Islander News Articles 7/3

New York Islander Fan Central | 7/02/2008 09:33:00 PM | | | | | | |
Newsday: Greg Logan's article has Garth Snow's comments that he absolutely signed Doug Weight because of his relationship with Bill Guerin and that both have always been good when teamed together with the writers speculation that Weight's bonus incentive could be tied to how many goals he sets up for the captain.

The general manager also thought his team needed an upgrade at center with Mike Comrie, Mike Sillinger, Richard Park and Frans Nielsen. That Richard Park can also play wing and that his lineup needed more offense from the center position to distribute the puck and make their line mates better, and that Weight will help the power play.

In terms of Mike Sillinger not skating until August Snow is quoted as saying this was not really why he signed Weight, but to give the coaches more options and create line chemistry.

Mr Logan speculated on the potential lines and limited openings with too many
one-way contracts with Garth Snow's comments he probably is done shopping for
free-agent help but he will still poke around and make calls with the beatwriter reporting Danis will be the new starting goaltender for Bridgeport.

Newsday: Greg Logan updated the Isles blog with a lot of line speculation which mostly centered around where Ted Nolan would play Jeff Tambellini vs Sean Bergenheim.

Mr Logan also reports because of the Weight signing the Streit feature will be pushed back to Friday's paper.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Obviously the Islanders have some very tough decisions to make with their lines moving forward because there is no initial spot for Andy Hilbert, Ben Walter, Jeremy Colliton, Jack Hillen or Bruno Gervais with a lineup where Comeau, Sim, Tambellini or Bergenheim could be on a fourth line depending on how they play.

It's not as easy as just signing someone unless you move some youth or some veterans are unable to play, at least as long as the veterans up front are healthy. Unless Snow moves some prospects/veterans it's easy to see why he could be done.

Excellent work by Mr Logan top to bottom in this article and the last few days overall. The work reads much better without the rumors and gossip where it's kept strictly to the hockey wherever the discussion goes.

Hate to end this on a down note and of course it's good Newsday's Islander page was finally updated with several excellent Islander blogs (believe it or not even this one) with several others who should be added to the Islanders blog box in my opinion but Steve Zipay said he was going to do this last fall for his readers and did while our fans with only coverage in essentially one paper waited a full season to do this for us even though I mentioned it here on several occasions.

Not about myself or my blog here at all nor would I even care if this blog was listed but whoever decided this at Newsday should have done this for the New York Islander fans months ago. I would not be holding the media accountable as I promised I would here if I did not bring this up because I finally noticed it today, I'm not sure when all these blog/sites were actually added recently.

NY Times: Stu Hackel's blog had comments from Shawn Avery that nothing was really going on with the Islanders but if they were smart they would have made a bid for his services. Another blog was done here on the NHL but ends with a long commentary on the Islanders signing Mark Streit here.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Looks like the Rangers and Islanders were the ones who were smart here along with all the other clubs that were not interested in a sideshow.

Note-The Daily News did not write a word about Doug Weight, Dan Martin did one paragraph. Disgraceful.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio has a few words from the newest Islanders/Sound Tiger in Yann Danis along with comments from coach Jack Capuano and Team President Howard Saffan about both Danis and Mike Iggulden.

Ct Post: Mr Fornabaio has several updates in the Ct Post blog along with some of his own speculation that Garth Snow could still tinker with the roster.