THOMPSON OFF IR, FRITZ TO BRIDGEPORT
NYI at Boston, 12:00 pm: Talk about the game here
Nate Thompson returns in time for his old team. Mitch Fritz back to Bridgeport. Greg Logan with an excellent post from today’s practice. I’m away Friday “on assignment” but should have a post-game notebook. Talk about the game in Comments. Contribute your how-the-NYI-make-life-worth-living posts in entry below. Safe travels.
46 Responses to THOMPSON OFF IR, FRITZ TO BRIDGEPORT
NYI at Boston, 12:00 pm: Talk about the game here
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kevin says:
o man !!! this sucks. i love having a heavy here
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Akeem says:
Having Thompson back will be a plus. If you remember, he was one of the few who was skating well in the third period of games…
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btw, i like thomspon, and would rather have him then fritz. him, tim jackman and bergie should be perfect. still wish we could have a heavy though
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Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
This sadly had to happen. I like having a heavyweight here but you can’t justify keeping Fritz here for his 3 minutes of ice time when more skilled guys like Thompson are coming back. Keep Fritz mostly at the Bridge but call him up for tough divisional opponents or teams with prolific fighters.
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Chris TMC says:
FWIW I think thats very reasonable, Nick.
I also think that while Fritz was a slow skater, he wasnt as much of a liability on the ice as some might think. -
Joe says:
He wasnt a liability that I noticed, he should’ve stayed for Fridays game. We should get a guy like Belak that ended up in the A.
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Strummer's Army says:
Fritz never hurt the team on the ice or in any other way. That is a shame. Seems like odd timing with playing Boston that has way more size and plenty of guys who can throw. Thompson is alright but nothing special but he is Gordon’s guy so…….
Ugh, bakc to seeing Thompson and Jackman get beat up and the rest of the guys intimitated.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
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Dadi says:
How’s about KO…is he playing today ?
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Oh, see in Logan’s post that he’s probably out
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is fritz dressing for bridge. im going to the game 2day and wanna see him vs sugden
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The Bruins are an amazing team this season… this is going to be a tough game!!!
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JPinVA says:
Why is it the smallest guys on our team play the biggest… Why is Bergy the only one HITTING PEOPLE. The same was true in Pittsburg… NO HITTING.
Lucic deserved two minutes, and when he didn’t get it Fritz should have been sent out to even it up… oh wait… forget it… we are the Long Island Liliputians… -
matt says:
Oh no we have a early lead!!!!!!
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How long before they’re playing the GORDON SHUFFLE (if you saw the boston feed) at the garden… this has to be the number one reason he wasn’t an NHL coach before this year… especially in Boston where they’ve had that video in a desk waiting to unleash it…
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Tamby is far more useless than Fritz.
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TAMBY MUST GO!
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Look awfully disinterested for a team that blew a 3 goal lead a couple days ago. Didn’t watch the first just the second. Not to inspiring. Weak clearing attempts. Half a$$ed hits. Nobody following through on anything. One thing to be outmatched talent wise, another thing not to play with any heart. Come on Gordon get your team ready for the third!
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Starting to lose faith that Tamby is going to come around too. He just doesn’t ever put himself in good scoring position.
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Islander505 says:
Starting to lose faith in Tambellini???
How soon before his 9 game trial is up and he has to return to Juniors?
Two lazy penalties through 2 periods.
More time in the box than TOI.Comeau gets sent to the Bridge because he hasn’t adapted to Gordon’s system?
What the hell system is Tambellini playing?
Where’s Comeau?
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If Tambellini is still on this team when Okposo gets back there should be a league investigation.
Mike Milbury between BOTH periods has argued that Lucic’s hit shold be a penalty… wow.. twelve years and 5 jobs later… something we can all agree with him on.
Sutton and Witt are sleepwalking for the second game in a row.
Boston is big, fast and talented… there’s no embarrassment in losing to these guys… but there is some in the efforts put forward by 90% of these guys.
HIT SOMEBODY!!!!
Why were the Bruins allowed to poke at the puck under JMac’s pads. I can understand the ref allowing it, he pretty much made his position known on Lucic’s hit, but where the heck were the ISLANDERS… why wasn’t that guy on his ARSE!!!
Gordon is WUSS, and he is creating a TEAM OF WUSSES…
There has got to be something going on in that dressing room… and it stems from the Nielsen hit.
It’s gonna get ugly! -
What a disgrace…
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Sim blows too, not an agitator and doesnt score.
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Mannino needs to start tomorrow. Mac needs a rest because I think he’s losing some of his mental concentration. I agree the defense was responsible for the 2nd goal but if Mac’s pad is flat on the ice that puck doesn’t go in.
Amazing how quickly things can change though…if Guerin scores on that breakaway we have a different game on our hands.
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And Tamby is annoying me more and more each game. Everything he does is soft. At this point I would seriously call around offering him and one of those spare draft picks for another young player. He’s lost the fanbase, but has he lost management?
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What an awful game…
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when fritz is in and used properly= no cheapshot or if there is, person is punished
when he is out, the other team cheapshots. ask jackman how his nose is. then witt stands up for him and himself and loses and loses at least 3 min of play. this is why we need fritz -
Willis says:
Yuck. I didn’t think they’d win but I didn’t think it would be that easy for the Bruins. Ouch.
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Tambellini does not have a 9 game stint before having to be sent to juniors. He has a one way contract. That team was not ready to play! They had no heart what so ever! That is Gordon’s job. Have to get your team ready to play Gordon. Disgusting in their own end. Really disgraceful game. Seems like everybody is scared to hit.
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Boston 3/4 on the power play. What a disgrace.
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Wait a second thoought Gordon didn’t pull goalies?
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They played a REAL team today. Outscored 5-1 in the third. It’s like the alarm clock went off. We’ve played a lot of teams in first quarter mode… not today. These guys are in MARCH in their heads… I think we just saw the eastern representatives for the Stanley Cup.
It definitely shows how weak our team is right now.
I didn’t see how the Witt/Lucic fight started… but I’m guessing that it was Lucic giving it to Witt because of his hit that sent a Bruin to the bench. WOW… what a concept… PUMMEL the guy when you think he took advantage of your player… NO INSTIGATOR.. Your sack stays in tack, and your team stays a team.
Snow… Gordon… I hopw you watched this one closely… and you took notes.
You can go on a five year plan to make your team like these guys…
The first step… BOTH OF YOU RESIGN!!!!
Smith and Nolan… cheers… I really hope you both are enjoying the sack of kittens the Islanders have become. -
minorleaguer says:
Notice that only 2 players were +’s today? Colliton & Thompson.
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Does Thumbellini have any sisters. Nobody will give us a real hockey player, or the chance to draft one for this guy. But maybe his father will give us a sibling with Ice Girl potential. Or… you know what… let’s see what HE looks like in the costume.
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ISLESFAN999 says:
We will have growing pains we have little talent. We need a top 5 pick to become a good team in a few years. I don’t mind losing this year. I just wish we were a little tougher. We lose every single fight except for Fritz and now he is sent down. This team really sucks. We lose Nielsen and he was really good.
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I guess this is how a team plays thats going to get the #1 or #2 pick. Somebody wake me back up in June!
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Madchef says:
isles still had turkey belly from last night.Bruins looked good. Team isn’t soft but not nearly as talented as other teams and small. Fritz is great for keeping other teams in line but his ability to do anything else but tire our team out is non existent Tambellini is a wimp who gets sand kicked in his face at the beach.(nobody will take him) 3-o against the Senators tommorow? Agree Maninno needs a start tomorrow. Jmac needs a day off. Win tomorrow and move on from there
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Anyone on here still wanna say the Isles top 5 defense is as good as any in the NHL?
The defense is horrible! It has been for years. I think the last good defense this team had was the year before they traded Chara. Since then it has been soft, overrated guys, until the past two years where it has been small, soft, guys who mostly are 6th d-men or AHL players.
Garth Snow “We’ll call up toughness when we need it”. Really? HHHMM you haven’t seem to work it out to well. You just sent Fritz down the day before your team played one with 4 guys who can really fight.
I have been stating on this blog for over a week that MacDonald is tired and needed a night off. Gordon being a former goalie should have recognized this and not let Dannis get cold or play Mannino sooner.
This team is too small, not tough enough, not talented enough and doesn’t fit the system.
Jon Sim is the worst!
Did it do anyone good to see Lucic beating up the assistant captain Witt? Witt isn’t a good fighter. He can beat up guys like Malone or Komisarik(who is a great hitter but no fighter) but he shouldn’t be exposed to a guy like Lucic who can really throw.
We should all file a class action law suit vs. the Islanders because the commerical they have this season with the huge hits and them dominating fights is just a lie. One guy on this team is throwing hits and his name is Sean Bergenheim. Hunter hasn’t thrown his body around anywhere near his level of the last few seasons.
I want the top pick but want the team to be competitive, today was just pathetic, it was like an NHL team scrimmaging a old-timers team.
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JPinVA, the fight started because lucic did not like getting manhandled in front of the net.
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I know you’re venting Strummer but is it really that bad? We can shoulda coulda woulda all we want but did we really think the Isles would win??? It was the Bruins, and they are GOOD!!!
It’s not that the D is that bad if you ask me. Its just when the team “stops playing their game” everything seems to fall apart. Then they become a bundle of nerves and start to react, which more often than not means give the puck up, don’t clear, get caught, you know the drill. It becomes a comedy of errors. It’s been pretty consistently that way when things start to go wrong and yet they do okay (and sometimes well!) when they are playing the way they should.Gordon doesn’t have all of the players he needs yet. So this year we are basically just watching some guys develop, some lines become scoring threats (ok wishful thinking mostly), some guys stay invisible or just not fit the style of play.
If they could’ve played their game today I think they don’t lose by much. Better luck next game. I think Okposo’s back. -
thanks Kevin… Boston feed neither showed the origin of the fight, nor talked about it.
It’s funny how a fight can start between a guy like Lucic and Witt (Witt has never been considered a heavyweight) and nobody is screaming “instigator”. But Gordon watches Nielsen get decked with no justice and keeps the dog in the yard.
There is a big sign on the Islander’s back… and it says, “KICK ME”… hmmm… I was gonna get POTVIN put on mine… but KICK ME is so much more appropriate for this version of the team… has been for years.
I admit, I wasn’t a big fan of bringing Fritz up to replace Okposo. Still not. But if the support guys on this team are gonna cower, then please bring him up and play him 12 mins a game. Or guys like Bailey and Park are gonna get run all day long. Did anybody catch the SLAM Chara put on Bailey… I think he left an imprint on the glass.
There just isn’t enough talent on the team or in Bridgeport to justify not having a guy like Fritz on the ice… NOT THE BENCH… ON THE ICE.
After the Lucic hit on Jackman you gotta tell each left wing, “when he hits the ice, you hit the bench..” and you send a guided instigating missle out there to pummel him.
this team KNOWS their coach does not have their back. The GM has assured a soft lineup, and the coach is too much of a wimp to use his gun. and we all know that you never take a gun out unless you are prepared to use it.…and on a positive note
Bergy ROCKS. Give me 9 Bergenhiems and even I could coach a playoff team. I’d like to have Nokie too… but this organization has a nose for talent like Helen Keller had an ear for music. -
Willis,
You make a lot of really good points here. But I am going to make the argument (as I had after 10 games) that the gordon system is NOT going to work in the NHL the way it is deployed currently.
The players are not prepared to do anything but collapse in their own zone. That may be one of the main reasons why the goaltending has been good… few second chances… but when they get out muscled, they are DOOMED. They often spend 30-45 seconds in their own zone… with no clue how to get the puck out, which leads to icing and with teh new rules (my favorite new rule) they can’t change.
Also, he has everybody playing that system against every line. It just doesn’t work that well agains the top defensive pairings on other teams, and once it’s broken it leads to mismatches in their own defensive zones… or spent forwards who have to cover 180 feet of ice every shift.
Look what boston did tonight. they ran the isles ragged and then went to a 2 man forecheck (the big miracle of the scott gordon system) in the third and the isles (just like every night…. even when they win) threw up all over themselves.
Personnel is a problem, but it has been a problem every year. Take the system and his lack of testicles and I really don’t have a whole lot of confidence in scott gordon.
I hope he turns it around… but I just don’t see it.
…and after watching hte feed from boston, and the Scott gordon shuffle… we’re doomed.
I hope CB can post a copy of it so we can pre-empt the nightly display of it at MSG…
This one is gonna have Islander fans hanging their head in SHAME. If “GO GO” knew what boston was doing on TV he would have personally sent Fritz up to the booth to tear the tape out of the machine. -
mrlbem says:
JP,
I saw the Bean Pot Shuffle. It wasn’t just Gordon–it was the entire BC team. They just aired Gordon’s “segment.” I thought it was funny. Billy and Howie got a kick out of it. I don’t think it was embarassing. What are you gonna do–have a rule that everyone who does something stupid or a bit off in college is no longer qualified to coach 23 years later?
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I love Witt but he isn’t playing like himself since coming back. Neither is Martinek. Witt made 4 or 5 weak clearing attempts and gave away the puck for the second goal. Very unusual for him. The defense overall has looked weak. Hopefully just getting the bugs out after the injuries. Our defense is overrated in fans eyes I agree Strummer but they are not playing up to their capabilities.
YES!! goodbye fritz. might not see him again this year with everyone coming back soon.