4/1: New Jersey at New York 7pm Msg+

New York Islander Fan Central | 4/01/2008 01:36:00 PM | |
Kind of a quiet couple of days on the news articles front so I gave myself a break and let the feeders do the work here for me Monday with daily news articles.

Islanders website: Jason Lockhart previews tonight's game against the Devils and has Ted Nolan's comments on all the new callups. Joey MacDonald starts in goal for New York.

Newsday: Katie Strang covered Monday's practice and had Richard Park's comments on working with Kyle Okposo and Blake Comeau and what advice he gave them.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio in his blog and AHL.com here report the following changes to the Islanders and Sound Tigers.

04/01/2008 Matthew Spiller (D) Bridgeport DEL Recalled from loan by N.Y. Islanders
03/31/2008 Drew Fata (D) Bridgeport DEL Recalled from loan by N.Y. Islanders
03/31/2008 Jean Desrochers (C) Bridgeport DEL Released from PTO
03/31/2008 Joey MacDonald (G) Bridgeport DEL Recalled from loan by N.Y. Islanders
03/31/2008 Justin Bourne (RW) Bridgeport DEL Returned on loan to Utah (ECHL)
03/31/2008 Keith Johnson (C) Bridgeport DEL Returned on loan to Utah (ECHL)
03/31/2008 Kip Brennan (LW) Bridgeport DEL Recalled from loan by N.Y. Islanders
03/31/2008 Matt Keith (C) Bridgeport DEL Recalled from loan by N.Y. Islanders
03/31/2008 Michael Mole (G) Bridgeport ADD Returned on loan from N.Y. Islanders

In short Matt Spiller gets to stay in Bridgeport and Drew Fata gets another game, Matt Keith gets a look. MacDonald will get another start. Kip Brennan gets to fight the Devils or Rangers if necessary.

By Saturday the Sound Tigers will set their roster which will have to be based on the clear-day roster submitted.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Another showcase for the Islander prospects, a critical game for New Jersey who dropped in the standings and are close to losing out the division to Pittsburgh but want to keep a four seeding and home ice.

Anything could happen but at this point it's fair to speculate Comrie and Gervais are done. No point letting Gervais play if his concussion kept him out when an extra six months are waiting to fully recover.

One thing for sure the Devils have problems scoring a lot of goals so the Isles should stay in the game if they protect MacDonald.

Media blog: Cory Witt reports in his blog Jiggs McDonald will call tonight's game but Howie will be back for the Ranger games.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
As much as I love Jiggs McDonald calling games when is Islander hockey the first priority for Mr Rose? Isles have no control of those circumstances as Mr Rose is an Msg employee, he is not employed by the Isles as Chris King and Steve Mears are. He is not around at the beginning of the season if the Mets are in the postseason and now the early Met games are more important than the Isles games?

Combined with that he does not blog for the team on the Msg website or doing anything to raise the club's profile.

Is there that much competition in the radio booth for the Mets he cannot wait until the weekend or take his vacation during baseball season?

Quick side note:
The Islanders do intend to continue to carry the link to NYI Fan Central after I asked if they wanted to hold the spot for another blog. I felt it important to ask out of respect and courtesy for their first class efforts for me all season as I spoke about recently.

I do not want to make a big deal out of this part but the Islanders not only wish to keep the blog but are going to provide me a luxury suite for all eighty two games next season, full limo service to and from every game, full access to the press box and a page itself on the Islanders website for this blog along with a writing staff of my own choosing.

I cannot believe their genoricity. Mr Wang is also going to speak with me about this in the near future.