PHOENIX 5, ISLANDERS 4: Weight gets 1,000 and 1001
Bailey scores; 2 for Park; time to DiPlatoon
11:30 pm - Congratulations to Doug Weight on scoring his 1,000th National Hockey League point. Weight reached the milestone with an assist on Richard Park’s goal to make it 5-3 late in the third period.
Lovely touch by the Phoenix Coyotes organization for being on the ball and making the announcement, especially with Doug’s family in the crowd.
Weight later assisted on another Park goal to make it 5-4 with 28 seconds remaining.
*
The Josh Bailey Goal Watch: Is over in game 25. Thankfully.
PB reader Peter F. proposed a hypothetical that did not happen but was still fascinating. Let’s say Doug Weight got his 1,000th point on an assist on Josh Bailey’s first NHL goal. Who would have taken home the puck?
Great question. Pretty sure Bailey would have graciously given it up.
*
Let’s assume, for argument’s sake, Rick DiPietro is 100% healthy (I know, folks, I know). I’ve yet to find a sports medicine expert (not associated with the NYI) who’ll declare it makes any sense to completely shut him down for the season - as recommended by several PB readers and more than a few writers. But there is every reason to put the breaks on the self-proclaimed “impatient” Olympian.
Seriously, is there any case for playing DiPietro more than just every other game for the rest of the way?
Really, what would be the point of him playing any more - to get back in the playoff race, 14 points out of 8th place and with six teams between the Islanders and Pittsburgh?
Uh, I actually can’t think of any other possible reasons.
The Islanders have Joey MacDonald, who looks like he can be much more than a 15-game backup. If DiPietro - bad third goal tonight - or Mac get hurt and if there isn’t much faith in Yann Danis, last I checked Dubie was very much available.
Everything should be about the season after this, and the season after that. The rehabilitation of Rick DiPietro should be no different.
*
A Rebuild Further Along: Congratulations to Don Maloney, Wayne Gretzky and the Phoenix Coyotes on a successful year 2 (or is it 3?) of their rebuild. With Peter Mueller (8-16-24), Martin Hanzel (9-11-20), Mikkel Boedker (7-11-18) and Kyle Turris (5-7-12) and solid defense and goaltending, they are on the way in a very tough Western Conference. Don’t know if it will be this year, but the Coyotes are very much on their way.
*
Wasn’t Mueller: A source corrected a note I had recently that ex-Islanders GM Neil Smith had Peter Mueller rated just behind the chosen Kyle Okposo. The Islanders took Okposo 7th overall, while the Coyotes took Mueller 8th. Turns out the prospect Neil and the staff had ranked behind Okposo was not Mueller, but defenseman Bobby Sanguinetti, taken 21st overall by the Rangers.
*
Low-Def: Was it just my TV, or did the game look like it was played under little lighting and before cameras from the 1970s?
*
No Rush: Kirill Petrov, the Islanders’ celebrated third round pick from last June, is bound by contract to play in the Kontinental Hockey League for two more seasons. By the looks of his play in the World Junior Championships, Petrov is at least two years away from being ready for North America anyway.
In fairness to the kid, he’s just coming off an injury that kept him out of the lineup for two months. Petrov remains our No. 1-ranked Islanders prospect in terms of upside potential, but it appears the Islanders may have to wait on his availability and development.
Speaking of the WJC, one scout told me tonight that - great Slovakian goaltending notwithstanding - Team USA’s performance is their quarterfinal loss was “disgraceful.”
*
Jiggs & Billy: Nice pairing on the Plus Minus broadcast with Jiggs McDonald and Billy Jaffe. Jiggs is, of course, an awesome Hall of Famer, but what really makes it work is his newness to the current club has him asking The Jaff a lot of questions. This brings out the best in Billy.
For example, in the first period Jaffe raved about a play Jeff Tambellini made and said “Islander fans have to be real happy about that.” Jiggs didn’t leave it at that. He asked, “How so”? and The Jaff gave a point-by-point anaylsis on what Tambellini did right. As Mariusz Czerkawski used to say, “That’s good s–t.”
*
Saturday is Point Blank, Up All Night: At the suggestion of a few readers, we’re going to try a semi-all-nighter. Beginning at 10:00 pm on Saturday and continuing through the Islanders-Sharks matchup until about 1:00 am, we’ll be here at our laptop responding to your civil Comments during the game.
We’re calling it “Point Blank: Up All Night.” Stay tuned tomorrow for a few minor details.
*
“New York Hockey This Week” with the “informative and entertaining” Don La Greca (so said Phil Mushnick) and me will be on Saturday from 5:30 - 6:30 pm. Guests include Jiggs McDonald.
Comments.
76 Responses to “PHOENIX 5, ISLANDERS 4: Weight gets 1,000 and 1001
Bailey scores; 2 for Park; time to DiPlatoon”
Please Wait
GO BAILEY!! FIRST GOAL ON B-E-A-UTIFUL PLAY BY TAMBS AND PASS BY GUERIN. had to be more then 3 yrs right? i think it was 4-5 years
Robert “Bobby” Sanguinetti. Where’d “Peter” come from?
DOUG WEIGHT WITH 1000PTS nice classy yotes fans for applauding him
Haha, I laughed about the Islanders drafting. Makes me scratch my head that the Islanders had a kid who has not amounted to much (sound familiar) and went 21st overall over Peter Mueller. Kinda makes me worry about over looking Tavares!
Congrats Dougie on 1000 now the latest addition to the Americans with 1000 points list and a large percentage of them are HOF.
Mike from Philly:
Bobby Sanguinetti’s one of the top D prospects in the league, after Marc Staal the best young defenseman the Rangers have. In a year or two he’s going to be a pretty solid stud. After Erik Johnson he’s the best defensive prospect in the ‘06 draft. Jiri Tlusty, Brian Little and Jonathan Bernier are the only other bona fide NHLers between Mueller and Sanguinetti at this point.
Congrats Weight. Nice of Park to not even celebrate the goal, but rather immediately go and get the puck.
Agreed - great game for a class act, and great to see Bailey get the monkey off his back.
Today proves exactly why DP should have been sent for conditioning during this road trip. Forget the risk of injury, a few of those goals he gave up were solely because of rust. I agree with the platoon idea, I just hope Joey Mac doesn’t get a touchdown put on him tomorrow.
As for the 2006 draft debate, people really need to calm down and stop nit-picking everything. Drafting is a very inexact science, and we all remember when Alexandre Daigle and Patrik Stefan were promoted as the next great players in the league. We all have our opinions since the whole thing is SUBJECTIVE (example: a lot of people here wanted Filatov, I was rooting hard for Colin Wilson). Let’s calm down.
And CB, I agree with the sentiment for the Coyotes franchise, but it makes my skin crawl to see people give credit to Don Maloney.
Saint Nick:
I was a pretty big fan of Wilson, too, but after this WJC collapse you have to wonder if he’s really the great leader that everyone pumped him up as in the last WJC and at the draft.
congrats josh and doug!!! i don’t care about the loss. two milestones, dp seems healthy, and we’re still in position to take tavares. isles even made the game interesting in the end. agree with chris that dp should be platooned the rest of the season.
I don’t know if you watch college hockey, so forgive me if you do….I’m a BU alum, and I’ve seen well more than half of Wilson’s games. He’s that good.
Today’s loss against Slovakia was sickening, but I didn’t see him as part of the problem. Janus will probably go to church for a week, and McCollum didn’t give Team USA strong goaltending. There’s your difference.
quick thoughts,
congrats dougie!! congrats bailey!
the kids played well again, okposo is still getting better. tambellini played well, possibly his best game of the season? he looked hungry for once. park played well as always.
did anyone notice if something happened to bergenheim? i did see him playing much in the third period…was it just me?
defence was terrible, what is happening to campoli? he is degressing. and witt played pretty shakey. first coyote goal came right off his stick, bad clear. defense is shakey…maybe this team would do better off drafting hedman?
I know this bounces me out of the discussion now, but Larry, I disagree. I think a team should take the best player available instead of drafting to fill a need, and after watching both of them as much as I can I think Tavares is the better player…However, there’s still plenty of hockey, so let’s worry about the draft when the season is over and we know our position.
Thank goodness for Josh Bailey. Not to Bad for a really young rookie 10 points. hes coming along. Congrats to Doug weight as well.
Go ISLES
1) Nice to not only see Dougie get 1,000 and 1,001 but it was also nice to see the Yotes fan reaction …it’s that kind of class that seperates hockey from other sports
2) Also nice to see Bailey, who’s showing more confidence with the puck, get his 1st off some nice passing by Tamby and Guerin. Not trying to ruffle any feathers, but he doesn’t score that goal if he’s playing in the WJC …he’s really looking more comfortable with the puck
3) Bergie with another goal, Bailey with a goal, KO with another assist and Tamby getting involved …and what makes it better? The Isles showed something but still lost …which in all sincerity is a good thing …get the young guys on the score sheet and lose …Atlanta won tonight so that’s also good news …
CONGRATS TO DOUG WEIGHT AND JOSH BAILEY!
The difference tonight? Pho’s bigger and more physical defense and 3 stupid Islander penalties. The offenses are pretty even.
I agree with Botta on not overusing Rick. It is about the coming seasons and not this. Dumbest thing this organization could do is to take themselves out of contention for Tavares or Hedman.
ON the debate between the two, take the best player because the Isles have glaring needs at both positions. While Tavares will cure the center woes along with the other centers the Isles have, if they draft Hedman or not they’ll still have to draft/trade for more d-help.
i agree with you nick, i think tavares is a better player and i believe he is the player the isles should pick IF they get the opportunity. just throwin out a topic with the hedman thing. and i also meant to say….
“did anyone notice if something happened to bergenheim? i DIDNT see him playing much in the third period…was it just me?”
and im with AZS, this is the type of game i wouldnt mind seeing for the rest of year, fun to watch, youth getting involved, players show effort but still getting ourselves in position for a top two draft spot.
The kids are playing very well and that is the main goal of the year to see them progressing.
Petrov looks like he is either still hurt or not in condition because of the time he missed. He doesn’t look at all like the guy I saw play before.
i swear this is the last post from me tonight, sorry for the repeat posts…i just thought this tidbit was interesting, richard park had the 2nd least amount of ice time out of all the islanders tonight next to jackman, but he had two goals and an assist.. richard park makes the most of his chances.
Why was Jigg’s in tonight? It was nice hearing his play calling again….
USA Hockey needs to stop sending brown-nosing high school coaches to the WJC. Either send an out-of-work NHL coach (Tortorella) or a high-end college coach (Jack Parker, Jerry York).
I have not watched a games since before Christmas due to the passing of a close relative. But today, I tried to catch up with the news on the blogs and see how the team was doing. I knew from the Newsday that the team had lost to the Rangers and beat Florida but it’s not the same as watching the game.
In any case, I see where Comeau has begun to play better and has actually been a plus player for a few games while picking up some points. Maybe 505 is right about him, I think.
So I settle down on the easy chair and turn on tonight’s game and within the first two minutes I see Tikhonov skate rings around Comeau, who just stands there watching him, and deposit a backhander past DP for the games first goal.
Later, in the second period while 4 on 4 I watch as a Coyote D-man comes off the bench and blasts the puck into the net while # 57 fails to cover his point.
Another, minus 2 game for Comeau.
Now, this kid may have some offensive upside, but someone needs to take him aside and teach him how to play on his own side of the blueline.
Hockey has always been a two way game….Sir William
Congrats to dougie and bailey. Good to see that the kids are playing well as of late and as for Okposo, man hes really gaining confidence out there and is bringing his game to a new level. Frans Neilsen skated today in practice any guesses when he makes his return? Hopefully end of January
Side note …I’m totally with CB on this MSG Plus2 nonsense …it looks like the coverage you would see a high school team get - not for a major sport …I have an HD box and that’s the quality Cablevision wants to give me all the time?
There were times tonight when the seats and fans at the arena took up at least 50& of the screen shot on MSG+. Bush league.
UIF (#7)- i agree - park’s actions spoke volumes in terms of his attitude towards his team and teammates. typical park. not enough guys like him around.
comeau should have shot.
witt and campoli would make a nice package.
DP is RUSTY.
I miss Frans.
I hope that tomorrow night is interesting.
Almost…
Congrats to Dougie (well deserved! and well recognized by Coyotes with their fans) I’m OK with the loss to such a classy organization. They played a good hockey tonight. I wish our defense was as physical as theirs. This was the main reason of their win.
Congrats to Josh! I realy liked his play tonight. He finaly got the TASTE. Good for the kid.
Bergie, Park, KO and Streit are the usual stars of the Island.
Jackman and Comeau had all bad luck of the game. But they will learn from it.
Good luck in shark tank. Sharpen your garpoons and lets go hunting!
At the start of the season, I thought the Isles needed the most help up front, but now I’m beginning to think it’s on defense. After Streit, there’s not much to be thrilled with. Campooli is inconsistent, Witt and Sutton are slow, Martinek is always hurt and Gervais and Myere are strictly depth players.
even streit had some bad plays tonight.
we have already and now certainly will miss mike silli in the faceoff circle. this is an area we need to improve in.
The sad reality is that we really need help on both “O” and on “D” …I really feel like it’s a win-win situation …the key is to finish last to atleast be assured of one of the two …
Sir William that was Myer that got undressed in front of DP not comeau. Comeau has been very solid the 5 games or so. Witt is to blame on that goal.
MSG+2 is TRULY the Plus-Minus.
You know, cablevision says in their advertising that you can watch all NY sports teams “every game in HD”, which is a bold faced lie. That’s false advertising right there. I would love to sue…but I’m on Time Warner, and they make no claims of any game in HD.
As for the Jiggs/Billy quote, I was laughing my ass off the way Jiggs said “How come?”
BTW, where is Howie?
actually i agree with sir william. he got the penalty and instead of keep playinghe put up his arms and the play went right by him
Fun game tonight…one thing I constantly see is that this team has a lot of fight. They never give up. What it comes down to is just lack of talent, not effort.
One guy thats been standing out is Comrie…you can actually really see that he’s a different player when healthy. He can actually move around.
P.S. I like to see this team do well…but I want Tavares.
congrats josh and doug!
My wife actually placed the look of the game in the 80s, but no, it was not just your TV. The highlight clips they showed of Gretzky looked exactly like the live game. The color was so washed out I might as well have been watching channel 9 on the 10″ black and white in my parents’ kitchen when I was a kid.
Up All Night? Any chance that’s as in I’ve been up all night/I might sleep all day/Get your dreams just right/Then let ‘em slip away…
Also, I think this is Howie’s vacation time when they go on the western road trips. Between his time with the Mets and Isles I think he doesn’t get that much of a break
I just got a text from the boys in the broadcast truck that I should have “watched the game on digital 414 than analog channel 14.”
Howie is on vacation.
CB
I was at the game tonight…DiPietro looked extremely shaky..at best. That does not even include the many lapses in team defense….that 5th goal (breakaway) was inexcusable at any level. On the plus side…it was nice to the team did not throw in the towel after trailing 5-2. Seeing Weight and Baily both accomplish what they did was satisfying…however…it still came in a loss. I am on board with the rebuild and do not want a “quick fix”. On a side note..I read Greg Logan’s blog on how the Islanders should try to imitate what Glendale did with the Westgate project. I completely agree. Even though Phoenix is not a hockey hotbed…and never will be…they got it right with their arena and the surrounding area.
Not a bad effort tonight. DP was definately rusty and that’s understandable. He let in 2 or possibly three goals he would normally stop. Tambellini is playing much better. I beginning to appreciate some of the things Comeau brings to the table but he must be more responsible defensively and I think he holds the puck too long on offense. Okposo looks more and more poised every game recently. Nice overall effort in a defeat.
CB’s point about the Yotes’ successful rebuild should be underscored; none of the very talented young players he mentioned - Turris, Mueller, Boedker, Hanzal - were picked in the top two of the draft. I don’t agree with this losers mentality of “lets really suck so we get Tavares”. In today’s NHL, if you draft well, and keep/develop your prospects properly, you can rebuild the right way while remaining competitive. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have Tavares, but I hate the idea of throwing away the season before we get the mid-way point.
CB - Re 414 vs 14..
You are right, on cablevision you have that option, and it looks slightly..ever so slightly better…Time Warner has only the analog TV Guide channel, the digital still plays TV Guide.
CB, did your source mention if Petrov played tonight, didn t catch the game. As metioned yesterday (or was it the day before…New Years, hmmm) Petrov looked like he was floating in the Sweden game I went to. Limited ice, but he did look imposing setting up in front of Markstrom (sp) on the power play. No jump in his step though- must still be hurt. Any word on that…
o-town: Petrov was skating better tonight, but then didn’t play much when Russian coach shortened his bench in second half. Good night y’all…CB
Chris,
An interesting story would be to cover what you and some of your scout friends think that Islander veterans would garner on the open market.
Interesting reading about Marian Gaborik’s surgery on his other hip being performed by the same doc, Marc Philippon, who performed Dipietro’s 2 (or least that we know of) hip surgeries. Even weirder that both players were drafted 1 and 3 on the same year. And, it was in last year’s all star game skills competition that Gaborik’s move led to Dipietro’s injury to his other hip. At least these 2 are helping keep ortho docs in vail, colorado in business.
BTW, I say we sign Gaborik to a 10 year contract next year. At least it would show the league that we learned our lesson-not to sign players to 15 year contracts.
Yeah I was watching the 414 telecast and it was still washed out. Totally unacceptable that the Islanders can’t get a decent TV Station for a 9pm game…
Actually, Dubielewicz is, as Petrov, very much unavailable playing in the KHL.
He’s on Ak-Bars Kazan… 2.77 GAA, 11 wins in 21 games… he’s filling in for the main goalie (Stanislav Galimov) as he’s injured or something. Which probably means they’ll fight pretty hard to keep him there, transfer agreement or not.
That’s the same team as Alexei Morozov, who seems to be doing pretty well.
Sangunetti? Eek! Good thing the man of thunder (Okposo) intervened. Botta, what’s with the Islanders tests for drafees? I mean, Christ, we’ve heard (see: Tyler Cuma) how hard the Islanders interview. What’s it about?
in response to westfall (41) yes this is about “sucking and getting a top draft pick and landing Tavares” this team not only needs an infusion of offensive talent but a player this team can really market and promote. The islanders have not had a player like that in 20 years!!!! DP is a goaltender and we dont live in montreal. Goalies are not marketable period! nobody goes to hockey games to see the goalies they want to see the skaters who shoot and score and make plays!! and Tavares by all accounts and his recent highlight reel goals at the WJC is that player! I agree with you that you have to draft smartly throughout the draft, however when you are smelling a player like tavares you get him! Dont you think the pens were happy to lose all those games and land Sid? nuff said. The focus should be about they young players getting better and developing at the nhl level. Lets go Islanders
How good is Jiggs??? Howie who? (I’ve been saying it for years… but Howie is tough to listen to. Maybe it’s because I am a Yankee fan and couldn’t imagine the guy who announces the 2 teams that I dislike announcing for one of my teams… Naahhh… Howie’s just hard to listen to)
Tough to criticise Comeau at this point…. NO?
Nobody was saying DiPietro looked rusty against Toronto.
DOC
Isles keep up the “good” work! In which I mean keep losing, but in an entertaining way! TAVARES
Mueller is better than Oksopo. The Islanders made a (another) mistake there.
Petrov looks like a waste of oxegen.
I missed the third period, opted for some extra sleep, The broadcast quality video and sound on ch 414 was awful, marginally better than on 14, I kept craning my neck to see better and was wondering if I needed eyeglasses, glad to hear it was just another quality broadcast from Cablevision.
DP looked VERY rusty. Glad to read we did not fold in the third!
Looking forward to tonight and UP ALL NIGHT.
Mueller has put up more points than Okposo at this point in thier very young careers. Let’s not declare the 2006 draft a bust yet ok?
I still think Howie is one of the better PBP guys out there. I was listening to part of the game on XM last night which carried the PHO feed. Thier color guy made a statement along the lines of “the Islanders looked pretty solid on paper at the begining of the season”. Really? Our Islanders? Not real good fact checking over there…
Its all warm and fuzzy with Mr. Weights 1,000 pts yet we are a last place team. Hmmm all i can think about is FIRST round pick !!!
The quaility of the broadcast was terrible on ch 14 and on 414. Also, why no pregame? They announced that there would be a pregame show before every game for the rest of the season.
As far as the game goes, I can handle these kind of loses. I would rather see a win but if we can show some good effort, develop some young players and get the first pick, I’d be happy.
Yes the picture looked like a low level college game.The people at cablevision obviously aren’t isles fans. I actually talked to cablevision last night because I lost some hi-def stations and needed my box zapped. I brought the situation up knowing the flunky on the other end could do nothing. He did say he will talk to someone about it…I know,I know..lip service.
I like Weight, but 970 or whatever of his points were put up in other places. Isn’t he one of the Americans rumored to have trashed his Olympic Villa at the Olympics several years ago?
mueller v.s okposo is like comparing apples to oranges -one is a slick playmaking c/w , the other is a power winger .I’d bet the coyotes we’re equally as high on okposo as they were Mueller at the time of that draft.
I’d love to see a 50/50 split of the games down the stretch between Rick/Mack for obvious reasons .
If they are going to lose, lose like that. THAT is what I expected, more than the pathetic efforts of December (for the most part).
Congrats to Dougie and Josh…but i would have loved to see the fist fight over the puck if 1 and 1000 were on the same play.
Park is just tremendous. It’s amazing how much he creates with the little 5 on 5 (with real players) time he gets.
Last night’s game was definitely LOW-DEF.
Howie Rose stay with the METS and please come back full time JIGGS.
Re 414 vs 14..
As always, the picture quality on Verizon Fios was excellent. Unfortunately, they do not yet have the games in HD (thank you Cablevision). But the standard picture on Verizon is dvd quality. Also, nice game. Entertaining; Baily scores, Weight gets the milestone and we are 1 step closer to Tavares/Hedman.
CB
You should know that ever since you launched this blog, I can count on one hand the amount of times i have opened the NYI website. With objective reading like this, who needs their propaganda.
I didn’t get to see the game because my VCR decided to eat the tape. Why is it MSG can offer a replay of the Knicks game from noon to 230PM and a “Knicks in 60″ at 10AM but thr Plus can’t do the same for the Islanders? Because they are Dolans.
Let’s wait for Monday morning to come before we say DP got thru the game injury-free. What the Islanders should do is build up his workload. A couple of one period games followed by a couple of two period games before a full time schedule. But the Katzenjammer Kids are running the show.
Are the Islanders going to excise the clip of the Dragons from their “Light house” ads?
Chris, - no, it wasn’t your TV, the picture quality was indeed poor, but that’s typical with what I usually see on the Center Ice package. I find that the games from Atlanta are a lot like that too. And, the interaction of Jiggs and Billy Jaffe was especially good. Jaffe is far superior to Harry Neale who is his Sabre’s counterpart.
I guess we have to expect the roller coaster ride defensively with all the injuries, but it just looks like there are so many missed assignments…
Instead of Hunter flipping grilled cheeses with his stick, maybe a between periods segment on the x’s and o’s of the system Witter complained about would help us fans better understand what GoGo is trying to create.
Is Hillen going to get NHL time this season?
Showing some signs on offense, good sign, but this team and its ’system’ needs to learn how to play D. Had they played good D last nite, they would have had one, if not two points. Buts its all about Tavares anyway.
Great overall game by Bailey. Aside from the goal he was much more aggressive and visible throughout the entire game. His hard work last night paid off. Congrats to both Josh and Doug.
TsN was doing the Russia vs. Czech game last night, and they mentioned how the development of the Russian teenagers was truly being hampered. McGuire talked to Petrov who plays in the KHL and he said teenagers get little to no ice time in that league. The Russians were working on a jr. league for this year but failed. They also went on to say that it was Petrov’s own fault for signing with that league because you play were you sign. I think they were taking a cheap shot at signing for the money rather than developing somewhere else properly. Anyway, go Canada go today, Tavares all the way. Happy New Year from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Go Isles tonight too. My evening is set.
What’s worse than staying up late at night to watch the Isles lose? Having to wake up at 5:00 am that next morning to drive 90 minutes to coach a mites team to a loss that was totally due to poor officiating…. enuff of that.
————-
Congrats Doug and Josh … I had a feeling it would be on the same night … and our friend from two time zones away Mr. Islander505 was there to witness it… it’s all in the timing.
————
People need to remember … the Yote’s rebuilding wasn’t done in ONE year … they’ve been building the hard way since the lockout .. they are a good 3 years ahead of the Isles in rebuilding … so you can’t compare where we are in stages of rebuilding to Phoenix. They’ve been able to add some free agents upgrades and make trade aquisitions over the past couple of years because of their fierce rebuilding efforts … Hey … can you imagine if they didn’t lose Blake Wheeler in FA to the B’s when Blake chose not to sign with them??? They’d be another year ahead.
—————-
The Isles are going to have nights like that … they just don’t have the pure talent and in their prime vets to power the team … they are on the first leg of their Western swing … so it might be a tough adjustment for a team already lacking skill.
DP looked flat out … flat … 2 or 3 of those goals were stoppable … just bad reads by DP … The defense is another problem all together… Drafting Hedman isn’t going to make the Isles’ D any better than drafting Tavares is going to do for the Isles’ offense.
Tavares will put butts in the seats though … and it will be a lot easier to attract prime FA’s with a Tavares than it would with a Hedman … IMO … In a perfect world it would be great to get both of them … but that is as likely as the Sharks tanking the rest of the season and finishing dead last.
——————–
The whole cablevision quality issue. I live in NJ … and I always here about issues with the Isles’ signal on the MSG +/- or even sometimes just the regular + channels … since last season. I have to say … my Cablevision of NJ and Direct TV provides pristine quality video for the broadcasts 99% of the time … I never see the issues that you guys speak of. I work in the TV injury and my job is quality control … the worst part of my broadcasts is usually Howie Rose’s rants … so last night I had an awesome quality Isle’s broadcast with Jiggs doing PBP…. Cablevision on Long Island must be having Headend problems (where they receive and re-distribute the signal on their cable network) … they probably have a VDA (video distribution amplifier) that is sensitive to high whites and it messes with the video gain being distributed … or it over compensates … it is Cablevisions’ engineering and quality control people that need to get on that … it seems like a cronic issue. Not at all the fault of the people in the truck …. oh … and the reason it looks better in digital … is because the signal is resequenced from analog to digital before hitting the network … but if their receive is bad at the headend … then it’s a matter of “garbage in - garbage out” …. they need to check their analog demod … or digital decoder outputs at the headend… I hope this helps my LI Cablevision subscribers. Sorry for the long post … but I wanted Isles fans in LI to enjoy a game without that BS.
my friend works at the head end on long island. due to the fcc they are getting rid of the analog equipment and broadcasts and are going entirely digital. for that reason they have old equipment on the analog. possibly reason for the bad broadcast? soon it will be gone and all digital
Wanted to say congrats to Doug and Josh.
It was great to see one line making some real PLAYS.
Good (mental) effort at the end to try to come back. Go Parkie.
I have been pretty vocal against Comrie in the past. But I have to admit he’s making me watch him. There is still something I don’t trust there. But Mike Comrie, you get one kudo from me, Willis.
Congrats Doug the Isles should look to keep him around to teach the kids what it takes to be a total class act. Before Doug played on the Isles I was always a fan of his great play. Love seeing an AMERICAN reach milestones I could only dream of.
On judging Kyle that makes no sense he is a rookie. On judging the Islanders is stupid the team is young and we all knew winning would be limited. I enjoy watching the young guys play. I’m glad to see gordon is giving them ice time.
The one thing we all should remember from the milbury era is let these kids develop don’t expect greatness in their first year but for years after they learn the environment of the NHL game. Do I need to name all the players in the NHL who were drafted by the Isles then traded for the likes of a linden and who are now productive parts of their team. I’m not cause the list is long and I get pissed thinking about it.