Monthly Archives: April 2010
4:30 pm: Alexei Ponikarovsky was suspended for two games for his boarding of Josh Bailey, but the 2008 first round pick is paying a higher price. Bailey suffered facial fractures from the hit last night and will not return to the ice for 4-6 weeks. If the Bridgeport Sound Tigers make the AHL playoffs, Bailey would not be able to join them for a while.
9:05 am: In determining the Islanders’ Most Valuable Player of 2009-10, the question has to be asked: who is the man most responsible for the team’s significant improvement over the last year?
The answer is Dwayne Roloson.
The statistics don’t tell the whole story, but anyone who has watched every Islanders game this season knows there is very little argument. In keeping his often over-matched team in the playoff race past the Olympic break, Roloson was one of the most valuable goaltenders in the league.
With two games remaining, Roloson is 23-18-6 with a 2.94 GAA and .908 save percentage. In the games he played in which the Islanders earned points, it would not be a stretch to say Roloson was one of his team’s best players in two-thirds of them.
Perhaps as soon as next season, the Islanders will be carried by a true breakout season by one of their core players. Although the team was full of happy stories in 2009-10, this was Roloson’s year. Thankfully for the Islanders, he is under contract for another one.
The Point Blank Ballot for NYI MVP:
1. Dwayne Roloson
2. John Tavares: Gets the edge on the rest not just for his team-leading production as a 19-year-old rookie, but for representing hope.
3. Matt Moulson: 28 goals, shootout mastery, responsible defense, great attitude.
4. Mark Streit: Averaged over 25 minutes a game and carried a thin blue line. Skill, guts, leadership, class. What a find.
5. Kyle Okposo: I want to keep the bar high for the young man. He had a strong season, but is capable of much more. The good news is, Okposo knows it.
Your selections for Islanders MVP only are welcomed in Comments. One post per reader please. We’ll invent and discuss some other awards over the next week.
10:20 pm: The Penguins “close” the Igloo in style. The Islanders were over-matched and overwhelmed. Sidney Crosby gets No. 49. A big night for lottery watchers. This, and more, in the Comments thread.
9:45 am: Effective at the end of this season, Islanders president Chris Dey will no longer be with the team on a fulltime basis. Dey, who has lived in Hawaii for most of his adult life, is returning home to be with his wife and children and to run his many local businesses.
The team has yet to make a formal announcement, and possibly never will. Dey’s step down has no effect on the on-ice product, and is also not a surprise. Since his arrival in 2007, because of his roots in Hawaii his tenure was never expected to be fulltime long-term. (He made the cross-country flight regularly). There is no word from the Islanders if he will relinquish the title in the team directory. Dey is expected to still have an active role with the team, including stewardship of the Islanders Children’s Foundation.
With Dey’s departure as a fulltime leader, veteran Islanders and Charles B. Wang executives will manager specific departments. Senior VP and longtime Wang friend and colleague Paul Lancey, who directed the PR and marketing for the Lighthouse Development Corporation, is now running ticket sales. Bridgeport Sound Tigers president Howard Saffan, who took a more active role with the NHL club this season, oversees administration.
Art McCarthy, the CFO of the franchise for more than 20 years and an alternate governor, is in charge of all matters related to finance. Ralph Sellitti, an Islanders employee since the early days of the franchise, manages ticket distribution. Tim Beach runs the operations department, which figures to be an even more time-consuming task now that the Islanders operate the arena. General manager Garth Snow is in charge of hockey operations. Wang, a very hands-on owner, has essentially always been the team president and has final say on all hockey and non-hockey decisions.
Dey, Wang’s son-in-law, is well-regarded by many fans for his personal touch. This blog has received emails from readers about acts of kindness by the out-going president. For example, several fans who wrote to complain about the signal of the team’s radio network received complimentary satellite radios from Dey.
Although Chris and I often disagreed – almost all the time very respectfully! – when I worked with him, I can assure you this: there’s no way he was the mastermind of the fan-unfriendly decision to hit season ticketholders with an April 1 deadline before interest changes kicked in. Not his style.
On a personal note, it was Dey who conceived the idea of having this former employee write about the Islanders on a fulltime basis last season to fill the team’s press coverage void. That door-opener helped me get started in my chosen career as a sportswriter. I thank Chris for being the founder of Islanders Point Blank and wish he and his family the best in the future.
This is a one-comment-per-reader thread. More later.
Blake Comeau is out for the final three games of the season after suffering a broken foot in the win last night.
12:10 pm: Top skaters in North America, according to Central Scouting: 1. Tyler Seguin 2. Taylor Hall 3. Brett Connolly 4. Erik Gudbranson 5. Cam Fowler 6. Brandon Gormley 7. Mark Pysyk 8. Emerson Etem 9. Derek Forbert 10. Ryan Johansen 11. Alexander Burmistov 12. Nino Niederreiter. Kirill Kabanov is dropped to 31. In Europe: 1. Mikael Granlund 2. Vladimir Tarasenko. Check out the final rankings at nhl.com. This is a one-comment-per-reader thead.
FanHouse: Islanders Crash Canadiens’ Clinch Party
9:15 am: He was a Sound Tigers roster player, not property of the New York Islanders, on New Year’s Eve when Matt Carkner seriously injured Tim Jackman with a series of premature punches in a game in Ottawa, but Trevor Gillies knew the score.
“Just because I wasn’t signed by the Islanders at the time doesn’t mean I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on with other guys in the organization,” said Gillies. “I keep an eye on everything. I love the game, and it’s my job.”
When the 31-year-old didn’t have Sound Tigers games on his schedule, he tried to never miss an Islanders game on the Centre Ice package.
“I have a stepson named Phoenix…he knows even more about the NHL than I do,” said Gillies. “Phoenix is nine years old, but he’s been a big part of my life since he was a year and a half. From watching the games on TV or playing the video games, he knows every player and their strengths and weaknesses. We watch the games together. I saw the tape of what happened with Jacks.”
However, when the Ottawa heavyweight asked Gillies to drop the gloves in the third period on Saturday, the 6-3, 210-pound Islanders left wing pondered the invitation for a few seconds. “We were up 3-0,” said Gillies. “By then, I thought it was a little late to be settling scores and you never want to risk giving the other team some momentum. Then I thought about Tim Jackman, decided the lead was big enough and figured, ‘Let’s do this.’”
Carkner and Gillies both connected on a few punches, but only Carkner was bleeding when it was over.
Said Gillies: “After the fight I said to Jacks, ‘That was for you, buddy.’”
From his decade in the pros at every level, Gillies knows all about the irony of having former foes as teammates.
“The funny thing with Tim Jackman is, I absolutely hated that guy when we played against him in the minors,” said Gillies. “Hated him. But from the moment I was called up to the Islanders, Jacks made me feel comfortable and has given me advice. He’s my teammate. He’s become a good friend.”
Saturday’s win over Ottawa was special to Gillies for another reason.
“My mom and dad came down from Cambridge, Ontario for the weekend,” he said with a big smile. “First time they’ve had the chance to see me play in the National Hockey League. That was special. This whole stretch has been special and I cannot thank Garth Snow, Scott Gordon and everyone enough for giving me the chance.”
The Islanders are 6-2-1 in their last nine games with No. 14 in the lineup. Over his eleven games this season, Gillies has one assist and 45 penalty minutes and – despite two unnecessary roughing penalties he’d probably like to take back - has kept his plus-minus at even. In the victory last night over Montreal, he kept the puck moving to linemates Jackman and Richard Park and put a big hit early on Sergei Kostitsyn – all in his allotted 3:19 of icetime.
End-of-season coincidence or not, the Islanders have looked like a tougher, more confident team with Gillies as cop, jury and executioner. “I find the more I get in the other team’s face and talk it up on the bench,” he said, “the more the rest of our team gets involved in the game.”
That was most noticeable on Saturday afternoon, when every player with the Senators knew his name by the end of the game. Later that night on “Hockey Night Live,” Ken Daneyko – in this blogger’s opinion, one of the best warriors and winners of the last twenty years – paid the ultimate compliment to Gillies. “Gillies has made a big difference in their lineup,” said Daneyko, the former Devils defenseman and sometimes pugilist. “The Islanders should look at bringing him back. They haven’t had that kind of presence in a while. They could use Trevor Gillies.”
The killer from Cambridge was humbled by the praise and the man delivering it. “Wow,” said Gillies. “That’s awesome to hear. Scott Stevens was one of my favorite players and I loved watching him and Ken Daneyko. Stuff like that makes you feel good, especially coming from a man who knows what it takes to win.
“I hope I’ve given the Islanders something to think about,” continued Gillies, who is an unrestricted free agent at season’s end. “Either way, I’m very appreciative of the opportunity. If Garth and Scott decide it’s for the best of the franchise that I come back in my role, I would be proud to wear the Islanders crest.”
This is a one-post-per reader Comments thread and we’re done with the lottery stuff. Hope you enjoy this story. Your comments on Trevor Gillies and this post are encouraged. Thank you…CB
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