, when the guy gets to the playoffs with a solid team ahead of him, you have to believe that he is going to take the Islanders as far as he can.

With another one goal victory, the Islanders have moved to 11-6. Winning all of these close games is fine and certainly builds character (as they say) but the offense is going to have to kick it in gear in one of these upcoming games. Montreal had a hot start but the Habs have cooled down in their last ten games. The Bruins are in the same situation. Away from home the Bruins can be beat and they're relying on G Tim Thomas to save their bacon. Right there tells you what you need to know about the Bruins. They've recently called up top prospect Tuukka Rask to play within the pipes so Claude Julien recognizes that the up-and-down performance they get from Thomas needs to be improved upon.

But let's get back to the Rangers. Has anyone seen Jaromir Jagr? Are their search parties out there looking for him? I don't know that I saw him last night. Another big game and another MIA Jagr.

What about Scott Gomez? We can hear all about his great point streak and yet, last night, in another big game, Gomez is missing. If I am a Ranger fan--and believe me, I thank Sweet Jesus every morning that I am not--I'm wondering why the defensemen are all scoring goals and the forwards with the huge paychecks aren't doing jack.

Another big game last night for Big Joe. It was a little scary in the second when he got beaned with the puck after scoring his team-leading 8th goal but Vasicek is a hockey player so he was back out there in the third to help the Isles clamp down and run out the clock.

Andy Hilbert and Richard Park were singled out by the Ranger announcers as having good games as pests last night. See, Sean Avery, you can be a bit of a disturber without jeopardizing your team with needless penalties and without inducing eye rolling amongst your teammates.

Wednesday night, the Islanders host Montreal before heading to Boston for a nooner on Friday.

Stuck on 499

Big comeback win against the Devils last night after dropping a 3-2 game to the Penguins as the Islanders beat the Devils 1-0. Martin Brodeur is still looking for career win #500.

How big has Josef Vasicek been so far for the Islanders. Big Joe got his seventh of the season, one more goal than he had all last season. Devils defenseman Mike Mottau fell while skating backward about 10-15 feet in front of Brodeur. He grabbed the puck, flashed a few moves on Brodeur, and bounced a shot in off the goalie's blocker that landed in the net just over his right shoulder--all while the Isles were killing a penalty.

Rick DiPietro turned back 26 New Jersey shots to earn his second shutout and his third win over the Devils this season. The Devils best chance came late in the third when when Patrik Elias split two Islanders but missed the net wide to DiPietro's left from just above the crease.

As expected, Marc Andre Bergeron was a healthy scratch now that Bryan Berard has returned for our boys. Freddy Meyer was also scratched.

What a night!

First off, we need to say that the Islanders know how to throw a party. Second, we need to say that all Islander fans had to be super-happy to see Miro knock home the game winner for Al Arbour's 1500th game as coach of the Islanders.

It seemed a little dusty at times in the old barn for Radar, and who could blame him. The event was classy and reverential right from the beginning. The fans were outstanding and I was very pleased to see many younger people in the stands who had a great grasp of what kind of coach Al Arbour had been for the organization even though many of these fans may not have even been born the last time the Isles won the Stanley Cup.

I don't know about the pre-game stuff on TV for FSNY because it's all blacked out for those with the Center Ice package, but I can tell you that on Hockey Night in Canada they aired an excellent feature with Coach Arbour and his wife, Claire. For those who don't know, Elliotte Friedman is a very good reporter who has a feature or interview before the HNIC broadcast and his interview with Arbour was just outstanding. "Radar" even got a bit choked up when Friedman told him that fellow HNIC staffer Kelly Hrudey told him that Al had been like a second father to him.
You no doubt have read the Newsday accounts of the game or watched it for yourselves. It was a super game. Anthony Reiber in Newsday is reporting that Rick DiPietro was examined after getting clipped in the eye (through his mask) by Sidney Crosby and that he has not suffered any major eye damage. It isn't know, however, whether he'll make the start Tuesday when the Isles host the Rangers. Dubie played well and made more than a handful of key stops after relieving Ricky in the second period.

Ben Walter made his Islanders debut wearing #29 and playing on the fourth line with Chris Simon and Aaron Johnson.

Bryan Berard is Back

Anyone who loves the Islanders who wasn't excited when Bryan Berard scored that goal last night needs to either admit that they are a robot or they simply need to seek counseling. There, I said it.

The media likes to talk about second chances and redemption but Berard has probably had his fill of those kind of stories. He's probably tired of people bringing up his eye injury and probably sick of people saying that they feel sorry for him. What he does like, above all else, is being known as a hockey player--and one who can contribute in a valuable way.

Last night, we saw just how valuable Bryan Berard can be to the New York Islanders.

To me, he always looked like he ran the power plays more like a point guard than a quarterback. And it is true that playing he and Marc Andre Bergeron together is a scary proposition--even when the Islanders are up a man--the fact that each player compliments the other so well forces the coaches to overlook the defensive deficiencies. It also has to scare the hell out of the opposing goaltender because he has no idea which laser is going to hit him next.

The Islanders are building a good feeling in Uniondale amongst the team and the fans in a season where not much was expected by the hockey media. That's perfect. Make us the underdogs, but let's admire a guy like Bryan Berard who shows up without a contract and everything to prove. The guy then scores a five-on-three goal in his return to the team and the Islanders are now 3-1 to start this season.

We also need to make mention of the game Rick DiPietro played last night. The Rangers buzzed his crease in the third period as the Isles were making Berard's go-ahead goal stand up. Rick was spectacular at times; especially in the third period on a 5-on-3 penalty kill highlighted by a pad save on Scott Gomez. DiPietro finished with 36 saves.

Thursday the Islanders are in Toronto to face Jason Blake and the Leafs. Blake will be pumped up to face his old mates. Then, on Saturday, Chris Simon returns to the lineup in Philadelphia.

Isles win; Sim Injured; Meyer on Waivers

How is that online petition coming?

After watching the Islanders' victory over the Sabres last night, one thing becomes very, very clear: this is going to be a team that no one wants to play. Up and down the bench, Ted Nolan's boys have what Peter Laviolette calls "jam". They're as aggressive without the puck as they seem to be with the puck. The up-tempo style is fun as heck to watch.

Mike Comrie potted another two goals and Chris Campoli added another with a laser knuckleball (I know, that doesn't sound right but if you saw it you know what I mean) in the first. DiPietro was solid in the cage and made a couple of his patented long passes out of the zone--one of which was tapped by The Tank to the captain who made another pass to Comrie to set up a tasty backhander past Ryan Miller that broke a 1-1 tie early in the third.

Not all the news last night was great. Jon Sim left the game with a knee injury. Sim, an impressively relentless forechecker, bounced around like a pinball out there last night but ended up missing a check and crashing into the boards. He's to be evaluated today but the FSN crew speculated that Nolan may have to dip into the Soundtigers roster for a replacement player to suit up on Monday afternoon due to the expected swelling around Sim's knee. Jeff Tambellini sort of springs to mind, doesn't he?

Also--and we noticed that he was not announced to the crowd before the game so something had to be up, Freddy Meyer was placed on waivers by GM Garth Snow on waivers for the purpose of assigning him to Bridgeport. According to the FSN crew, Meyer has until noon today (Sunday) to clear waivers and report to The Bridge if he's not claimed by another NHL team looking for defensive depth.

Meyer's assignment/departure will put the Islander roster to one below the 23-man maximum, opening the way for Snow to finally sign free-agent defenseman Bryan Berard, who has actually had to pay his own expenses to practice with the Islanders since training camp ended. It's been a poorly kept secret that Ted Nolan has planned to have Berard QB the power play for the Isles.

Training Camp is open in Moncton!

Were you like me, scouring the stores to see if Hallmark makes a "Training Camp is Open!" card for your friends and family?

Some great news: Eric Cairns has returned to the Islanders. From Chris Botta's Point Blank blog, it seems that Cairns called Garth Snow, said he was retired, and wanted to get involved in the alumni-side of things. In fact, he is in Moncton with the team, ready to do what is needed. Great to have the big guy back. It's great to see how much Mr. Wang and the management team have embraced the alumni. Without them, the fans and the team have no history. Remember how the Gang of Four and Don Maloney wanted the Cup years buried? Embarrassing.

The Islanders also acquired center Ben Walter (the son of Canadiens and Capitals captain Ryan Walter) and a conditional second-round pick in the 2009 draft from the Boston Bruins on Sept. 11 for former first-round selection Petteri Nokelainen.

At first glance, this looks like a steal for the Isles, doesn't it? We're getting a guy with classic NHL pedigree and an ability to put up fine numbers in the AHL (24 goals and 43 points in 73 games for Providence last year) for a guy who has been injured and inactive a lot for the Sound Tigers since he has been drafted in 2004.

This move doesn't mean that the Isles felt "safe" giving up on Nokelainen...it just seems to be part of an overall move league-wide to get the team a little more North American. With Walter, the team knows what they're getting. He's proven himself to be a quality AHL player and now you know he will be given every chance to skate a regular shift for the big club. Getting the chance is all a player can ask for and Ted Nolan proved one thing in his first season with the team: everyone gets an opportunity if they earn it. Look at guys like Richard Park and Mike Dunham last year. They went from attending camp on tryouts to playing key roles for the Islanders' drive to the playoffs.

Speaking of Mike Dunham, Dunnie ended his 10-year playing career this past Monday to become the goaltending coach for the team.

Another solid move for the team. Dunham played well in stretches when the team needed him (at the beginning of the year) and then had difficulty shaking out the rust toward the end after playing caddy for Ricky for so long. Dunham has been around the guys and must have an excellent rapport with DiPietro and Dubie--he was one of the big cheerleaders on the bench for Dubielewicz as he played Cinderella in the last few games to get the Isles to the dance.

Last but not least, be sure to check out Botta's blog for the story on new Islander captain Bill Guerin's visit to the Islanders offices and introduced himself to all of the worker bees in the office. He also ended up arranging lunch for everyone working hard for the team. I've been in office jobs all my life and that little effort means so much when building on a positive foundation. We're not going to miss Ryan Smyth in the least. We've got a solid new captain who wants to lead and wants to be a part f what is happening on Long Island.

Here's the link.

http://nyipointblank.blogspot.com/2007/09/bill-guerin-buys-lunch.html


Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the Isles official site is using the picture of Bryan Berard that was posted and edited here on this blog by my wife. Good job, Honey!

Overmatched?

The Islanders came out obviously flat last night. Maybe they were gassed after playing four "game sevens" in a row to make it to the dance. Once they got their legs under themselves, the Isles found the center of the ice jammed with Sabres. That just makes it difficult to score. And wow, what a thing of beauty that Buffalo transition game can be once it gets going. The Sabres get the puck out of their own end so quickly. The defenseman seem to all be comfortable skating out of their own end with the puck and that, my friends, really pushes the play on their opponents.

There was some good to come out of the game. Dubie played well, I thought, for a guy making his first career playoff start. He didn't get a ton of help once the team started taking penalties in front of him. The first Buffalo goal was simply a thing of beauty that was started by Adam Mair and finished by Brian Campbell. (Oh, yeah. Some guy named Tim Connolly had something to do with it as well.) The Isles were playing catch-up for the entire first period and were lucky to get out of the first twenty minutes only down 1-0.

The second saw an increased offensive push by our boys--and it would have to be increased since the Isles only had one shot on net in the first--which brought about a tie on a great shot from Arron Asham; set up by Jason Blake. Of course, Chris "Did you know I played in the Little League World Series" Drury replied in quick fashion to put the home team ahead. It was a lead that was never surrendered.

Last night was not the bright, shining moment that the Islander Faithful were hoping for. And let's just stop it with the whole "Ricky riding into town with the white hat" talk. Does he make the Islanders a better team? You bet he does. Is there a risk in playing him in game 2 tomorrow night? We'll never know.

As someone who has been lucky (?) enough to be concussed more than once in his life, let me tell you, one good rap on the head makes it that much easier to get another concussion. Mark my words, in ten years there's going to be an epidemic of 1990's wrestlers who are drooling all over themselves and eating their mush from all those chair shots they took during the Monday Night Wars between the WWF and WCW. How do I know this? Because I can be knocked loopy by hitting my head on a hanging light in our apartment or by a quick bump while getting into the car. It happens and trust me, the consequences of even one concussion are very real.

I don't want any of this to happen to Rick DiPietro the way it has happened to Troy Aikman or Al Toon or Steve Young or even Eric Lindros. How come no one is mentioning that the Islanders' team doctor is a man named Elliot Pellman and that Dr. Pellman is alleged to not be quite the doctor or expect he is purported to be. Don't believe me? Check this link.

Now before Dr. Pellman's attorneys get all up in my area, I am just reporting what I read. Back off with the hounds.

We all know from reading Newsday and the other less-cool New York papers that Rick has been subjected to more tests to check his brain activity and wellness. I am not in any way stating that I believe that the team or even Rick himself is rushing back too soon in an effort to try and save the day. Believe me, no one is going to be happier to see a healthy Rick DiPietro back between the pipes for my beloved Islanders. All I am saying is that there is more hockey left in this kid and that there is more life left in him too. Don't risk permanent injury to replace a guy who has done pretty darn well getting the team to the playoffs.

That begs the question: with Dubie playing so well, is it a risk to replace him with DiPietro? Chemistry wise, I say that it isn't. The guys in the room know Rick and play hard for Rick. They know that he is the straw that stirs the drink, as Reggie Jackson used to say. Ted Nolan pretty much said that when Rick is cleared and ready to go that the decision is an easy one.

Whatever happens, Saturday is going to be interesting.

He's the Keeper, Part 2

Night and Day. That's how the Islanders perform with Rick DiPietro in net versus (sorry for the pun) those games when Mike Dunham is between the pipes.

In what can only be called one of the biggest wins of the season, DiPietro kicked out 35 of 36 shots as the Islanders snapped a dreadfully painful four-game losing streak by beating the Penguins 3-1 last night. Not only are the Islanders back on track for the playoff push, but the win gave Ricky a career-high 31 wins on the season. He also stopped Evgeni Malkin on a penalty shot in the second period after Malkin was tripped by Tom Poti.

Trent Hunter (on the power play), Jason Blake, and Viktor Kozlov scored, while Miroslav Satan added a couple of assists.

Islanders fans can breath a collective sigh of relief today. The win gives the Islanders 81 points in 73 games this season; good for tenth place in the eight team playoff chase. The Isles have played two less games than #9 Montreal (82 points) and #6 Tampa (86 points) and have one game in hand on the teams in eighth and seventh, the Hurricanes (82) and Rangers (83).

No good Islander fan needs to be reminded that the Rangers will be in Nassau County on Sunday for an early afternoon rematch with our boys. After playing Philadelphia tomorrow afternoon, the Ranger game is looming as quite the showdown as the NHL regular season winds down.

Panthers 8 Islanders 5

Ugly-ass game tonight in South Florida.

Mike Sillinger had two goals and two assists. Ryan Smyth had his best game as an Islander with two goals and a helper. And miraculously, both players were minus-2! But check this out:

Sean Hill: -4
Miro Satan: -5 and benched for most of the second period. Minus five!
Brendan Witt: -3
Viktor Kozlov: -2 and he only played just over 5 minutes!

You know the feeling you get when you have the flu and you don't know whether you're going to shit yourself or throw up? Well, I have that feeling right now. And I bet Mike Dunham does too. Dunham--who I don't think you can say is still rusty after Ricky played all those games in a row--played a game that he'd like to forget real, real soon. He was so bad that you have to wonder whether or not Teddy Nolan calls the bullpen and starts Wade Dubielewicz on Tuesday in Tampa. Panic move? Maybe it is. But maybe we need to panic right now.

Every time the Islanders scored, the Panthers came right back to answer. It was just a terrible display out there tonight in a game the team really needed. And to see Olli Jokinen go 2 and 3 for an amazing plus-6 is sickening. I wonder what Oleg Kvasha was doing tonight? Mark Parrish?

The Rangers put up a touchdown on the Bruins and their constipated-looking coach, Dave Lewis. Lewis is probably out of answers right now. So the Bruins seem to be falling off.

Montreal picked up two points tonight by taking the shootout from the Leafs and Darcy Tucker; who choked on it when he could have given the Leafs the shootout win. Still, as nice as it is to see failure on Tucker's part, it is as sad to see the Islanders failing to rally behind Dunham. We need Ricky back as soon as is possible--general body soreness or not.

Scott Morrison on the CBC Satellite Hotstove said that the rumor is that Ricky's is pretty concussed and had a nasty gash on his neck from the collision with Steve Begin. Let's hope we see a healed DiPietro on Thursday night.

Black and Blue

Saw Rick go down in a heap last night after getting what looked like a knee in the head. You'll forgive this long-time Islanders fan if the fear went through me as I saw the highlights. We've been sort of conditioned to wait for the other shoe to drop whenever something goes well for our boys.

The great thrill of Garth Snow swinging the deal for Ryan Smyth was tempered by The Incident For Which We Cannot Speak. Now this. Of course, DiPietro could just have been a little woozy and this could all be an over-reaction but...

Second on the agenda is the inclusion of the mighty Van Halen into the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame. And yes, this will sort of tie together with my first point, I swear.

Talk about dysfunction! If VH1 was to resurrect the Behind the Music shows, the Van Halen episode would have to be produced as an epic miniseries over three or four nights.

We all know the stories and we won't rehash them here other than to say that one of my closest friends in the world is a HUGE VH fan and after knowing him for fifteen years, I can tell you that being a VH supporter is a lot like being an Islanders fan during The Fish Stick Regime. He spends his day wanting to hold onto any morsel of positivity that there may be surrounding the band but when the particulars are so messed up and beyond any help, the fans are the ones who get most abused in the situation. And yet, they have an undying devotion that never quits even though the band (or the team) seems not to give two shits about how the fanbase reacts. It's just an unending train or questions without answers and payoffs that are not desirable.

When the band (sort of) announced that they were going to tour this summer, my buddy was cautiously optimistic. He didn't want to get his hopes up because Van Halen had been rumored to be getting back together with David Lee Roth before; only to have his hopes dashed. Of course, more drama continued as Michael Anthony was not brought back to play bass and Eddie's son Wolfgang replaced him with the band. Now, Eddie is off to rehab and only Sammy Hagar and Mike were on hand for the Hall of Fame ceremony.

Yeah, it was apparently pretty bad. Velvet Revolver apparently gave a horrible performance and their induction speech was reportedly bad as well. Chris is pretty bummed about the whole thing. Ed is in rehab and Dave didn't go because he said that they wouldn't let him perform; which has to be crap because why would the HOF NOT want him to perform? Makes no sense. Someone is full of it here.

That begs an even bigger question as to why is there even a Rock-n-Roll HOF in the first place. And who picks the people who get in there? If it is all critics then they are going to want to induct bands and performers that "you should have liked" versus bands that the general populace actually plunked down money for and enjoyed. I mean, how is Kiss not in something called The Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame? I'm not a big fan of the band and Gene's excessive marketing techniques, but a jillion Kiss fans can't be wrong. So what if the Kiss Army is a little weird. Can anyone tell me that they are any worse than the dirty hippies who followed the Grateful Dead around? If push came to shove, who would you rather deliver a punking to? I don't know what you're gonna say, but I am giving the hippie five across the eyes more often than not.

And we will end this today with a quote from that gold-digging one-hopper, Heather Mills McCartney, who is about to appear on ABC's "Dancing With The Stars":

Mills says her participation on the show is "going to help a lot of kids with disabilities and adults that want to get up and learn to dance, and know that with an artificial leg, you can dance."

Sure, that may be true...but if she can dance competitively on the one good leg and the falsie then she should be more than willing to give up her cripple parking pass. I am just saying.

Get well quickly, Rick. And we'll be eyeing the Islanders' website for updates throughout the afternoon. No slight on rusty Mike Dunham, but the playoff push without Ricky is going to lose stream very, very quickly.

He's the keeper!

First off, I want to thank my buddy Bob for giving me the Hockey News with Ryan Smyth on the cover. I let my subscription lapse in December and in the words of the immortal hair metal band Cinderella, you don't what you got 'til it's gone. I always think I am being smart by saving some cash because you get so much news on the net all the time for free but that decision always ends up biting me on the backside. So, thanks Bob!

If you don't have a friend like Bob and are also wondering where Our Man Garth falls in the First Annual THN GM Ranking, let me spill the beans: they have him 16th. Wonder who is ahead of him? Wonder no more:

#1 Ken Holland, Detroit. Hard to argue.

#2 Lou Lamoriello, Devils. Probably was a coin flip between he and Holland.

#11 Kevin Lowe, Oilers. My guess is that lots of people are doing spit-takes at Albertan Tim Hortons seeing him ranked just outside the top ten.

#12 Paul Holmgren, Flyers. Yep, the guy Garth stole Randy Robitaille and Freddy Meyer from is ranked ahead of him. A head scratcher, for sure. The guy took on dead weight contracts for Mike York and Alex Zhitnik too. Wow. Whose drinking buddy is Holmgren, eh?

#14 Johnny Mucks, Ottawa. Funny, they brag about deals he made in Buffalo to justify his brilliance. Of course, this is the guy who poisoned the rep of Ted Nolan and tried to float the rumor that Miro Satan was a Nolan hater earlier this year on the Island--as pointed out by Greg Logan of Newsday. The Old Boy Network is apparently alive and well at the Hockey News too. Grrrr.


Today I feel like making a bit of a plea on the behalf of Rick DiPietro.

Look--we all know that Ricky is a hyper-competitive guy and he's proven himself to be one of the best goalies in the league but we really need to get the guy a night off. I know points are precious right now but can we take a look at the schedule and pick out a game or two for the guy to sit out? Saturday vs. Washington screams "Dunham" to me. Mike Dunham is a good goalie and has had some serious-ass flashes this year in Rick's stead. I know that the Islanders can't take any team lightly but with big showdowns with Ottawa and Montreal coming up next week (both on the road), a night off night be in order for The Franchise. DiPietro won't want the night off because he is a player and a gamer, but it may be in his best interests. He's the keeper, after all.

In other news, Alexei Yashin will be back tonight for round two against the Rangers. It's been five weeks and the team has played exceptionally well while the captain was sidelined with the knee issues. Chemistry is a delicate thing so it will be very interesting to see how Coach Nolan fits Alexei back into the team structure. Sure, we all heard that Ryan Smyth would be playing with Jason Blake and Yash when Yash was ready but the way those wingers have been playing with Robitaille, I don't know that they need to be split away from him. Best guess is that Yash will get some minutes with his old buddy Viktor Kozlov and Miro tonight. I don't think Yashin will be playing too too much because, again, you really need to ease him back into shape.

The Isles are still in seventh place in the east. They are only four points away from the Lightning and the sixth spot. Our boys are in Tampa on the 20th for what should be an important game--they are all important right now--as far as seeding goes. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Tonight the Islanders host the Rangers in another four-pointer. Beating the Rangers is always as sweet as finding money in the street. Let's hope our boys can add to the Misery in Manhattan with a strong effort and solid win.

The Rick DiPietro Show

Look, if Ricky wanted a case to sue his defense for non-support, last night's 56 save effort in the shootout loss to the Rangers would be Exhibit A.

Rick was not just outstanding. He was Otherworldly. Sure, lots of the shots were great positional saves that hit him because he was in the right spot, but he also had some great stops mixed in there. And nobody needs to be facing 56 shots a night.

Was I the only one who thought that the game was a lot like the old Oilers games were back in the glory days? You'd see Grant Fuhr in net getting peppered over and over and over and the Oilers would win the game. Only difference was last night, the Isles didn't score 6 goals.

The Rangers-to their credit-played like a desperate team last night and more than deserved to win the game.

Here's an interesting quote in a game report from the NY Times' Lynn Zinzer. This is Jagr:

...Then Jagr joked that he thought DiPietro should take a game off to celebrate setting the record for most saves by an Islanders goalie, surpassing the 55 stopped by Billy Smith in 1972 and by Félix Potvin in 1999.

“That’s what I would do,” Jagr said.


Yep, that is what Jagr would do: he'd quit. He'd take a powder. No matter that he's in the middle of a playoff push. The guy would disappear...rather than persevere. He's been goldbricking the shootouts all year because he doesn't feel up for them. (Why am I talking like Bobby The Brain Heenan? I blame WWE 24/7.)

How long before Tom Renney pulls a Phil Spector and wigs out (no pun intended, Phil) at Jagr's diva horsepiles? Between managing him and a character like Sean Avery (who mixed it up pretty good last night), Renney's got to be given credit for keeping his team in the hunt this long. And yes, my head just almost exploded because I had to heap praise on two dirty Rangers!

So now we look to Thursday and the "and-home" part of the home-and-home. Should coach Ted Nolan sit Ricky in favor of Mike Dunham? That is a tough call. I was hoping for Rick to get a night off last Saturday when our boys played the Capitals. Maybe Nolan is shooting for this upcoming Saturday when the Caps are in town. The Isles have two games with direct playoff implications on the 13th and 15th when they visit Montreal and Ottawa, respectively.