Recaps in the North Bay Nugget did several features and some comments from Chris Simon and Ted Nolan here
Gary Bettman was also in attendance in his first visit to North Bay and spoke with Simon, who was suspended for a record twenty five games last season. Another recap was also printed on the day and events behind it.
"It's just great for the kids and for me that's the most important. It's great seeing the kids smile," a smirking Simon said after the game. "I never got to watch a (live) game growing up. I watched it on TV, but I was never able to experience a hockey game live. For me, this game was special and I was really happy when they told me I was playing."
"It's great to have some places to come back to and have some memories from them," said Nolan, the Islanders' head coach and a resident of Garden Village, east of Sault Ste. Marie.
Atlanta Journal Constitution did a solid game summary while
Newsday did a feature on Justin Bourne and Jordy Hart with comments from both Bob Bourne and Gerry Hart. Logan basically provided an a.p like recap.
Islanders website did a review of the game.
"The biggest thing we're looking for is a level of competitiveness. We can teach the rest," said Ted Nolan after the game. "We were looking for guys to compete. We saw some of that tonight."
Thoughts from Bryan Trottier:
At game's end: "Neither team was very spirited in the third period. But you have to give a lot of credit to the crowd, which had a lot of energy. Spiller is not known for his goal scoring, so it must have been a big thrill for him to put two in. His scoring touch was a pleasant surprise."
After the second period: "Vasicek is looking confident out there. He has a nice easy game about him. He's under control and making a lot of nice plays. A lot of guys are skating real hard, but I would like to see a little more puck control and an offensive game. It's about generating something offensively and making yourself be seen. It's only game one, but I'd like to see more chances from our guys."
ISLANDERS
Goaltenders
35 Joey MacDonald
33 Mike Morrison
Defense
8 Bruno Gervais - 14 Chris Campoli
2 Aaron Johnson - 44 Freddy Meyer
56 Dustin Kohn - 6 Matthew Spiller
Forwards
15 Jeff Tambellini - 63 Josef Vasicek - 16 Jon Sim
20 Sean Bergenheim - 64 Olivier Labelle - 10 Richard Park
12 Chris Simon - 51 Frans Nielsen - 28 Tim Jackman
37 Kip Brennan - 29 Ben Walter - 57 Blake Comeau
Cory Witt's media blog had the recap of the rookie game where the Islander rookies lost 3-1 to the University of New Burnswick Red Devils. Martin Frechette scored the Islanders’ lone goal, which was also the first of the night. Tyler Haskins recorded the assist.
Chris Botta's Point Blank checked in with a few words on "Hockeyville" game against the Thrashers and that Patrick Flatley, Gary Bettman, Jiggs McDonald were in attendance among several subject sujbects he touched on.
NYI Fan Cental Comments:
Have to be honest, was tired and became too busy to watch. Did the NHL center ice sign up process and it did not register. I will try again for tonight.
Would have loved to see Bergenheim make a statement with a goal but there are other ways to impress the coaches and maybe he did and the same can be written about anyone. Interesting he is a left wing but played right wing in scrimmages but for the first game is on left wing. Going to be very interesting to see how he reacts if he does not make the club and how Nolan will react if we see a repeat performance of what happened in 05-06 when he was demoted.
My expectation for preseason games is for the club not to show glaring weaknesses where it's clear whoever they play cannot score or play defense and the group has bad chemistry that goes beyond the games to where you know it will carry into the regular season.
I have seen Islander preseason's where they could not win more than a game and another where they went 7-0 only to get bombed opening night in Steve Stirling's first year.