Monthly Archives: November 2011
LINEUP CHANGES
With Micheal Haley up, the scratches for tonight will be Nino Niederreiter, Brian Rolston and Marty Reasoner. These were the lines yesterday at practice:
Moulson-Tavares-Parenteau
Grabner-Nielsen-Okposo
Comeau-Reasoner-Pandolfo
Martin-Bailey-Niederreiter, Ullstrom
My guess would be that Haley slides into the fourth line center spot and Bailey will move up to the third line. So you may have a fourth line of Martin – Haley – Ullstrom.
Rick DiPietro is your starting netminder tonight.
MONTOYA BACK FOR THE WEEKEND?
Today, Capuano said that Montoya is close to returning. The sooner, the better. Kevin Poulin is getting quite the workload in Bridgeport, as he started all three of the Sound Tigers games last weekend on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Of course, it’s also better for Nilsson to progress in Bridgeport away from the bright lights and 5-0 shellackings where the defense checks out for the night.
OH AND…
This will be on the ice tonight:
Image credit: Isles Official Website
Updated, 11:00pm: Darren Dreger reported on TSN tonight that the Islanders are shopping Blake Comeau for draft picks.
With Mark Eaton placed on IR, the Islanders have recalled Micheal Haley from Bridgeport. Eaton has a sprained MCL and will be out six weeks. With this move, the Islanders are now carrying six defensemen and two goaltenders, not including Montoya and Eaton who are on IR. That leaves three possible forward spots to be healthy scratches tomorrow night against Philadelphia. Haley is not the answer, but he is an answer.
As former defenseman Darius Kasparaitis wreaked havoc on Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and Peter Bondra during a memorable 1992-93 post-season run, Andrey Pedan was just months away from being born halfway around the world in Kaunas, Lithuania. Yet, Pedan still is greatly impacted by Kasparaitis’ presence and has high hopes of patterning his game after the former blue-liner, who gave Islander fans some fantastic thrills during his nearly five seasons in Uniondale.
“I liked watching Darius play hockey,” said the 6-foot-4, 201-pounder Pedan, who grew up in Moscow, Russia, and was drafted by the Islanders in the third round – 63rd overall – of this past June’s NHL Entry Draft in Minnesota. “He is fast and he likes to hit.”
Pedan has translated that physical influence into being one of the rising young defensemen in the Ontario Hockey League, playing for head coach Scott Walker and the Guelph Storm.
“Andrey’s strength is definitely his size and his skating,” said Walker, who has coached Pedan for the past calendar year, after being named the Storm’s head coach on December 23, 2010 and guiding them to a 19-13-0-2 record to close out the 2010-11 season. “He still needs to physically fill out. I am not one who likes to project, but if [Andrey] doesn’t do too much and keeps things simple, he could be a top-4 defenseman on the NHL level.”
Walker speaks from experience, after finishing off a 17-year professional career last December for the Washington Capitals. In 829 National Hockey League games, Walker scored 151 goals and assisted on 246 others while racking up 1,162 penalty minutes playing for the Vancouver Canucks, Nashville Predators, Carolina Hurricanes and the Capitals.
Walker’s hockey acumen, along with his knowledge of the NHL game today, has provided him the wherewithal to project an NHL comparison to his impressionable 18-year old – a hulking defenseman frustratingly familiar to Islander nation.
“When I watch Andrey play, I see him very similar to [former Islander prospect and 2009 Norris Trophy winner Zdeno] Chara,” said Walker, who while playing for the Hurricanes, battled the 6-foot-9 Slovakian and the Boston Bruins through seven epic playoff games in the second round of the 2009 postseason. “They are both thin and have great hands. They both also shoot the puck extremely well from the point.”
Ironically Walker, who was vilified for breaking Bruin defenseman Aaron Ward’s orbital bone during game five of that series, would get the last laugh. He netted the game-seven overtime winner in Boston sending the Hurricanes to the Eastern Conference finals where they would eventually be swept in four games by the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Prior to earning first pairing minutes with 2012 NHL draft eligible defenseman and first round prospect Matt Finn, averaging nearly 30 minutes a night for the past year-and-a-quarter at Guelph, Pedan had a life-changing decision to ponder – to stay in Russia and pursue a hockey career in the Kontinental Hockey League or venture over to North America and pursue a career in the National Hockey League.
The decision was simple, according to Pedan.
“The reason I came to play here (in North America) was because of the level of hockey,” said Pedan. “In the NHL, the players play fast and they are much more physical.”
Yet, a then 17-year old – with no parental supervision – trekking to new surroundings could have had its drawbacks, but according to Storm assistant coach Chris Hajt, the transition was slow but steady.
“For Andrey to move from Russia to Canada, he had to adjust to a whole new way of life,” said Hajt. “The way of living, the style of hockey, the language and living away from home, it is a lot for a 17-year old to adjust to. We had to spend more time with him to make sure he was comfortable and adjusting well all during the season.”
Pedan scored two goals and had 10 assists in his first regular season at Guelph. He assisted on eight others during Guelph’s opening round loss of the 2011 post-season to the Saginaw Spirit in six games.
“He was so good in the [locker] room,” said Walker. “The guys liked to have fun with him. He fit right in.”
After being drafted by the Islanders in the summer, Pedan welcomed his grandmother to Guelph, and she would become a mainstay for his everyday life as the 2011-12 campaign approached.
“His grandmother helps him with the day-to-day things,” said Hajt. “With being so far from home, it helps having a family member there for support and help.
“Still, he is much more self sufficient this year. He is now more relaxed and comfortable with the way of living and hockey.”
In his first 18 games of the 2011-12 campaign, Pedan has more than doubled his goal scoring output from last season with five. He has 11 points, second to Finn (16) among Storm defenders.
“The pressure of being drafted is definitely off,” said Walker. “He is continuing to develop, and plays hard on every shift. He needs to be a little more disciplined as far as taking less penalties, but he has got all the characteristics a coach would want.
“An NHL estimate, he could get a look as a 20-year old (2013-14 NHL season). It’s all up to him.”
Outside of hockey, Pedan enjoys playing soccer and tennis, reading books and playing video games, but his first love is still hockey.
“My role model is (Philadelphia Flyer) Chris Pronger,” said Pedan, who was invited to play for Team Russia on November 10th in the 2011 SUBWAY Super Series against Team OHL and Islander top prospect Ryan Strome. “He’s tough and has a hard shot.”
Strome would score twice and add an assist as Team OHL outscored Team Russia, 10-7. Pedan would have four penalty minutes, and be held off the score-sheet.
With hopes of adding 20-to-25 pounds over the next 24-to-36 months, the comparison with Pronger may not be so far-fetched. Furthermore, playing on the same blue-line with fellow 2011 Islander draftee Scott Mayfield, who himself stands 6-feet-4 inches tall, could provide a presence that is currently lacking on Long Island – much to the chagrin of the die-hards.
On the Horizon is a regular feature from Alan Avital that focuses on the best Islanders not yet with the big club. Comments on Andrey Pedan and other prospects are welcomed in this thread. Talk about the big club continues in other posts.
Last night’s game was pretty awful on all accounts. The first line had a few flashes and you have to appreciate the effort from David Ullstrom. He played like someone getting his first shot at the big time. Anders Nilsson didn’t have a lot of help but he did make 30 saves including some big ones in the first. It’s hard to knock a kid who was put in a very tough spot. Otherwise, things were pretty ugly and there’s not a whole lot of use in dissecting a game that was more of a formality to Crosby’s return than anything else.
Last year, when the Islanders were in a similar funk it got coach Scott Gordon fired. Some of the talk — as is standard for any coach getting canned — was about how the players had tuned out the coach. In this case, it was the ‘task master’ Gordon. If Jack Capuano is the friendly buddy cop, then Gordon was the hard-ass sergeant.
Naturally, we saw the team loosen up a bit after Capuano came on board. Regardless of the results of the stretch run last year, one thing that was there was effort. Credit that to Capuano or simply being in a pressure-free zone at the bottom of the standings as you see fit. But now that there has been an unbelievable lack of effort from the team the question is; was Capuano an agent for change or was it simply the change itself that inspired the team?
This team came out of the gates playing decently, some nights better than others. Some nights have had more effort than others. As we’ve gone along, the problems have snowballed. No one has been able to stem the tide or solve any problems. That responsibility falls on leaders in the locker room (looking at the newly appointed captain here) as well as the coach. But, ultimately, it is the coach’s responsibility.
As we’ve gone along, little problems and big problems have each gotten worse and worse to the point that the team hasn’t scored in seven plus periods and has been listless for a month. After Saturday’s beat down at the old barn, Capuano was angry when talking to the media. Later, he held a closed door meeting with the team. Per Chris Botta:
Capuano, known for a player-friendly approach, was hard on his team in his postgame assessment after the Islanders were timid and uncompetitive throughout the drubbing by Boston… In search of answers, Capuano kept the players at the arena for two hours after the game. He must have been satisfied with his team’s response because, after the meeting, he canceled Sunday’s workout.
After a long meeting Saturday night, the team headed to Pittsburgh and repeated the effort and results that the coach had called them out both privately and publicly for. That sure sounds like a team that has bailed on its leader. It can certainly be said that last night’s game was an oddity, an extremely tough environment given the circumstances. Regardless, to have a visual copy of the Boston game repeated after the coach calls out the team is a pretty strong indictment of what he is doing.
It certainly looks like this is a team that is down and out, beating itself up and magnifying the mistakes that it makes. Capuano personified as much in the post-game interview on MSG. He looked exhausted, as if he had used up all of his options to right the ship. Maybe as a player’s coach Capuano was simply a welcome change last year when he replaced Gordon, the change itself helping to right the ship as much as the coach.
So if you’re looking for a post-game, it will be up in the morning. For now, you can re-read Saturday’s posts. If you replace “Bruins” with “Penguins” and “Seguin” with “Crosby,” it reads about the same. Tonight was a carbon copy of Saturday night.
After nearly 10 months out of the Penguins lineup, the North American media is having a collective party in Pittsburgh tonight for the return of Sidney Crosby.
It’s funny how things go in the national media for the Islanders. The team usually only gets attention nationally when something goes wrong — or is perceived to have gone wrong. With the amount of things going wrong this season, there’s surprisingly been little to no national coverage. On the other side of the aisle, the hand wringing over the trials and tribulations of the Columbus Blue Jackets have been never ending. Maybe a 3-1 start to the year was enough of a distraction? Maybe it was the quiet off-season with little money spent, the antithesis of what Columbus did this summer?
Regardless, the Islanders will be on national television tonight thanks to Sid the Kid. The game was moved to Versus nationally (still on MSG Plus in the local area) and 99.9% of the media in attendance will be focused on finding an angle on Crosby that hasn’t already been beaten to death. So sure, there’s going to be a lot of media in the Consol Energy Center tonight but they won’t be there to see the team that could lose it’s 12th in 14 tries and whose coach blew a gasket on Saturday night.The Islanders will come in under the radar and not be the focal point of the game. Maybe it’s better that way.
CROSBY’S RETURN A STATEMENT ON TOUGHNESS
Want to know exactly how tough teams around the league think the Islanders are right now? Look no further than tonight’s opponent. After everything that went on between the Penguins and Islanders last year and how cautious Pittsburgh has been with Crosby’s return, there’s no way in the world they would skate him out against the Islanders tonight if they thought he would be in any danger. No Haley, no Gillies, no Konopka? No worries for a team whose franchise player is one serious hit away from missing an entire season.
DIVISIONAL WEEK IS A MAKE OR BREAK
Earlier in the year, I wrote about how important games within the Atlantic division are for this team. Of course, given the losing streak, every game is important but it is poignant that a week of divisional play is going to be a deciding factor in whether this team gets it together or goes further down the rabbit hole. With games against Pittsburgh, Philly and a home-and-home with the Devils, there’s a chance to make up some ground if the Islanders can get their game together.
LINEUP CHANGES
With the call-up of David Ullstrom, you can bet he’ll be in the game tonight for [underachieving forward]. Kyle Okposo should also return tonight. One game was an eyebrow raised, two was a surprise and three was a shocker. Consider the message sent. Two forwards will sit tonight and the coach will have quite a few to choose from. Ullstrom can play both center and left wing. He’s been on Jeremy Colliton’s left at Bridgeport thus far. I expect Capuano to keep him on the left side, although Ullstrom’s flexibility does leave options open.
SPEAKING OF STATEMENTS…
Who starts in net tonight? Well that’s anyone’s guess. But here’s a thought — it would be an awfully big statement to start Anders Nilsson in front of a national audience. Not a statement about Nilsson, a statement about the guy who would be on the bench.
No lineups are confirmed at this hour of the morning. Be sure to check the Twitters for lineup updates.
Well this is an interesting way to start Sunday. The Islanders have recalled David Ullstrom — who is by far the best player on the Bridge right now — and before I could wonder, ‘wow, how did they have room to do that?’ Al Montoya was placed on IR retroactive to November 15th. Montoya could come off of IR after the Pittsburgh game (7 day minimum). It’s a roundabout way to call up Ullstrom without having to move a forward off the roster. Remember, there’s only Martin and Hamonic on two-way contracts, everyone else has to clear waivers.
← Older postsNewer posts →
