ARM & STAMMER
Team site says Sutton’s injury is to his arm. Hmmm…
(NOT Andy Sutton's arm. Andy's is much bigger.)
11:25 pm - UPDATE: The Islanders’ website has adjusted its story, de-D-ing Nate Thompson, deleting Brett Skinner and, somewhat surprisingly, changing Andy Sutton’s injury from “arm” to “hand.”
9:40 pm - As caught and brought to our attention by several of our readers, some funky stuff going on at the official team site.
In a season preview entitled, uh, “2008-09 Season Preview” that’s been the No. 1 story on newyorkislanders.com for more than 24 hours, there is talk of the Islanders’ depth on defense:
“Rookie Jack Hillen, as well as recent acquisitions Thomas Pock, Nate Thompson and Brett Skinner are more than capable of filling in,” the article states (as of 9:40 pm Thursday).
The Islanders, of course, are counting on Thompson to check and scrap like he did as a center for Scott Gordon at Providence (AHL). Brett Skinner hasn’t been on the Islanders’ roster for the last 30 hours.
But to steal a phrase from Puck Daddy, “the real gold” is in the previous paragraph where the official site explains why the D depth comes in handy:
“…The injury bug has already hit the Islanders - with Chris Campoli (shoulder) and Andy Sutton (arm) already out for the start of the season.” (**thanks to Marc from Troy for the catch**)
If the Islanders have already officially acknowledged the location of Campoli and Sutton’s injuries, it is news to us. That Campoli suffered damage to his shoulder had kind of been acknowledged, because the team wanted it known it’s not the same shoulder injury that put Campoli into surgery last year.
But Sutton having an arm injury in a real revelation. I can’t find any press release or any notes from Scott Gordon chats verifying that an arm injury ailed Andy. Last week, citing sources, we reported that Sutton had some kind of hand-related injury.
I’m not sure the website story is non-fiction. The arm - especially Andy’s - is a long appendathing so I guess it depends on where you technically believe an arm begins and ends. This could be like the day in the mid-’70s when I had a nagging case of athlete’s foot and told my CYO basketball coach at Our Lady of Mercy that I had a major leg injury.
Of course, Sutton’s injury - whatever and wherever it is - is a far more serious matter. Seems odd that over the last year-plus team president Chris Dey has significantly raised the level of Islanders customer relations - even going so far as to break news and run ideas by the readers of the Islandermania message board. Yet, if you wanted to know if Josh Bailey is playing at the Coli on Monday before you bought your tickets, it’s doubtful the team is going to tell you.
(As for this “we gotta protect our players” nonsense, can you point out all the times in NHL history a guy played with an announced injury and the opponent allegedly wacked him to take him out of the lineup?)
A new goal song, ticket promotions, some nice fan events and a whole bunch of other stuff are 100% disclosed by the team, and that’s cool. But as an Islander fan, if you want to know about the health and availability of the players on your favorite team, the Islanders are saying that’s information strictly on a need-to-know basis.
And even when they do come armed with information, they may not be giving it to you straight.
17 Responses to “ARM & STAMMER
Team site says Sutton’s injury is to his arm. Hmmm…”
Please Wait
How about we just leave the team alone. If they don’t want to disclose injuries who cares?? Can we stop critiquing everything they do. STOP THE WHINING.
CB, I noticed this last night, but did not think to make you aware. I would think this was written by someone in the PR office that forgot the (non-) PR policy.
Ken:
Thats what a blog/ message board is for.. to critique the every movement of our favorite team
Ken- a LOT of fans who care about this team a LOT- such as me- DO care if they disclose their injuries or not. If we don’t know what’s up with our team, it’s hard to be as close to them as possible. And as for Botta, he’s not “whining,” he’s writing good stuff at about the rate of 3-5 blog posts per DAY.
He seems to be shaking all the stock brokers hands with his left hand but is able to clap with both while opening the NYSE…It must be a conspiracy. Players get hurt all the time…lets leave it be. Sorry CB but this is more negative media that this team cant afford.
Actually, CB, Andy Sutton’s arm injury was very apparent in the ITV segment featuring him and Campoli at the NYSE. I guess the cat was out of the bag from when they posted it yesterday.
Im not just talking about CB, infact I love his work and this is the first website i check when I am using my computer. I am saying that all these message boards just whine about every move this franchise makes and it is very bothersome. Bill Belichick does not disclose injuries, and I’d say he has done a decent job.
I asked about the injury disclosure policy on IM, specifically about where the policy originated, and was told by Nick Tullo: “It has nothing to do with marketing and ticket sales. It is strictly hockey and team operations strategy. If anything, it is more of a strategy to not release injuries publicly. As a professional organization the less your opponent knows, the better the advantage you have over them.”
According to Mr. Tullo, the policy is directed from Garth Snow as a matter of hockey ops, not from Chris Dey as a matter of public relations. The best question for Chris is where the pressure needs to be applied to get a change in policy. This page and Greg Logan have both been hitting on the subject in just about every piece of writing, but it hasn’t effected any change yet. What can be done proactively to change their minds?
Ken: thanks for joining the conversation. I’m open to all comments, including direct hits. Respectfully toward a good fan: it is an NFL rule to disclose injuries, and Coach Belichick obliges -which makes what’s going on with some teams in the NHL all the more bizarro.
If any fans are okay with their team witholding important information from them for reasons that are bogus, we can agree to disagree. Thanks for making PB the first site you check. I hope you like my 12:30 am post a little more…CB
By the way, my follow-up was not answered. Specifically: “I’m a bit confused as to why the Islanders have decided to be less transparent than the norm for the league. If keeping injuries tightly under wraps at the beginning of the season were an important strategic move, you would think the rest of the league would be tight-lipped, too.”
I for one do not care if the Isles are following NHL rules and do not disclose injuries. I love watching the team no matter who is in the lineup.
CB, great job here! Love the extra coverage!
Curious what you thought of Jeantte Howard’s critical assessment of the Isles. Was surprised it was not mentioned here.
That’s good information, Ryan. Thanks for bringing it up. The media knows the policy comes from Garth and not Chris Dey. Of course, the bit about having an advantage over other teams is unfortunate and a good man like Nick Tullo probably should have held back on that one. If that’s the case, expect the Islanders to kick injury-disclosing Montreal’s butt all season.
One of the main points of my article was also, OK, the Islanders have this policy - yet the team website reveals an Andy arm injury when hockey ops has not.
As for when change could come, my old pal Garth is patient and stubborn - often good qualities in his position. But keep in mind, the Islanders haven’t played a game yet!
Many of you may be happy to know that - other than the odd jab now and then you know I can’t resist - this was my last full-blown article on the subject. The Islanders season officially starts in 41 minutes, and so does the focus on the ice hockey. Thanks again, Ryan…CB
The NHL has an official injury policy in place for this season:
INJURY DISCLOSURE POLICY
Clubs no longer are required to disclose the specific nature of player injuries. Clubs are, however, required to disclose that a player is expected to miss a game due to injury, or will not return to a game following an injury. Clubs are prohibited from providing untruthful information about the nature of a player injury or otherwise misrepresenting a player’s condition.
i was at the season ticket holders meet and greet with the team last weekend, and got to speak to Sutton..his hand was all bandaged up and he said he’d be back by the end of the month.i guess take that with a grain of salt, but in pictures from the NYSE, Sutton isn’t wearing the soft cast on his hand
We may not want to believe that something like that would happen, we want to believe that All players respect other players injuries, but like everything else in life, there are a few bad seeds out there on the ice that wouldn’t surprise me, we’ve all seen players take shots with intent to hurt another player to take him out, so who’s to say they wouldn’t use injury info for such things?
I do believe it is in part to protect them to some degree.
As for NFL? They may say that, but there have been times when a Quarterback was listed out of a game and ended up playing at start of game, so they do have their moments as well. How they get away with it? I have no clue.
NFL coaches have played games with that injury report forever. Tom Brady was listed with a leg injury for 2 years. Belichick never tells the media what the specific ailment is, how long the player will be out, when they are expected back etc…. with that ITS OPENING NIGHT and we’re undefeated!
- Ken
What about the season ticket holders. The fans that are at every game. Don’t you think the team as an obligation to at least give some sort of status on the team and players. This team has given nothing this year to us. The only info we get IS from Blogs like this one.
They haven’t televised one pre-season game! All we get is that Islanders Illustrated show which highlights old news from the beach. I mean come on now!