Monthly Archives: December 2011
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e-mail: snymetrohockey@gmail.com
Rundown
Islanders Call Ups
Isles/Dallas Preview
Other local news and notes
Adam Rotter of SNYRangersBlog joins in
Rangers Current Events
Reaction to Dallas loss
Sean Avery and Future Roster Moves
Brian Engblom of NBC Sports Network
Chris, Brian and Adam talk all 3 locals
Dave Harmon, HBO Coordinating Producer of 24/7
Chris and Dave discuss last night’s premiere and go behind the scenes of the show
The Forecast
Craig Button of TSN and NHL Network on World Junior Championships
Chris, Brian and Adam talk Team Canada and Team USA
VERIZON FIOS TO CARRY ISLANDERS IN HD
Want to know how a cable company loves you? When they’ll go to court to make sure you see your favorite team in HD (OK, and maybe to level the playing field in the marketplace too). Long story short, Cablevision (aka Optimum) wouldn’t give Verizon MSG and all of the Pluses to you in HD. For the longest time, it’s been one of Optimum’s biggest marketing slogans that ‘you can only get News 12 and all six NY sports teams and the Mets all seven NY sports teams in HD on Optimum.’ I think I may have the commercial memorized. So Verizon took it to the FCC who said Optimum had to share their toys. And yesterday Verizon announced that you can have some of the HD-goodness too. You may start getting the channels as soon as today.
POULIN AND DE HAAN IN
So even though Evgeni Nabokov has been practicing with the team for nearly two weeks, he’s not ready to go. The Islanders have recalled Kevin Poulin from Bridgeport and he will start tonight to give Al Montoya a break. Also up is Calvin de Haan to replace an injured Steve Staios. At practice today, Capuano said he was leaning towards pairing de Haan with Dylan Reese probably due to Sound Tiger familiarity.
Steve Staios is out of tonight’s game against Dallas with a possible concussion. No word on when Staios’ concussion occurred and no official word from the Islanders that it is, in fact, a concussion. The Official Twitter is calling it an “upper body injury.” But hey, there’s definitely no concussion epidemic in the NHL. Nope. Nothing to see here.
Update (12:30pm): I missed it before, but Rick DiPietro was placed on IR to make room for Poulin. That is retroactive to 12/3 so he can come off at anytime.
SPEAKING OF THINGS THAT MAKE HEADS HURT
That Hamonic ejection/referee brain cramp got rescinded. Rescinded very, very quietly.
MARK FISTRIC IS IN THE BUILDING
A friendly reminder in case you forgot but I’m sure you’ve had it marked on your calendar.
Update (3:30pm): Fistric will NOT be in the lineup tonight.
Also, former beat writer for Newsday Alan Hahn has joined MSG as an analyst for both basketball and hockey.
There’s plenty here we think you’ll be interested in.
Isles take on the Western Conference contending Stars @ Nassau Coliseum on Thursday Night. Want to score some premium seats on the cheap and kick off the weekend early with some puck? Thanks to TiqIQ’s “Pick Your Price” feature, with and offer around $40 a ticket you can save over $75 each off retail price + no service or shipping fees! But act fast, this offer ends shortly after 8 PM tonight.
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If you like hard skating gritty hockey, the third period would’ve been right up your alley. Otherwise, for much of this game the Islanders played uninspired save for a few individuals. Another night of getting to the puck a little too late, getting caught on back checks and soft ugly goals.
The Isles looked to get off to a decent start as Matt Moulson netted his 15th after taking a feed from the top of Carey Price’s left circle down to the lower right circle from PA Parenteau. Moulson skated across the crease back to Price’s left and put a backhander in.
The lead would be short lived however as Andrei Kostitsyn would net his ninth. David Ullstrom was left trying to check both Kostitsyn and Plekanec on the play as Steve Staios was struggling to get back. Kostitsyn put a wrist shot past Montoya on the blocker side.
The Canadiens would take the lead at 13:28 of the first on a soft goal via a Mathieu Darche slap shot from above the circles that trickled between Montoya’s blocker arm and body and rolled into the net.
In the second, the Islanders looked more lethargic than in the first, but managed to keep the Canadiens off the board despite being outshot 15-10. The Canadiens did an exceptional job of getting in Montoya’s face for a lot of the night and really, the only answer came in the form of a push from PA Parenteau late in the period for which he was given a roughing penalty to match a goaltender interference call (that appeared to only be called after Parenteau pushed Louis Leblanc). If you’re relying on PA Parenteau to defend the crease area, there will be problems with teams running your goaltender.
The third began with 36 seconds remaining on a Matt Martin boarding call against PK Subban. After the Canadiens’ David Desharnais, Michael Grabner made a gratuitous pass at defense along the boards that Desharnais easily sidestepped and fed the puck to Subban at the point. The give and go worked beautifully as Subban found Desharnais down low who fed across the crease to Erik Cole for an easy tap in goal. Cole was one of the most aggressive crease-crashing Habs on the evening and at one point pushed Hamonic into Montoya knocking the net off the moorings. He then dug the puck off the boards and fired at the dislodged net earning him a shove from Travis Hamonic.
The prettiest Islander play of the evening was Josh Bailey’s goal to bring the Isles back to 3-2. David Ullstom outworked a man along the boards and took a hit to feed Mike Mottau at the point. Mottau fed a hard pass to Rolston who was just outside Price’s crease to his left and in too tight to get a shot off. He dished a backhand feed across the crease to Bailey who pulled the puck through Cole and back against the grain to his backhand catching Price out of position and for a wide open net.
Six minutes later, John Tavares scored his 10th on some hard work by the entire line that included Ullstrom (?) and Parenteau. The latter two did a lot of digging in the corner to free up the puck. Ullstrom came away with it, dished to Tavares who dropped it to Parenteau in the corner. He fed back toward the front where JT had several whacks at it before it trickled over the line…notable on the play, Ullstrom plowed through Price. The kid gets it. Apparently, that really wasn’t going to be called, and it helps score goals. It would be nice to see more of that…from everyone.
The final non-empty net goal was another head scratcher. Former Islander bust Petteri Nokelainen put a blue line slap shot past Montoya that upon further review, showed he was screened by Steve Staios on the play.
After that, the game looked a little fire-drill ish. The Islanders had difficulty generating much sustained pressure and Montreal clamped down defensively getting sticks on loose pucks, in passing lanes and on shots. Hal Gill sealed it with a 150+ foot empty netter. Heartbreaking after a nice gritty third period effort to claw back into it.
Noticings:
- The Canadiens have a pretty difficult roster to spell.
- About the only players that looked to have some real jump tonight were Josh Bailey, David Ullstrom, Travis Hamonic and John Tavares. They need a full team effort to win most nights and when they got that in the third period, they were dangerous.
- Steve Staios had a very tough time against a quick Montreal team.
- Al Montoya may need break or a visit from goaltending guru Sudsie Majaraj. He is starting to sit back on his skates a little more and seems to be going down a lot and giving up fatter rebounds. Could be a slump, could be tiredness, but should be looked at.
- The Islanders had little answer for the Canadiens’ physicality…which is really pretty unbelievable considering who non-physical that team is.
- This looked like the uninspired, slow skating, poor passing debacles we saw during the losing streak. Problem is, now we’re fresh out of Comeaus to waive.
- Grabner hasn’t been the same since the groin injury. Does anyone remember a breakaway since? He’s not catching up to people on defense or pulling away on offense…there needs to be more since he’s not a very physical player. Hopefully the Isles will give him a rest so he can get back to “light speed” Grabner.
SUBSCRIBE, Rate and Review IN ITUNES
To subscribe, click the link above and then click VIEW IN iTunes, You will then see a button asking you to subscribe to the podcast.
e-mail: snymetrohockey@gmail.com
Rundown
Devils-Lightning recap
Adam Henrique
Devils-Ducks trade
Brian Compton – NHL.com
Devils-Panthers preview
Rangers-Stars preview
Islanders-Penguins recap
Islanders-Canadiens preview
Kenneth Elmore – Dean of Students at Boston University
Corey Trivino arrest
The Forecast
Tonight’s Local Predictions
24/7 preview
Update: Al Montoya is your starter tonight
SAVING SILVERMAN DEMOTING HALEY
This week’s conspiracy du jour is Micheal Haley getting sent down to Bridgeport after being a healthy scratch for the last four games. Yesterday, he was returned to Connecticut and goalie Evgeni Nabokov was activated from IR as expected. The move didn’t go hand in hand, as Kevin Poulin had been returned on Sunday to make room for Nabokov. So, without further ado, here is your conspiracy theory roundup:
Fornabaio points out that it could have something to do with Haley’s contract status in the off-season as to whether or not he turns into an RFA or UFA (via LHH).
Dominik at Lighthouse floats the idea that it could be a room making maneuver for the Lightning’s newly-signed Antti Miettinen. Miettinen is returning from the KHL as the league’s newest walking, talking Billboard for Why the NHL is Better than the KHL and like Nabokov before him, is subject to a pass through waivers before his final destination (if unclaimed) of Tampa Bay. Miettinen was last seen posting 35 points in 73 games for the Wild last season.
Now here’s the part of the post where I don’t just copy and paste from other blogs. Ready? Go. The whole big-to-do is that Haley was sent down sort of unexpectedly, as Kevin Poulin’s demotion on Sunday paved the way for Evgeni Nabokov’s return from IR. So, once Poulin moved, no other moves were necessary to accomplish this. After the dust settled, the Islanders now have 22 players on the roster, 20 healthy ones plus Nino Niederreiter and Rick DiPietro. Those two are hurt but neither has been formally placed on injured reserve.
So there’s a zillon angles to the Haley story. All in all, he wasn’t playing here having been scratched for five of the last six games, possibly having been outplayed for a spot by Tim Wallace. There’s a lot of reasons here. The Islanders have 20 healthy players to skate out in Montreal tonight and having one more in the press box doesn’t change anything. They’ll be back on Long Island Thursday for Dallas, a stone’s throw from Bridgeport if they need someone on short notice (who by the way doesn’t play until Friday at home). So this gives roster flexibility if they want to add Miettinen, activate someone from IR, use the emergency recall waiver pass for another player or flat out save the money of paying him NHL salary. Choose your conspiracy theory appropriately but in doing so please realize we may never know the real reason and it may or may not matter all that much anyway.
DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ ON THE INTERNET… WAIT WHAT?!
I noted it on Twitter earlier but if you missed it, John Tavares confirmed to me that he has never heard the nickname “the truth” used for him as cited on his Wikipedia entry. It’s pretty upsetting that this is false, given all the WWE references I could have made from it. The Little Jimmies aren’t happy either.
Speaking of JT91, the Islanders spent a long time working on the power play at practice on Monday. Here’s some of what Tavares had to say about it.
“Obviously the last couple games we’ve had a lot of opportunities and haven’t capitalized on them… [We need to work on] being able to generate pressure, being able to wear teams down and make it tough on their goaltender, things like that. We weren’t very sharp last game whether it was our entries, our in zone play. It’s something we have to work on and something we have to be better at.”
And Capuano on what the team was working on:
“Just some different looks are something we spent a lot of time on today. I felt that we had some zone time but again, we need to make sure we get more pucks to the net… Everyone tries to simplify it like that when they’re struggling but that’s really what we need to do.”
SWEET AND SOUR LIKE REESE’S PIECES AND PICKLES
Well, another day and another Islander joins twitter. I’ll leave it to @mattymarts17 to introduce the newest member:
@mattymarts17: #42 in your programs,#1 in your hearts. Commonly known as dylpickle or Reese’s pieces ,Dylan Reese is now on twitter.. @DreeseDicer #beauty
ALRIGHT, THE HORSE HAS HAD ENOUGH…
This is the last note on Hamonic Ejection-gate until something official comes down. Former referee Kerry Fraser made it his weekly column over at TSN.
