Wednesday notables

New York Islander Fan Central | 5/21/2008 08:13:00 PM | |
National Post: Cam Cole has a few words from Oilers general manager Kevin Lowe on the 1983 Islanders in one of the countless articles building this final up as the best one since the New York & Edmonton met twenty five years ago.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
All due respect to Pittsburgh but they did not dominate their conference like the Oilers in 1983. All due respect to Detroit but they are not in the universe as the Islander team that went into that final with three Stanley Cups in a row.

Very good matchup with a lot of star players but time to tone down the comparisions.

All due respect to the 83-84 Edmonton Oilers but the Islanders would have made ten finals in a row if they came out the Western Conference with that playoff format that it changed after 1981 so a Western Conference team could qualify for a final after years of the West being playoff fodder for the East. Atlanta relocated to Calgary and went from a marginal team in th East to a top team come playoff time.

To this day I have little doubt if the finals format was not changed for the first time to 2-3-2 from 2-2-1-1-1 Edmonton would not have beaten the Isles in the 1984 finals given how bad Gretzky looked in games one and two at the Coliseum.

Newsday/Newsday blog and a bunch of sites confirm Chris Simon signed in Russia starting with the Minneapolis papers the last fews days. (including today)

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I blogged on this all the way back on Saturday, still no one can get the full story on whether he signed a contract where he can still resign with an NHL team come July or if he is locked into the deal he signed?

Not much else happening on a quiet day for the Isles, nothing on Ridderwall or Kim Johansson signing but the clock is running regarding contract offers.

Sure would be nice if Newsday or any paper did an update on Dubielewicz and the club's pending UFA with July 1st about five weeks away.

If the NY Times is going to include fan blogs why not get some Islander bloggers in there being that they seem to have hockey content for a lot of teams out of town?

No, I'm not talking about my blog.