Newsday kicks off Sunday coverage with an update on Rick DiPietro and the surgery he had this summer on his hip and how he played injured most of last season.
Vancouver Province did an update on Berard.
Washington Times
does an update on former Islander Viktor Kozlov.
Edmonton Journal checks in with an update on Robert Nilsson.
NYI Fan Central Central Comments:
Times and Transcript does not seem to print a Sunday edition. NY Times, Daily News, Post did not send a writer to Islander camp. Msg employee Deb Kaufman did not go to Moncton or came right back because she was at Msg NY Saturday night to repeat the same interview she did at the Coliseum Thursday before the club left. Billy Jaffe
(also an Msg employee) reported for Isles TV on the first scrimmages. Ct Post never sends Michael Fornabaio out of town to camp.
Former Islander Post beatwriter, Evan Grossman was in Moncton doing the ITV telecast of the scrimmage for NHL.com on Saturday.
Easy to see why club is reaching out to fan blogs and having Cory Witt and Chris Botta do features with such poor coverage. How can the New York Post pay Mark Everson to cover the Devils in camp, bring in Brian Costello to do some Ranger camp updates while Larry Brooks has to do baseball and then bump Everson to do Rangers today while nothing is written for the Islanders? Why was the Post not at the Coliseum Thursday? The writer for some occasional games last season Dan Martin was doing some other sports updates for the Post today.
Newsday reported DiPietro faced second most shots last season, Islanders website reported earlier this week DiPietro faced highest avg shots per game in the league a year ago.
DiPietro was sixth in save percentage. If he's healthy and the team defense does prove to be better no reason the club will not be in contention all season if it get's any kind of offensive production. Interesting how his groin injuries early last season were in fact hip-related.
I also find it interesting Logan decided to make part of the theme of his story about DiPietro being an unpredictable goaltender which is the opposite of what he has been for the better part of the last two seasons, Logan even noted a fan insulting him in Moncton after giving up a goal and bringing up his contract.
DiPietro has been one of the top five goaltenders in the league starting with the second half of 2006 season. How can someone with that workload and that kind of save percentage be unpredictable to say nothing of what his absence meant to this club last year. There are about twenty five other teams wishing they had had a goaltender that put up that production who was just as unpredictable.
Here is the feature Evan Grossman did for NHL.com on Hockeyville and the upcoming game Monday against Atlanta with some quotes from Ted Nolan during the weekend scrimmages.