Tampa Bay at New York 7pm Msg+

New York Islander Fan Central | 4/04/2009 12:00:00 PM |
I readjusted the man games lost to injury on the sidebar, everyone has their own number but the Islanders release today is what we will go by for the next week.

This is not a precise thing charted by the league with NYIFC, Fox, Newsday and the Islanders all having different figures at some point between illness-injury.

The final number is going to come in very close to six hundred which says enough.

Tampa Tribune & St Pete Times: Preview's tonight's game.

Updated Player Pos Injury Expected Return
Marek Malik D Lower body Out until at least early April
Vincent Lecavalier C Wrist Out for the season
Cory Murphy D Foot Out until at least mid-April
Mike Smith G Concussion IR. Likely out for the season
Andrej Meszaros D Arm IR. Out for the season
Paul Ranger D Undisclosed IR. Out for the season

Tampa Tribune: Erik Erlendsson reports Defenseman Josef Melichar left the game with a lower body injury in the second period and did not return. He’s likely out for Saturday’s game. Melichar was limping around the locker room after the game and looked to be favoring his left leg.

Also, Ryan Craig left the game at some point in the third period with an upper body injury and looks like he might miss the remaining four games. Craig had his left arm in a sling after the game so more callups are coming with Mike McKenna likely to be in goal.


NYI Fan Central Comments:

I have watched enough of Tampa to know that they come to play and work hard every game, even with their injuries (LeCavalier) they have far more offense than the Islanders without Okposo-Bergenheim-Streit.

Now we see if they need even another callup for Andy Hilbert.

Last night Tampa had the the Devils down 2-0 and even with Kevin Weekes getting injured, Broduer coming in who made several big saves, a thrown stick penalty shot goal finally got the Devils (who looked terrible) who turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead, Tampa still rallied to tie the game and then down 4-3 scored again to force overtime.

Stamkos, St Louis, Malone and a lot of the forwards were all over the Devils at times last night, not in terms of shots but generating quality chances when they did shoot.

Both teams obviously need some callups. For Scott Gordon Joey MacDonald has not played at home for a while and Danis has struggled at home. I would guess unless Hilbert can go the Isles need at least three recalls depending on McAmmond.

Sean Bentivoglio and Trevor Smith played Thursday and Friday, Bridgeport is off Saturday but has a big game Sunday.

Because Isles lead Tampa in wins (first tie-breaker) the tragic number to turn the lottery race into a two team contest with Colorado is four with tonight being a four point game.

I guess no coaches post-game press conference tonight because we have to watch Cablevision Hockey Night Live canned coverage. Should be interesting to see how Isles find enough programming to fill twenty minutes of pregame.





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