Islander Notables, Guerin surgery

New York Islander Fan Central | 6/16/2008 09:12:00 PM | | | | | | | | | | | |
Newsday: Greg Logan reports Islanders captain Bill Guerin had major shoulder surgery in May with new media relations VP Josh Bernstein's comments it was performed to remove loose bodies and to repair the labrum with timetable for recovery four months. Garth Snow released a statement that the club is looking forward to having him at training camp in perfect health.

Mr Logan also questioned the club's media policy with regard to injuries claiming the organization announced the surgery only in response to an inquiry from Newsday but less than two weeks ago, the club was forced to admit that goaltender Rick DiPietro was having knee surgery after he inadvertently announced it himself on a radio program. Mr Logan also claimed club policy was cited as the reason for the Islanders' failure to inform the media and fans that two prominent stars were added to the list of key players but that back in March the team immediately announced in Rick DiPietro needed hip surgery for the second straight season.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
The important thing here is Bill Guerin should be ready for camp and that he is able to produce. If not it may force management to sign a veteran.

Greg Logan playing the fan card, is he for real with that after being on vacation for Al Arbour night and being AWOL when DiPietro got hurt in the skills competition?

Seems to me Mr Logan is a bit upset the club (and perhaps Mr Botta) had a few choice words about Newsday's headline coverage so he decided today to take issue of the club's policies with regard to releasing injuries and claim they are not consistent with how they release updates and did a little firing back of his own instead of simply reporting the surgery.

Would I be playing the homer card here if I suggested Mr Logan is almost never around to give our fans updates (unless it's to stir things up) so why would they bother to call Newsday for Guerin's surgery in May and would not have commented if DiPietro did not mention it on a radio program?

I do not think so.

If Mr Logan were around all the time or this team was getting covered like Mr Zipay covers his beat, maybe the Isles would be at fault not keeping Mr Logan in the loop on the injuries but given how coverage has been with virtually everything getting a negative, controversial slant or no coverage at all beyond token updates from Katie Strang why should the Isles go out of their way to tell Newsday/Mr Logan anything?

Let's call a spade a spade here. Greg Logan did not blog during the all-star break
(1/25-1/28) for our fans, even when Rick DiPietro got injured in the skills competition and every Islander fan around the world was holding their collective breath waiting an outside update about his health so spare us the failure to inform the fans angle today after you did not do one blog that weekend on it for us.

Greg Logan all-star weekend pre-wrote an article that was released in the paper about DiPietro in the all-star game and was gone until the Ottawa game.

Botttom line here is Mr Logan had to know what releasing an update from Gandler about Yashin returning would mean for this franchise perception even without comment from the general manager. It almost seemed like he wanted to get Gandler on the record to fire up the fans/outside media because he was not consulted on the injury policy but could not be bothered about Bergenheim?

Talk about failure to inform our fans, grab a mirror and take a good look in it Mr Logan. The communication between you and your head line writers is far worse than anything you have claimed between of Garth Snow and Ted Nolan.

IIHF.com: Has an interview with IIHF president René Fasel about the transfer agreement expiring and what it means.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
The big question now is does this force general managers to draft more North American prospects and rely even more heavily on college players (because you keep rights until the graduate or leave school) or does this expiration open the floodgates where teams maintain the rights to anyone they draft from Europe and will stock up with those prospects as we saw in the past?

The Islanders and all teams changed drafting strategy the last few years because of this. When they could keep a European prospect forever or into their thirties it was like getting a prospect for free almost indefinitely where North American prospects had to be signed within two years.

As soon as European prospects had to be signed within two years teams went heavy on North America prospects.

USA Today: Kyle Woodlief of Red Line Report holds his mock draft and speculates the Islanders will select Mikkel Boedker because even though it's hard to imagine they could pass on the premium huge rearguards available they're also desperate for an infusion of speed and skill up front, and Boedker's marvelous Memorial Cup run won them over.

USA Today: Mr Woodlief will be chatting at 1pm on the site and invites your questions.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
After the great job Alex and Steve from Hockey Night on LI did Saturday with Mr Ebbs of International Scouting Services answering my questions I'm out of fresh material but Mr Woodlief does a great job and usually has a lot of fire in these chats as he comes off as very passionate.

Makes for a great chat.

Tsn.ca: Profiles their top ten picks with Nikita Filatov at number five.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
We'll see but the profiles are very well done and go well past the top ten picks, good reading for those interested.

Point Blank: Mr Botta in his blog had a few words about Mark Gandler and how Alexei Yashin's agent showed his lack of tact in lobbing for his returning. Mr Botta also had a few choice words for the Newsday staff headline writers for creating a headline that did not match the article.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Mr Botta, all due respect but when Greg Logan writes Ted Nolan takes issue with Snow's comments about Dubielewicz and the first quoted words written was he agreed with Garth Snow it's fair to say this kind of reporting is not limited to the headline writers for Newsday.

What's interesting here is Mr Botta blamed the headline writer (not the first time this season a headline writer got it wrong if you remember the Nolan threatens players with trades correction which Logan blogged himself about and explained the miscommunication) but gave Mr Logan a total pass on not getting our fans an update on Sean Bergenheim who is also a Gandler client and a very important signing that bears close watching.

Media Blog: Cory Witt in his blog wonders how come Newsday's retraction on their incorrect headline regarding Yashin was basically buried in the sports section but when a mistake was made it made big headlines?

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I did not know Mr Witt had it in him.

Here is the correction that's so small I needed Newsday's search engine to locate here.

Too bad the headlines have already reached Tsn plus other outlets with fans who cannot read past a headline before ripping the franchise. Even when the Isles issue a no-comment they are already getting insulted up and down which is just another example of why Newsday's perception of this club should not be the only one providing regular reports because when they make a mistake the club's perception suffers from it.

I looked at Greg Logan's phone in chat tonight with Katie Strang handling the computer part of things. How nice of him to spare the fans a half hour early this afternoon and basically not tell anyone much of anything. When you are on vacation this much and seemingly only surface to stir things up what can he tell the
die-hards that they do not already know?

Of course Mr Zipay is following everything he can for the fans on his beat at Newsday as many writers are doing their best for their teams all over North America.

Don't think for a minute players and their agents do not forum the same opinion fans do when reading something in a newspaper.

Sorry gang, just calling it as I see it. I wish it were different and that tomorrow Greg Logan or whoever writes an informative article for our fans because we sure deserve it.

You have my promise if Mr Logan does this I will be just as quick to praise the work as I have been to bury it.

Point Blank: Mr Botta also had a very good update comparing former Islander coach Terry Simpson vs new Sharks coach Todd McLellan who played briefly for Simpson when he was here as an Islander draft pick and looked at the parallels between Simpson and new Panthers coach Peter DeBoer.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Terry Simpson was a coaching legend in Prince Albert, when he was fired the word (correct or incorrect) was that NHL players did not fear him like kids did in juniors which reminds me a little more of Brent Sutter in Red Deer than Mr Botta's comparisons.

Mike Bossy in his book talked about how Simpson was furious with them for losing game seven to Philadelphia in 1987 and could never warm up to him but that was the year his back forced him into early retirement.

Of course for better or worse folks, Terry Simpson was the last Islander coach to take a team to a first place finish, even if only a few points separated the pack and the Isles lost to the Devils in 1988.

Vancouver Straight: Jeff Paterson reports the Canucks have hired Ryan Walter as an assistant coach and notes the Canucks now have two Islander player/prospects fathers on their staff in Ryan Walter and Steve Tambellini.

The Sault Star:
Peter Ruicci has Ted Nolan's comments about his son being traded to the Soo Greyhounds.

Newsday: Wallace Matthews at Newsday mentions Charles Wang among the worst owners in New York sports as the shock jock circus begins with the firing of Willie Randolph today.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
To be fair I think every owner was listed except the Giants and Devils.

Wallace Matthews would have impressed me here if he mentioned Jeff Vanderbeek but when was the last time he wrote a hockey article? Funny how he was almost defending Cablevision ownership as the article went on, guess it's good for the resume considering they now own his column.