Newsday: Greg Logan's article centers on Satan having to replace Jason Blake's numbers this season and will see more pp time while the club could not sign Bryan Berard and he did not accompany the club to Buffalo.
Greg Logan's Newsday blog: Updated Berard status and clarified the situation regarding Aaron Johnson and Bruno Gervais and why they have to clear waivers with two-way contracts.
NY Times: Dave Caldwell wrote what will likely be only a handful of Islander articles all season at best. Quotes from Guerin, DiPietro, Nolan and Comrie.
NYI Fan Central Comments:
At least we finally have an explanation on Johnson and Gervais because there has been a lot of conflicting information on why they had to be placed on waivers.
Berard situation has officially turned into a distraction.
What was the point of having Berard at practice centering the number one pp unit Wednesday (and maybe Thursday) if the club is not going to sign him? Brendan Witt is one of the leaders on this club and talking about him as if his shot will make a difference and now someone else who should have been getting those minutes and workload will be put into the role? This is now a distraction for the club and one they did not need.
You either sign Berard and make room for him or you give his minutes to someone else and have this settled a week ago. This either reflects poor management by Snow and Nolan (or are trying to hold onto everyone) or Berard's agent is being unreasonable in negotiations which on the surface seem unlikely.
Things should never been allowed to linger for this long and the club merits the criticism in this situation because day before the season opener, the person who has been the pp quarterback through most of camp and the preseason is not going to be there.
You put a player on waivers if you want Berard in your lineup or make a trade, it's that simple. Now they are out a player who was in a primary role and another player is forced into his role at the last minute.
Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio
writes about the Sound Tigers young defenders, their ability to move the puck and does a feature on Jeff Tambellini.
Nichael Fornabaio's Ct Post blog: Updates new rules in the AHL and some Sound Tiger notes.
Hartford Courant: Bruce Berlet had a preview of the Sound Tigers and how tough the club us. Jack Capauano is quoted on the state of his team.
Sports ticker and several media outlets: reported former Islander prospect Ryan Caldwell came up and played in the Coyotes season opener.
NYI Fan Central Comments:
So Phoenix found a roster spot for Caldwell while the Islanders and Bluejackets did not give him a chance. Granted it was a call up because of injury but where is Eric Boguniecki these days?
The Journal Gazette: Justin A. Cohn reports the Islanders have assigned Luciano Aquino to the Fort Wayne Komets, who open training camp in the new International Hockey League on Monday.
Finally in the last and least department:
NY Post: Dan Martin threw together a three paragraph summary as a preview for the Islanders while Brooks and Everson had two article previews on their clubs yesterday. Everson did travel to Tampa to do a game article for the Devils while Brooks of course did his Ranger article today. Post did not travel to Moncton unlike last year.