Monthly Archives: October 2008
1:50 pm - Some news and notes from practice as I ponder whether to continue the Point Blank Predict-The-Score thread…
Healthy Islanders captains Bill Guerin, Richard Park and Doug Weight met with Scott Gordon this morning, the second such meeting of the season but with a twist. “The first time, I wanted to meet with them,” said Gordon. “Today, they wanted to meet with me.”
Of course, what’s said in Uniondale stays in Uniondale, but the coach appreciated his players reaching out. “The captains have to be an entension of the coaching staff,” Gordon said. “They had issues they wanted to discuss. I know they want to win now. We just talked over some things. It was very positive.”
The coach said whether it’s the captains or an up-and-down prospect, his door is always open. “There’s only a doghouse if you want there to be a doghouse,” he said.
ETC: Rick DiPietro watched most of today’s practice in street clothes. There was no update today on his status…
According to Gordon, defenseman Andy Sutton is “hopeful” to make his season debut Thursday in Philadelphia…Freddy Meyer had another doctor’s appointment today and is all but ruled out for Thursday…Mark Streit left practice a few minutes early, but that’s because Gordon politely asked him to take some rest. Streit’s averaging in the high-20s of TOI…
Gordon on some of his team’s big goals allowed: “Sometimes goals aren’t the result of defensive zone breakdowns. Sometimes they are because of offensive zone breakdowns.”
The Islanders practiced in their light blue Third Helmets today in anticipation of the return of the Throwback uniform when they host Montreal at the Coliseum on Saturday. The way the Canadiens skate, we could see an encore of the barn-burner against Carolina.
(Thompson and Voros are so much bigger than these dudes, and they didn't get milllions for their fight last night)
11:30 am, NVMC - The greatest Puck Daddy of them all has a breakout entry with video on the Nate Thompson-Aaron Voros fight from last night. Wyshynski makes a beautiful point: while the brawl is not a classic, it is elevated by…
1. Being in the middle of an Islanders-Rangers game at the Coliseum.
2. “Even the punches that missed were rather awesome.”
On top of all that, it was at the end of a shift for both players and was proceeded by about 30 seconds of intense 5-on-5 grappling and face-washing. Puck Daddy compares Thompson-Voros to the great Round 8 of De La Hoya-Pacquiao. Only thing we’d add to that is, imagine if the two boxers did about a half-dozen wind sprints and then immediately met in the middle of the ring – on skates, of course.
I just ran into Thompson in the hallway before practice and told him about Puck Daddy’s tribute. A guy like him, literally fighting for every minute of ice time, appreciated it. I asked him what it’s like to square off against a 6-4 opponent after skating, pushing and shoving.
“Sheer exhaustion,” Thompson said. “There were a lot of scrums and I think we wanted to get away from them. We were both at the end of shifts so he was just as tired as I was. It was just one of those things where it was understood we had to go. A good, fair fight.
“I can’t tell you what it feels like when you’re trying to hold off this big guy, throw punches and protect yourself when you don’t know how much you have in the tank. You just try to give everything you have until it’s over.”
And when it’s over, at least you know you’re not skating again for at least five minutes of play. Asked how much water he drank in the penalty box, Thompson said, “I’m not sure. A lot. The whole time I was there I was watching the game, drinking water, squirting the bottle all over my face. You use the time to get ready for going back out there and maybe doing it all over again.”
10:25 pm, The NVMC - The recap from Uniondale after the Rangers 4-2 win in a matchup of rivals at the Coliseum.
The Game: The under-manned Islanders overcame an own-goal off the stick of Bill Guerin less than one minute into the game and played an effective, high-battle-level game. But a goal by Ryan Callahan late-second gave the polished Rangers a 2-1 lead and Scott Gomez mid-third finished off a team whose margin for error is real slim right now.
Power Play: Rangers 1-8, Islanders 0-4.
Shots on goal: Rangers 39, Islanders 30.
The No. 2 Story: The Islanders announced during the first period that Rick DiPietro suffered an “injury unrelated to his previous injuries” and is “day-to-day pending additional assessment and treatment.” (See previous post, although we really don’t know what to think anymore).
The No. 3 Story: The game, not a sellout, was the second straight highly entertaining, worth-the-price-of-admission game in a row at the old barn on Hempstead Turnpike.
Post-Game Sound – Scott Gordon
After the game Gordon gave a review of his team’s performance that was not as light as the one you’ll see below from this blogger. The first-year Islanders coach – perhaps accepting that he’ll be without several key players for a while – kept the bar high. His attitude was a welcomed change-up.
“I’m concerned about why the game changed for us,” said Gordon. “I thought we played extremely well for 30 minutes, and then it got away from us.” He brought up how his team “started taking the kind of penalties Carolina did against us in the second half in that game.”
Despite a trio of “bright-side” questions from other reporters, Gordon declined to provide a happy recap and use the injuries to four top defensemen as an excuse.
“We’re trying to move in a direction not just this year, but down the road,” he said. “We want to change some habits.”
After the formal portion of his somewhat surprising post-game press conference, I continued the conversation one-one-one with Gordon. I will share those notes and my view of our talk in the practice coverage tomorrow.
3 Standout Islanders:
Joey MacDonald: Valiant.
Kyle Okposo: First goal of the season and strong (breakout?) performance in all areas.
Trent Hunter: Everywhere all night. Wasn’t so much lack of finish, but too much of Lundqvist.
What We Learned Tonight:
- Joey MacDonald quieted the requests for a call to Russia for Dubie for a little while.
- When a team plays with this much passion and energy as the Islanders did for the first 40 minutes, all that brain-draining system talk mercifully goes away.
- The Rangers were not always as sharp as their 9-2-1 record would indicate. But on the other hand…
- …Martin Brodeur may think he “plays really weird,” but Henrik Lundqvist is really, really good.
Game Rating (out of 5 stars): 3.5 - Not always a thing of beauty, but several new players on both teams were properly introduced to the rivalry. For a little more than two periods, that was raw.
Islanders Performance: 3.0 - The home team showed a whole bunch of old-time character down four defensemen, one goalie and one goal one minute into the game. Bravo.
Event Rating: 3.0 - Five or six plugs too many for the new Third Jersey, but otherwise a good show in-game. When these rivalry games are not close in the final minutes, with each season the scene in the stands is getting too Tarantino.
Attendance: 15,581.
Just Keeping it..Ya Know: Seems when the Rangers are fighting the puck, they become energized by the play of their youngsters like Nigel Dawes and Ryan Callahan.
Statsheet Notables: Kyle Okposo, 13:47 TOI, 7 shots, one goal, plus-1; Trent Hunter, 7 hits, 2 shots, many more scoring set-ups; Nate Thompson, one gutsy overhand-rightfest with the rather large Aaron Voros; Chris Campoli, continuing to be eased into the lineup, with 27:22 of ice.
Just Sayin’: The Islanders could make their lives so much easier if they could just finish on the power play.
Scouts in Attendance: Phoenix, Montreal, Detroit, Minnesota.
Islanders Press Coverage: Greg Logan and Mark Herrmann of Newsday, Dan Martin of the Post and Peter Botte of the Daily News. All the Rangers beat writers in attendance, including New Yorkers Steve Zipay (Newsday), Larry Brooks (Post) and Michael Obernauer (Daily News).
Out-of-Town News: Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson told d-manchild Luke Schenn, the fifth overall pick in the 08 draft, that he’s staying in Toronto for the season.
Think of Brandon Sutter: Brent Sutter drove his son Brandon this morning from a Long Island hospital to Penn Station, where Brandon Sutter was to travel by train from New York to Raleigh. After experiencing memory loss, the 19-year old Hurricanes forward is starting to feel better. According to the Devils blog Fire & Ice, Brandon’s mother Connie will stay with her son for a week in North Carolina.
Brent Talks Old-School: Provocative quote from the former Islanders captain and current Devils coach on the hit by Islanders center Doug Weight: “I know first-hand a check like that would not have happened 20 years ago, because you know what the consequences would have been.”
The Goal Song, Take 5: Two performances, and nobody got hurt.
Next Up: The Islanders travel to Philadelphia to take on the Flyers on Thursday before hosting Montreal on Saturday (Third Jersey debut) and Nikita Filatov and the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday.
The Lineup
Park – Comrie – Okposo
Bergenheim - Weight – Guerin
Tambellini – Nielsen – Hunter
Sim - Thompson – Hilbert
Campoli - Gervais
Streit - Pock
Hillen - Skinner
MacDonald
Danis
Open up about the game. Do it all in Comments.
UPDATED WITH VIEWPOINT 7:49 pm, NVMC - The Islanders have just issued a press release with the following injury updates:
Brendan Witt (lower-body injury) is out 3-4 weeks.
Rick DiPietro is out with a “lower-body injury unrelated to his previous injuries” and is “day-to-day pending additional assessment and treatment.”
Freddy Meyer (abdominal injury) is day-to-day.
The release ends, “No further comments related to this issue will be made until further information is available.”
Point Blank View: On the DiPietro injury, the eyewitness accounts of Point Blank readers that DiPietro was injured during the pre-game warmup may prove to be accurate. Those reports were initially shot down by a source.
DiPietro did leave the ice during warmup on Saturday earlier than usual. This means the readers may have been on to something, and that DiPietro may have played the first period with whatever injury he suffered.
5:40 pm - Just came back from the launch of the Islanders latest Third Jersey. As first reported all over the blogosphere since last spring, it is indeed the mid-’70s get-up the team wore on Throwback Night two seasons ago.
There is one change that could be major to die-hards and uni-junkies: the lettering and numbering are done in white, not orange. Have a feeling that might have been to satisfy requests from NHL Broadcasting. Just a theory.
Unlike the vintage Yankee-like anonymous jerseys worn in the mid-70s, names are on the back of the Islanders’ new Thirds. The National Hockey League would never have gone for old school.
Kinda too bad. Hockey teams like to wax poetic about the logo on the front meaning more than the name on the back. This would have been talking the talk. But for those of you looking to get your Okposo old-new-old Third Jersey, they are available all over the Coliseum concourse and at the Team Store in the Mid-Island Plaza Broadway Mall in Hicksville.
It’s actually not just a new jersey, but a completely new uniform. To pull off the color scheme properly, the Islanders have gloves, pants and socks to go with the classic-style sweater. It is, if you will forgive the term, a whole new uniform system!
The Thirds were launched at a reception of the Islanders Business Club. Present to give their endorsements were legends Bob Nystrom and Clark Gillies, the very model of grizzled vet Mike Sillinger and teenager Josh Bailey, among others.
We hope to have a new photo in a while, but didn’t want to wait to post for the jerseyaniacs. For all of your jersey-bloggin’ needs, never hesitate to check Icethetics by another guy named Chris or Uni Watch by the amazing Paul Lukas.
(The Third Jerseys are just as modeled by 18 and Yashin here two years ago, except the letters and numbers are white, not orange)
Your Reaction to the new Third Jersey? Comments.
1:20 pm, NVMC - News and notes from the morning skate, along with the beginning of our Score Prediction thread…
Skinner In: Brett Skinner will make his NHL debut tonight. “What better way to do it than Islanders-Rangers”? he said. The defenseman emphasized that his transition is made easier because the Sound Tigers play the same system style as the Islanders.
Gordon on Skinner, his former player at Providence (AHL): “My experience with Brett is that he finds the open man and makes quick passes.” Gordon said he spoke with Bridgeport coach Jack Capuano, who said Skinner’s play in his own end was strong the last two weeks beyond his eight assists in his last five games.
Witt on IR: A sharp-eyed Point Blank reader (Brian from Massapequa) pointed out that Brendan Witt has two asterisks next to his name on the roster on the Islanders official team website. The ** stand for being on Injured Reserve.
Sutton Out: Injured Islanders defenseman (redundant, eh?) Andy Sutton is not ready to return tonight. He took the extended morning skate as he did on Saturday. The Sutton situation is Exhibit 1-A for the Islanders to provide some disclosure to fans about a player’s rehabilitation schedule.
Without question, Sutton is dying to get back into the lineup and doing everything he can to be ready. If the team would explain why it’s necessary to allow a certain amount of time for Sutton’s hand injury to heal, it might be better understood why Sutton cannot play against the Islanders’ fiercest rival tonight.
Thoughts for Brandon: Appropriately, Gordon spoke on behalf of the organization by saying he was concerned for Brandon Sutter and that his well-wishes were with the Carolina forward. Gordon spoke with Doug Weight this morning at length about the hit, a clear indication that two days later it is still on everyone’s minds. Greg Logan just posted an excellent entry off his conversation with Weight.
The Gordons at the Garden: Gordon learned something new when his family visited New York City yesterday – the train arrives in the same building where the Rangers play their home games. “Here are my boys, getting off the train wearing their Islanders garb, flexing,” laughed Gordon. For the record, nobody gave them a hard time.
Third Jersey Revealed: The old-new-old Islanders jersey, the “Third Jersey” as they say in the merchandise business, will be unveiled today around 5:00 pm. By almost all accounts, it will look like the one pictured at left from Throwback Night two seasons ago. We heard there could be a change in the lettering and numbering from orange to white (our theory: to satisfy play-by-play broadcasters), but we have been unable to get confirmation.
When those jerseys were first worn more than 30 years ago, there were no names on the back. Even if the Islanders wanted to honor that tradition, our experience tells us the National Hockey League would never go for it.
SCORE-0!
Going up against any team while missing four of your top defensemen would be a challange. Taking on the 8-2-1 Rangers - not spectacular, but impressively efficient in beating the teams they should beat – figures to be a monumental task.
You know Tom Renney had a plan by Sunday morning after watching the tape of the Islanders racking up 60 shots against Carolina. Let’s see what Scott Gordon has in mind. Besides his strategy, Gordon must prepare his team to be disciplined amidst all the emotion.
RANGERS 5, ISLANDERS 2
Point Blank record for ’08-09: 5-1
8:55 am – Brendan Witt will not have an MRI on his injured knee until this week because it was too swollen, sources close to the Islanders defenseman have told Point Blank.
Witt was injured in the first period of Thursday’s 5-3 Islanders loss to Dallas. The MRI could come as early as today, but the swelling has needed several days to subside before the medical staff could make a proper diagnosis.
The Islanders are facing the likelihood of playing the Rangers at the Coliseum tonight without Witt, Radek Martinek (4-6 weeks, shoulder), Andy Sutton (hand, back sometime this week) and Freddy Meyer, who has an doctor’s appointment today to evaluate an undisclosed injury suffered Saturday night against Carolina.
Brett Skinner has been recalled on an emergency basis to fill out the blueline. He has 8 points in his last five games with Bridgeport.
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