Here is a quick summary of the latest happenings in the NHL, partnered with a brief snippet of what I think regarding each.

• San Jose signs Scott Nichol to a 1yr deal worth $750k — this is a great pick up for the Sharks. Nichol is good depth guy who will energize the 3rd/4th line. Night in and night out Scott Nichol plays with his whole heart.
• LA re-signs Jack Johnson to a 2yr contract — great move by the Kings in keeping Johnson in LA. He is a terrific young defender with a lot of potential. As long as he avoids injuries this season, he will be an solid defensive asset.
• Calgary signs Nigel Dawes to a 2yr deal worth $850k per year — good depth pick up for the Flames. Dawes is a great two way player who is still young (only 24). He has some offensive upside, and the potential to produce more.
  
• Montreal signs Curtis Sanford to a 1yr deal — Sanford gives the Canadiens a dependable #2 goalie behind Price
• Edmonton re-signs Denis Grebeshkov to a 1yr contract worth $3.15m — personally, I feel as though the Oilers over paid extremely for Grebeshkov…I guess that’s what happens when you can’t wrestle Dany Heatley out of Ottawa
• Montreal re-signs Tomas Plekanec to a 1yr, $2.75m contract — not great, but not terribly overpriced at the same time. As long as he can bounce back from a disappointing 2007/08, Plekanec will be an effective 2nd liner for Montreal.
  
• Pittsburgh signs Brent Johnson to a 2yr contract at $1m per — good move by the Pens in shoring up their goaltending. With Garon gone to Columbus, Johnson gives Pittsburgh an experienced, capable back-up for MA Fleury.
  
• New Jersey re-signs Travis Zajac to an undisclosed contract — rumoured to be a deal worth $4m per year, I believe the Devils have overpaid for Zajac. However, I do believe he is a player that they could not afford to lose. Looking at it in that light, the Devils are paying for potential rather than immediate impact, and I do think that Zajac has the potential to be a major franchise & impact player soon down the road from now.
• NY Islanders sign Martin Biron to a 1yr contract worth $1.4m — a very interesting move by the Islanders. This definitely leads me to believe that franchise netminder Rick DiPietro is still not fully recovered from his knee injuries of last season. With Roloson and Biron in the fold, the Islanders have a reliable set of netminders to fill the gap while 15 year- #1 man DiPietro recovers. As a short term fix for the Islanders, Garth Snow couldn’t have done much better than employing these two NHL vets.
  
• Carolina re-signs Tuomo Ruutu to a 3yr contract worth $11.4m — while Ruutu is a solid impact player when healthy, the key is his health. Ruutu has only once played a full NHL season and that was in 2003/04 during his rookie campaign. While he played 79 games last season and was effective for the Canes, it will be interesting to see if he can continue to play similar game totals over the duration of this contract. As a player, I really like him and he will be a key in Carolina’s success….when he is in the line-up.
  
• Boston signs Derek Morris to a 1yr, $3.3m deal — considering that Morris is an offensive defenseman and he is coming off one of the worst offensive campaigns of his career, it will suffice to say that the Bruins have overpaid for his services. While he is dependable in his own zone, he is not spectacular. Morris has always been paid for his powerplay effectiveness, and his offensive contributions. Hopefully he will  find less pressure in Boston and bounce back offensively with Zdeno Chara holding down the fort…in both ends of the rink.

While other signings occurred, the above were the signings that I found to be of the greatest significance and impact.

While it is safe to say that the large majority of “big name” free agents have found homes for the 2009/10 season, there are still a few notable names left on the market. They include:

• Mats Sundin
• Mathieu Schneider
• Sergei Zubov
• Alex Tanguay
• Manny Fernandez
• Robert Lang
• Miro Satan
• Maxim Afinogenov
• Mike Comrie
• Todd Bertuzzi
• Manny Legace
• Mike Peca
• Jeremy Roenick

Above is not a complete list, but some notable free agents who are most likely to find new homes prior to the commencement of NHL training camp season.

Quickly before I leave you, there is one question that I am searching for an answer to. Assuming that Rick DiPietro is not available to start the season healthy with the Islanders, who do you choose as your replacement number one netminder, Roloson or Biron?

-m.o.b.

Martin Biron will remain in the Atlantic Division after all.

Marty Biron is off to Long Island

In somewhat of an odd turn of events, Biron signed a one-year deal to play for the New York Islanders this season.  Biron, who started 55 games for the Flyers last year, going 29-19-5 with a 2.76 Goals Against, will be the third wheel in a goaltending carousel that has been created in Long Island this off-season.  Earlier in the month, Free Agent Dwayne Roloson signed with the Islanders to provide insurance if franchise goalie Rick DiPietro was to go on the injury shelf again this season.  With Biron in the fold, the Islanders now have three guys capable of being number one goaltenders all on the same club, and all sharing the same dressing room.

To provide a method to his madness, former Flyer goaltender and current Islander GM Garth Snow offered the following statement, “Adding Marty gives us three bona-fide number one goalies.  We learned about the importance of stability in our line-up from last year and he now allows us to have another quality starter.”

There are two ways to look at this move:

1. The Islanders can now rotate their three goaltenders between every divisional opponent, so that each ‘tender gets two cracks at an Atlantic Division foe.
2. Each goalie can now play a period in each game, thereby not shouldering the load too much on any of the three.

….Those were both jokes, obviously (you cannot dress three goalies for a single game).  You have to feel for Biron here, this just seems like a disaster in the making.

Eat your heart out, Garth Snow. Just as you were a big brute between the pipes, so too shall be the goalies you draft. You surprised me by taking a huge Finnish goalie to start the second day of the NHL Entry Draft, but I was not surprised to see the day end with another hulking Finnish goaltender, Petteri Simila, being chosen at #211.

The pick at #211 is an interesting one for a couple of reasons. First of all, this final pick was actually traded for. Yes, the Montreal Canadiens made a deal with the Penguins to secure the lowest pick possible in the Draft. This was done partially in homage to the local fans, but partially because of the potential they saw in Simila. Secondly, the number 211 is the rare result of a compensatory pick given to the Rangers due to the death of Alexei Cherepanov.

Simila, who is listed at 6-foot-6, an inch taller than Koskinen, is quickly becoming known for his similarities to the Vantaa Vulture. Little has been documented on his play other than the obvious statistics and recognition of his size, but reports are saying that he moves well laterally, displays a lot of poise for his age and recovers quickly from the butterfly. So even though nobody uttered Simila’s name over the last three months, come draft day, he had instant appeal due to the fact he was just another massive Finnish goaltender.

Ultimately, you can thank Snow for viciously reinforcing the trend of drafting the bigger goalies sooner rather than later. His bold statement to take Koskinen to start the second round and Anders Nilsson to start the third round was not only a shock (considering the other goalies available), but also because Rick DiPietro is signed until 2020. When all was said and done, Snow’s bold moves reinforced the culture of drafting behemoth goalies for another year.

I could debate endlessly whether or not Snow should have snagged Koskinen in a later round, thus adding another quality skater to the organization, but it’s already a moot point. The Islanders have reportedly passed on offering Peter Mannino a qualifying offer, which leaves the door wide open for Snow to bring Koskinen over to North America and have him battle it out with Nathan Lawson in Bridgeport. Lawson actually signed an NHL contract in early-March, which brings him closer to playing for the Islanders, but a shoulder injury has hampered his progress just a little bit.

Overall, these moves might make Snow look like a goalie prospect tyrant to some fans. But honestly, this is one of those instantaneous “all or nothing” situations. Many times I’ve mentioned that a Finnish goalie benefits greatly from playing in their native homeland as long as possible, so bringing Koskinen over right away is a major risk, without a doubt. But at the same time, the move could work. Koskinen is easily capable of handling AHL play without needing more coaching in Finland, so he could thrive in Bridgeport and become a great replacement for doughboy DiPietro.

The Islanders goalie conundrum is an obvious situation for fans to analyze, right? Well, the most frustrating question I had after the Draft ended was, “Why on earth did Olivier Roy drop all the way down to #133?!”

Did I miss something? Did the scouts find out a negative aspect about his game, something about his past that caused his value to drop like this? I mean, regardless of his size compared to that of Koskinen, Lehner and Morrison, Roy was one of the top-ranked North American goalies available. A few have asked me why this happened and I honestly have no answer.

Regardless of his slippage, give the Oilers credit for snagging him. That’s a tremendous steal in my opinion, especially with all of the questions surrounding the 39-year-old Dwayne Roloson. He’s expected to test the free-agency market on Wednesday, which I feel would be a huge blow to the Oilers. Not only is Roloson a workaholic, but he ignites passion in his teammates and does whatever it takes to stop the puck (Tim Thomas).

Edmonton will need to bring in a goaltender with some veteran leadership, as Jeff Deslauriers is simply not ready for the starting role, and Devan Dubnyk is even further away from NHL duties. Who could come in and fill the void left by Roloson? I really think Craig Anderson is a perfect fit in Edmonton, but nobody really knows at this point.

Staying in the Northwest Division, the Colorado Avalanche finally gave me a reason to be excited about their future in goal. Outside of their AHL tandem of Tyler Weiman and Jason Bacashihua, the cupboard is empty. Yes, Trevor Cann is a quality prospect, but I see no long-term NHL potential there. Everyone else is about as prized as dirty bed sheets.

I’m excited because there’s a very interesting dynamic to watch develop between the two goalies Colorado chose. Kieran Millan, the standout freshman for Boston University, is actually a Canadian taking the non-traditional route of developing his game in the NCAA. Brandon Maxwell is a US-born goalie taking the non-traditional route of going from the USJDP to the CHL. In fact, Maxwell is expected to compete for the starting job with the Windsor Spitfires.

So my eyes will be glued to Maxwell and Millan over the next few years to see how a Canadian boy develops in the NCAA, a league that has him playing 35-40 games a season, compared to an American boy developing his game in the CHL, a league that could have him playing as many as 60-65 games in a season. Don’t be surprised if it’s Maxwell’s name you hear first when it comes to Colorado’s goaltending future. Honestly, just the fact that the Avs snagged two solid prospects in one draft is an amazing feat. Now they just need to learn how to use them, instead of constantly reeling in garbage goalies out of a dirty pond.

I was most impressed with Minnesota taking Matt Hackett and then following up with one of the best choices of the entire draft, Darcy Kuemper. This kid was extremely impressive for Red Deer and this video I found is proof of his potential with the Wild . The Coyotes did an awesome job grabbing Mike Lee at #91 as well. Considering the problems they will run into with Montoya and Tordjman, Lee could leave St. Cloud State as early as next summer and compete in the AHL.

Tampa Bay’s two goalies were very interesting choices as well. They took probably the weakest goalie of the 21 chosen with Michael Zador at #148, but redeemed themselves by taking Jaroslav Janus at #162. Tampa Bay has had a ton of turnover in net over the last few years, so a combination of Dustin Tokarski and Janus in the system should really excite Tampa Bay ownership.

The Lightning actually has a very interesting situation heading into Wednesday’s Free Agent Frenzy. Mike Smith is still recovering from post-concussion syndrome and Karri Ramo just bolted (no pun intended) to the KHL. That leaves the door wide open for Riku Helenius to make the team and play some games, which he’s perfectly capable of doing. But will Smith be healthy in time for the season? The last I heard, he hasn’t skated at all this summer, which makes things even tougher for Smith. If he isn’t the same, can they win with a combo of Helenius and Mike McKenna?

Anyways, there are too many questions for my brain to handle in between the Draft and the Free Agent Frenzy. I’ll just let things happen and then analyze the movement afterwards. I’ll leave you with some fun prophecies that I honestly have no idea about, but still has some realism to them:

1. Colorado will lose the Gustavsson race and then announce they are not offering Peter Budaj a contract. They will sign Martin Biron to a one-year deal for just under $3 million. If they pay any more than that, it’s a mistake. They will finally listen to me by letting Bacashihua and Weiman battle it out for the backup position.

2. Edmonton will let Roloson walk and look at signing Craig Anderson. It will be a great fit on paper, but Anderson will have a high price tag and that will cause some hesitation from the Oilers.

3. Jonas Gustavsson will surprise a lot of people by signing in Dallas instead of Toronto. He will cite the following two reasons: Dallas has more Swedes on the team, they now have an in-state AHL team…and he doesn’t have to get new pads because his Reebok’s from last season are already green, black and gold. Ha, ha, ha people…it’s just a joke.

Finally I would like to end class with these numbers to boot:

GOALIES CHOSEN BY ROUND
Round 2 – Two
Round 3 – Five
Round 4 – Two
Round 5 – Six
Round 6 – Five
Round 7 – One

GOALIES CHOSEN BY COUNTRY
Canada – 10
USA – 4
Finland – 3
Sweden – 2
Russia – 1
Slovakia – 1

So I don’t harbour any strange illusions that John Tavares should be compared to Sidney Crosby. The only similarity is that both were drafted to be franchise players.  Tavares can’t hold a torch to Crosby, however.   The New York Islanders, fresh off a dead-last finish in the NHL this last season, will be looking to repeat what the Penguins did with Crosby — rebuild, rebuild, rebuild.

Look at how the Penguins did it with their draft picks to turn their franchise around:

Marc-Andre Fleury (No. 1 in 2003)
Evgeni Malkin (No. 2 in 2004)
Sidney Crosby (No. 1 in 2005)
Jordan Staal (No. 2 in 2006)

Charles Wang, who once joked that he was reading “Hockey for Dummies” after buying the Islanders for $190 million in April 2000, is finally starting to get serious about running an NHL franchise.   Maybe he finally got on to Chapter 7:  How to Not Totally Screw Up Your Number One Draft Pick. Of course, this follows Chapter 6:  How to Turn Sumo Wrestlers into NHL Goalies.

Tavares has got his work cut out for him.   If he doesn’t perform, there is no telling what Wang will do.   Send him to China for some hard labour?  Er, I mean North Korea.

Charles Wang reads Hockey for Dummies...

After trading for Alexi Yashin, giving away Roberto Luongo, and passing on Dany Heatley and Marian Gaborik in the 2000 entry draft in favour of Rick DiPietro, one has to wonder what the heck the poor Islanders fans did to deserve this fate.   Wang didn’t do Computer Associates any favours with his rampant cost cutting and axing of top programmers.

What’s next? Well, you can’t build a Stanley Cup team after one draft.   Make some trades?  Let’s see.   You’ve got a franchise (gulp) goalie in DiPietro (signed until 2021 — no, that’s not a typo).   Your top scorer is a defenceman (Mark Streit – 56 points in 74 games).  No one on the team scored more than 20 goals last season.   Your team has the worst attendance in the league.

Maybe Tavares will pull an Eric Lindros and refuse to play for the Islanders.   Luckily for Wang, I think Tavares has way too much class to do something like that.

Stay tuned for more love and Wanginess on the Island.

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You want a good way of getting your independent scouting service its 15 minutes? Simply make a ridiuclous NHL prospect ranking list. This is what the Red Line Report recently has done by rating John Tavares as the 3rd best prospect in this upcoming NHL draft. In their recent report, they have ranked Swedish defenseman, Victor Hedman as the best prospect, followed by Brampton Battalion forward, Matt Duchene.

Gullable Avalanche optimists celebrate, which is quickly subdued when rumors of Pierre McGuire becoming their new General Manager swirl.

Kyle Woodlief of the Redline Report justifies his latest updat by claiming that Tavares is “one dimensional. If he’s not scoring, he’s not helping.” He also believes that his effort in the first two rounds of the OHL playoffs has been “underwhelming.”

Tavares’ London Knights were just booted from the OHL playoffs tonight against a much stronger Windsor Spitfire team. However, Tavares scored 21 points in 14 games. On the other hand, Duchene, who leap-frogged Tavares, only scored 20 points in the same number of games.

I am not saying that Duchene is a bad player. On the contrary, I think he is a great player. He is the type of player that the Leafs should target, since Tavares is likely unattainable. I am simply reiterating that it is riduculous to believe that Tavares should fall out of the top two positions.

I am not going to post a link to the website. This is what Woodlief wants. He wants to create a stir for his company by making absurd ratings in order to draw the masses to his service.

Trust me, you are not missing much. If I wanted to see a pixelated header with an incompatible red background, I would have asked for University of Western Ontario computer science class final assignment. Wouldn’t you think that if your company is ready to make some noise, you would upgrade your image a little? Based on what I have seen, the Red Line Report is nothing but a two bit operation that runs out of Woodlief’s grandparents’ garage.

With that said, why is this news? Why are we taking the Red Line Report so seriously?

It is simple. Toronto media has made it news. Why? Because Toronto is so committed in their quest of acquiring John Tavares. For some reason, Leaf Nation believes Tavares’ destiny lies in a Maple Leaf jersey. (Read more:  Chris Botta at Islanders Point Blank)

When reporting about the latest Red Line Report, TSN called the service a “well-known scouting report.” I have followed hockey for a long time, and I have never heard of “The Red Line Report.” As far as I am concerned, the governing body for NHL scouting are the Central Scouting Bureau and International Scouting Services.

Referring to an unknown scouting report as “well-known” or even publicizing this report is merely a weak attempt to

Closest JT will be to wearing blue and white

manipulate the public’s view of Tavares through the media. It is not only TSN who is part of this conspiracy. The Globe and Mail, the National Post, Newsday, and of course, the Toronto Star, has pooled their power to try and decrease the draft value of Tavares, which will give Toronto a better chance at acquiring him.

I am not saying that Tavares draft value will slip all the way down to Toronto’s seventh spot, but I am suggesting that the Toronto media is conspiring to decrease Tavares’ draft value to make him more attainable via trade.

Garth Snow, General Manager of the New York Islanders is not stupid. He knows what he possesses with the first pick in the draft and he knows what kind of player John Tavares is. He is unlikely to subscribe to a rag-tag scouting service or listen to the pompous Toronto media.

Face facts Leaf Nation: John Tavares is likely to become an Islander. You can try and manipulate the media, but this isn’t the hockey episode of Gossip Girl; people are not as naive as you may think, especially professional General Managers.

Leaf Nation should be more focused on scouting for their own pick or going out to the SkyDome and watch a Blue Jay game.

Rest easy, Islander Army.

Brian Burke has openly said that he will heavily pursue moving up in the draft and acquiring John Tavares. When he made this announcement at the pre-lottery press conference in Tuesday afternoon, the Greater Toronto Area’s hydro bill went through the CN Tower as the imagination lightbulbs of millions of couch potato GM’s went off at the same time pondered: What could the Leafs trade to get John Tavares?

In 1999, when Brian Burke magically landed the 2nd and 3rd picks in the draft to get the Sedin twins, he did so by trading someone and someone, using multiple teams. Let us examine possibilities for strictly a two team deal between the Leafs and the Islanders.

But Snow should keep the pick.

First round pick? Definitely. In 2009? For sure. And in 2010? Possibly.

Young prospects? Naturally. Grabovski? Kulemin? Tlusty? At least one of the 3.

Quit beating around the bush, Burke, you know what the Islanders want. Schenn? Now we’re talking.

Burke said that nobody on the Leafs is untouchable – including prized defenseman Luke Schenn. However, Schenn is as untouchable as a touchable player can get, if that makes sense. Frankly, all this touching and untouching is making me feel like I’m in Neverland. But you get the point.

In order for Burke to make a deal to get Tavares, he is likely going to have to give up his biggest chip in Schenn. I really don’t think it would bother Burke that much to give up Schenn. Firstly, Burke did not draft Schenn. Sure, he said it was a great draft pick by Cliff Fletcher, but it is not smart to openly criticize a high pick of a team that you just inherited. Secondly, if he has to trade away a stay at home defenseman from Western Canada for a dynamic forward from Toronto’s backyard, Burke wouldn’t think twice.

Already rumors are spreading in local media. One rumor has the Leafs trading Nikolai Kulemin, Luke Schenn, Jason Blake, cash, and a conditional 1st round pick in 2010 to the Islanders for the rights to the 1st overall pick and a roster player.

That is a lot of players going one way. I don’t know if the Islanders would want Blake back, who evidently thinks he never left the island, based on his current NHL profile picture. I don’t know if the Leafs want Blake back. Even with the quality of players going to the Island, the prospect of John Tavares being the face of your franchise is impossible to pass up.

If Brian Burke wants it that bad, Garth Snow should make him pay for it. Burke is willing to overpay, and Snow should force Burke to over-over-over pay. Kaberle, Schenn, Grabovski, Tlusty and a shit load of draft picks is the only way Snow should make a deal with the Leafs.

But Snow should keep the pick.

The Leafs as a trade partner would be more interesting if they had a decent farm system, but they don’t. Their prized blue chip prospect is Justin Pogge, Nikolai Kulemin and Jiri Tlusty. Weak.

If anyone has a good chance at offering good young talent for Tavares, it is Philadelphia. James van Riemsdyk, Claude Giroux, Joffrey Lupul, Luca Sbisa. Those are true blue chip prospects that nobody else can offer. They can even offer Daniel Briere (plus cash to pay half the contract) to entice Snow. Throw in Matt Carle. Why not? The guy has already been traded 3 times in 3 years. If any team wanted to make a more realistic run at Tavares, it would be the Flyers.

The Los Angeles Kings wouldn’t be a bad trade partner either. They can dangle their own 1st round pick this year (5th), plus Oscar Moller, Jack Johnson, Thomas Hickey, Wayne Simmonds, Alex Frolov.

But Snow should keep the pick.

From NHL.com:

With a 48.2-percent chance of being awarded the No. 1 pick (250 number combinations were assigned to New York), the Isles won the Scotiabank/NHL Draft Lottery on Tuesday night. The Islanders, who suffered more than 500 man-games lost to injury in 2008-09, had just 61 points (26-47-9), the fewest in the League.

The first round of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft will be held on June 26 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

Because the Islanders won the lottery, the draft order remains intact with the League’s regular-season standings. The Tampa Bay Lightning (66 points) will draft second, followed by the Colorado Avalanche (69), Atlanta Thrashers (76) and Los Angeles Kings (79), respectively. All five teams had a crack at the No. 1 pick.

“It was obviously something that was very well-publicized and something people were looking forward to, but being a goalie as long as I was, there’s a lot of things you can’t control,” Islanders General Manager Garth Snow told NHL.com. “We hoped for the best and probably didn’t sweat it out, knowing that I really didn’t have any control over the situation.”

It’s expected to be another huge draft for the Islanders, who also own the San Jose Sharks‘ first-round pick and three more selections in Round 2. New York also took 13 players in the 2008 Draft, including center Josh Bailey, who spent the entire 2008-09 season on Long Island. The Isles held the fifth pick in 2008 but traded down twice to No. 9, gaining more selections in the process.

The New York Islanders are the worst team in the league because they are the smartest team in the league. Going into last night’s game they felt Tampa Bay sneaking up behind them for the last place position in the league (Tampa actually as less wins than NYI); therefore, the Islanders knew they had to come out with a lackluster performance if they wanted to maintain their position for the best chance at landing John Tavares. They needed to lose last night vs the Leafs.

The Islanders got out to a good start by allowing a Lee Stempniak goal late in the 1st period. Then disaster strikes. Kyle Okposo and Blake Comeau, two youngsters who apparently didn’t get the memo, score two late goals before the end of the period. Garth Snow goes nuts. There is no doubt GM Snow went into that locker room and reemed out his team for taking the lead in the game.

The team responds in the second period. Not only are they held off the score board, but they take 5 penalties in a row to coerce the Leafs to score. Since the Leafs are the Leafs, the score remains 2-1 Isles. Leafs finally score in the 3rd and don’t take any chances in overtime, by letting Mikhail Grabovski score 50 seconds into the period.

Good on you Islanders. They tried their best not to get that extra point, but at least they didn’t get the dreaded two points. They are one step closer to landing the ultimate prize and for that, they have earned the MCofN.

Here are a few of my favorite things this am:

“No kidding the Coyotes operate under an onerous lease. But that’s exactly what previous owner Steve Ellman signed on for in exchange for his land-grab in Glendale, which was exactly the wrong spot to build a new arena and everyone but everyone knew it. Ellman didn’t care. He got his land. But now the NHL is supposed to bail out the franchise? Now the NHL is supposed to pump money into an organization that, somehow, is paying head coach Wayne Gretzky more than $5.5M this year and will pay Gretzky between $7-and-8M next season?” Larry Brooks

With the players taking the hit that they are, the count should expect long and hard questions about the league finances and the propping up of teams who do just enough to qualify for large revenue sharing payments. The ethical appearances of the league this day are all wrong.

“When Garth Snow talks about expanding the Islanders’ fan base in explaining why the team is playing a preseason game in Kansas City and spending the opening week of training camp in Saskatoon, it sounds like nothing more than an insult to the suffering fan base on Long Island. What is it about going to work in a suit and tie rather than in illegal pads that has turned Snow from an insightful, candid fellow into a suspicious, uptight individual?” Larry Brooks

Nothing like good old fashioned blackmail. Anyone else remember the Kansas City Blades of the IHL? Quick, when you think of hot potential NHL markets how many list KC in your top 25? The folks in government should tell the isles to build their own damned arena…Look around people, this isn’t the time for governments to be handing out checks to the likes of Charles Wong…. Poney up Charles and build your own building your fans deserve it.

“This Ron Wilson “we won, they lost” attitude in public will last only as long as his dressing room doesn’t erupt against him. There is much to like about Wilson — and who wouldn’t want a boss that rewards hard work and accomplishment? — but lately, he’s tripping over himself in public.” Steve Simmons

I agree. This we suck thing is going to get very stale in the locker room sooner rather then later. Coaches want to be part of the us vs. them mentality along with their players. Kind of hard to establish that when you slaughter your guys in public all the time. Take shots at the media, bash your players in private, man stand up for your guys just a little bit.

“How tough is it to get a hockey scholarship at a top U.S. college? Well, consider this: The top 10 ranked teams in the NCAA have only 15 Ontario players of the 250 or so on their rosters.” Steve Simmons

It used to be parents dreamed about the NHL. Now it’s a us scholarship. Let your kids have fun and stop pressing them to be all that you weren’t!

“When Doug Gilmour’s jersey is honoured at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday night, his Kingston Frontenacs players will be in attendance. But he had nothing to do with getting them tickets. Turns out, Mike Zigomanis of the Penguins, as a goodwill gesture to his former junior team and knowing nothing of the Gilmour ceremony, bought 34 tickets for the Fronts players to watch the Pens play. Now they get to see Zigomanis play and watch their coach honoured on the same night” Steve Simmons-

Why, would Gilmour lie about this? Seriously, I don’t get it.

“Donny (Doc) Lyons, the loudest, most opinionated, most inflexible and maybe most interesting sports fan in Toronto, has lost his fight with cancer. The owner of the popular House of Chan and longtime coach will be missed by all who have sparred with him and been charmed by him. He was a one-of-a-kind character in a city of too few” Steve Simmons

The house that Chan built won’t be the same…

“Boo hoo: Overpaid millionaire NHL players have to take a 13.5% paycut in the first half of the season and some have the nerve to squawk about it. Tell that to the autoworkers in Oshawa or the half-million Americans who lost their jobs in December” Steve Simmons

You knew it was coming and it is 100% accurate. This is why the players didn’t re-open the CBA.

The New York Islanders are actually pretty deep in regard to the position of goaltender.

Last night after Joey MacDonald left the game with an injury, the MSG crew discussed who would back up Danis in case he got injured as well.  After some snooping around the locker room area, Al Trautwig discovered that Mike Dunham–former Rangers goalie and current Islanders goalie coach–was dusting off his pads and had a big smile on his face.

After all, who wouldn’t want Mike Dunham as their last resort?  Wait a minute, Garth Snow is their last resort.  Even better!

The Islanders of today remind me of the Canucks of yesterday – bringing up prospects too soon to see if they will sink or swim.

Greg Logan of  Newsday writes:

“[Because the Islanders have traded away so much of their talent in the past] GM Garth Snow and coach Scott Gordon are dedicated to the development of the franchise’s latest first-round picks, Josh Bailey and Kyle Okposo, who combined to produce the first goal in the Isles’ 3-1 win Thursday night in Ottawa.

It was one step in the right direction of the long journey to respectability that lies ahead.

Nurturing the kids

In another setting with an established playoff team with plenty of top-line talent, the Islanders could bring their young players along gradually and put the pressure to produce all on the shoulders of the veterans. But new coach Gordon is in a different situation. He and Snow need to see what they have, so, they might ride a little longer with kids who aren’t producing right away to allow them to gain experience while building a body of work that will determine their future with the franchise.

“I’m looking at the big picture here,” Gordon said. “As much as we want them to get minutes. They also have the responsibility to earn it, too. Somewhere down the road, it would be nice to say that Kyle is going to be on our top power play. But there also has to be an element of earning your ice time.

“Pretty consistently, every rookie is getting over 10 minutes a game. But they can’t just feel that it’s handed to them. If they go out there, they’ve got to know there’s consequences for poor play. Hopefully, along the way, you get a level of consistency from all our young players so they realize, ‘Hey if I’m playing well, I’m going to get more minutes.’ There’s a fine line between developing young guys and just handing it to them. You’ve got to compete every shift.”

Although Okposo has just two goals in 16 games and Jeff Tambellini has yet to score a goal, Gordon said he looks for the positives in their games and has seen recent progress in terms of skating, knowing where to go and getting involved physically on a consistent basis.

“Even though they’re not getting the offensive results we’d like, there’s progress made in their work ethic, their conditioning, their compete level,” Gordon said. “Eventually, they’re going to get a comfort level with being in scoring situations and burying their chances.

Isles number

2: That’s the number of regulation losses this season for the Islanders when they were leading after two periods (4-2-1). It’s also the number of regulation losses for the Islanders over the past two seasons combined when they were leading after two periods (51-2-7).

Endquote

Gordon on rookie Josh Bailey’s ability to handle power play duty so well in his first two NHL games: “That’s why he was drafted No. 1. It’s a hard thing for a spectator to see that a guy has that hockey intelligence. It doesn’t show up unless you’re looking for it. Our scouts and management identified an intangible that he has that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet.”

Pregame thoughts.
This image pretty well sums up the relationship between the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Islanders over the past few seasons. Each year the Flyers continue to find ways to motor forward, while the Islanders can’t seem to discover a firm footing. Even in that awful 2006-07 season, Paul Holmgren made moves to solidfy his team for the next several years by acquiring Martin Biron, Scottie Upshall, Ryan Parent, and Braydon Coburn at the deadline. Garth Snow sacrificed a lot for Ryan Smyth, only to lose him on July 1.

That doesn’t mean tonight will be a glide through the park for the Flyers. Yes, they finally reached .500, and yes, Biron appeared to relocate his game against the New Jersey Devils. But let’s consider this fact: the Flyers still need 2 points to tie for eighth in the Eastern Conference with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Somewhat shocking, but true.

The Flyers had the home-ice practice this morning, so hopefully they will take the home-ice advantage tonight and win one for the fans. Almost all things about this move sound positive to me. It makes complete sense for the team to warm up on the actual surface and conditions they will face during the game. My only concern is how the shift might impact Simon Gagne, the only player to vote against the move. I understand that he’s a professional and he will cope, but he is the key offensive player for this team. It’s important that he is happy and running on all cylinders. I suppose we’ll see.

If you’re going to the game – like I am – make sure to wear your Halloween garb. Prizes will be awarded for the best costumes. It should be quite a festive affair since the NHL’s two orange teams are competing.

As I said, I will be at the game, which means no in-game blog for the evening. I will

Update 5:58 PM – If you thought the stink bomb at Saturday’s Flyers game or the rain delay were bad, check out the latest from the KHL over at the NY Times Slap Shot.

Update 10/31/2008.
So now that the major distraction otherwise known as the World Series Championship Phillies is out of the way, allow me to make a few comments on last night’s contest.

I will be blunt: the New York Islanders were ROBBED! They brought all the energy, hard work, and motivation into the game against a Philadelphia Flyers squad that barely registered a pulse. Kyle Okposo will be a star in this league one day. With a better goaltender and some more talent on this team, the Islanders would have left the Wachovia Center with two points.

On the Flyers’ end of the ice, Scott Hartnell and Martin Biron were the only two guys who came ready to play. Hartnell has been a man on a mission since the season began, and his intensity and passion make him a joy to watch. Biron turned his play up a notch and saved the game for his team.

I understand that facing the Islanders may be an emotional let-down from New Jersey and Atlanta. I understand that the Flyers can’t win every game. But when playing against the only division rival who actually lacks talent, you MUST win. The Flyers were very fortunate to emerge the victors.

Get it? Because there are only eleven girls in the picture? So the twelfth reason obviously has to be what I’m going to focus on? Get it? Good. Anyways, the Islanders recently fleshed out their Ice Girls squad (which has twelve members, but there are only eleven in the picture, so my title still stands; I assume the 12th Ice Girl is taking this picture). But as lovely as this undectet is (or, at least 72.72—repeating, of course—percent of it, depending on personal taste), they hold no candle to the best reason to love the Isles (and no, it’s not their “Old Man and the Sea” jerseys): Garth Snow.

Of course, if you’re actually a Islanders fan, you probably feel completely the opposite. But as a fan of an opposing team, and as a man who enjoys the fine comedy that is the way the Isles have been run under Snow, the man is pure bliss. Let’s do the checklist:

• Hired as the GM with exactly zero front office experience? Check.
• Hired as the GM while he was still the back-up goalie for the team? Check.
• Hired as the GM almost exclusively because he’s friends with owner Charles Wang? Check.
• Serves under a man whose last name is Wang? Check.
• Made friends with the team owner while he was the back-up goalie? Check.
• Hiring caused one of the team’s best-ever players to resign from his high-ranking front office job? Check.
• Signed the guy who cost him the starter’s job to a 15-year contract? Check.
• Proved he hated First Nations people by firing Ted Nolan? Check.

But greater than all of these great ideas—even the massive contract to Ricky “You Can Count on Me” (tell that to my 2005 Fantasy Team “Dany Heatley’s Porsche”, asshole. Where were your 5 shutouts, 2.36 GAA and .911 Save Percentage then, huh? HUH?) DiPietro is that the team is now officially more diligent in hiring the girls who will spend the season making guys’ wives upset and shovelling the corners during commercials than they are about hiring a fucking head coach.

Rick DiPietro has learned that his season is over, after undergoing and MRI on Tuesday. DiPietro has a right hip problem, and it is going to need surgery to be fixed and hopefully get him back to normal.

 I think the Islanders are going to play this as safe as possible. They know that they are out of the playoff run, and DiPietro has 15 years to go on his monsterous contract. If something were to happen to Dipietro, the Islanders would be completely screwed as Doobie would not be capable to handle the load, he is not a number one goalie.

I am sure Garth Snow would be able to find another goalie to throw in net to partially solve the problem… maybe he even comes out of retirement and becomes GM/player. Now that would be unreal, not going to happen but it would be fun to see.

Hopefully for the Islanders they don’t have to go down this road, and Dipietro’s surgery will go well, and he’ll be back for training camp.

Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes the New York Islanders made within the past 10 years was the hiring of their current general manager, Garth Snow. Garth Snow was an NHL goaltender for 12 years before becoming a general manager. During the off-season before the 2006-07 season he was still under contract as a goaltender however the Islanders had the bright idea of hiring a well known gm, Neil Smith then replacing him. Neil Smith was hired then fired within 6 weeks and had no time to make any moves for his team. Smith was a great gm the brought the rival New York Rangers to there 1994 Stanley Cup. Garth Snow had no prior experience in the front office of any team, only on ice playing.

Perhaps one of the worst trades this decade for the Islanders was from Garth Snow. In the end of the 2006-07 season at the trade deadline the Islanders had a chance of playoff birth but no chance to go anywhere with it. One of the NHL’s best left wingers had a contract about to expire and was a target for most NHL teams. Ryan Smyth was wanted by most teams that had a chance of making the playoffs. Each team had their bid on him and the Islanders won. They traded what was going to be the future of their team. They traded 1^st round draft pick 15^th overall of the 2003 draft Robert Nilsson, 1^st round 15^th overall of the 2005 draft Ryan O’Marra, and the 1^st round pick of 2007. These were going to be the players that would start a rebirth of the Islanders because they are young and on have extreme talent.

At the time Islander fans were happy because they got one of the best scorers on their team. At the end of the season his contract was about to expire along with Jason Blake. Jason Blake was one of the Islanders best players not with stats but by play style. He was one of the biggest hustlers in the game today. Every shift he was out he would give it his all and never stop skating full speed. At the end of the season he was due to have a big contract. The off-season came and both players had expired contracts. The Islanders could only afford one of the players and most people thought it was going to be Smyth since they gave up so much for him. Everyone was wrong, both players were signed by new teams and the Islanders wasted the future of the team for a rental player that only took them 1 round into the playoffs.

This trade deadline of the 2007-08 season Snow Strikes again. The Islanders did not really have a chance of going that far in the playoffs so you should stay the same however he didn’t. He traded away the Islanders best offensive defenseman for a 3^rd round draft pick. It is rare to find a solid offensive defenseman and the Islanders had a great young one, Marc-Andre Bergeron and lost him for no reason. Garth Snow was a big mistake to take the General Manger spot and his wrath has only started.

Nolan, Snow Wade into feud

Snow boils it down to the basics — win

Eh oui ! Ça va tellement vite. Mais comme on dit, plus on aime ça, plus ça va vite, n’est-ce-pas ? Je parle évidemment de la saison de la LNH qui en est déjà rendue au quart et qui nous a déjà offert sa part de surprises et de moments forts. On peut enfin commencer à tirer des conclusions plausibles.

Tout d’abord, regardons chez nous, à Montréal. Le Tricolore a connu un début pour le moins surprenant et a contredit les prédictions de beaucoup d’experts. Mais est-ce-que ce sera un feu de paille ? Mon opinion est que le Canadien ne se fera pas avoir deux ans consécutifs de la même manière ; une baisse de régime est à prévoir, mais j’ai espoir que notre équipe terminera entre la 5e et la 7e position de l’Est. Alex Kovalev atteindra probablement le plateau des trente buts, si ce n’est pas des quarante, et celui des 70 points. Jusqu’à maintenant, il répond bien suite à sa saison décevante de l’an dernier.

Les Senateurs et les Red Wings forment certainement les deux formations les plus complètes de la LNH. Avec respectivement cinq et sept défaites, ils mènent leurs conférences. Les Hawks de Chicago, les Blue Jackets de Columbus et les Islanders de New York sont probablement les équipes les plus surprenantes. Les Blackhawks comptent sur une fillière de jeunes assez impressionante, et n’eût été de l’absence (encore) de Martin Havlat pour cause de blessure, peut-être pourraient-ils rivaliser avec les Wings pour le premier rang de l’Ouest. Les Blue Jackets, eux, se résument en un nom : Pascal Leclaire, ce premier choix au repêchage qui vient d’éclore. Finalement, à Long Island, ce sont les acquisitions et les mouvements de personnel de Garth Snow qui apportent une nouvelle vie au Nassau Colisseum.

Si certains surprennent, d’autres déçoivent ; c’est le cas des Capitals, qui occupent le dernier rang de la LNH alors qu’on croyait voir le lumière au bout du tunnel là-bas. Les prouesses d’Alexander Ovechkin ne parviendront pas à amener cette équipe en séries. Les Penguins connaissent eux aussi des difficultés. Sidney Crosby est toujours aussi dominant, mais il ne peut tout faire seul, et les débuts de saison décevants de Jordan Staal et Marc-André Fleury n’aide pas la cause des Pens. Dans l’Ouest, on ne fait pas face à beaucoup de déceptions, à part peut-être les Oilers qui sont toujours aussi pathétiques et qui se trouvent tout en bas du classement.

Visitez RdH demain, pour la suite de cette chronique qui concernera les performances individuelles et les accomplissements de certains joueurs.