Islander News Articles 12/18:

New York Islander Fan Central | 12/17/2007 10:49:00 PM | | | | | |
Newsday: Katie Strang basically repeats the quotes from ITV with Ted Nolan, Bill Guerin and Brendan Witt who will have his hearing in Toronto on Tuesday.

"He's very remorseful, he's very sorry for his actions, and we as an organization don't condone it and don't appreciate the thing he did the other night," Nolan said, "but on the flip side of it, we have to have some compassion, some understanding and some support, and that's exactly what we're going to do."

"This is a tough thing he's going through," Guerin said. "He knows he messed up, he knows he needs some time off, and I'm sure he'll get it from the league, but he knows he's got some support here."

"The league's going to make their statement [Tuesday]," Witt said. "Whatever it is, he's man enough to take it and we're here to support him."


Newsday: Mark Herrmann's article is about how Simon has done nothing for the club all season unlike a year ago where he did a lot to lift the club so he will not be missed anyway.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
It could be true about Simon's impact but he has not seen the first line minutes he saw a year ago with the signing of Ruslan Fedotenko and the promotions of Sean Bergenheim and Jeff Tambellini or the signing of left wing Jon Sim.

For Mr Herrmann to show up for the first time since Mr Logan's last vacation and use statistics to make an argument of Simon's value is not fair because there are other things players do to help teams that go beyond stats, especially on a team where scoring is down from last season.

Having written all that, Chris Simon could be the teams leading scorer and it would make no difference here.

Updated 8:30am
What's the bigger story, Simon or the Times, Post and Daily News found enough money in their sports budget's to assign a writer to cover practice when they do not even cover games?

NY Times: Dave Caldwell reported Chris Simon after meeting with Wang, Nolan, Garth Snow and four veteran players Monday in an office overlooking the practice rink addressed his teammates in the locker room.

NY Post: Dan Martin was allowed to write on an off day and visit practice to report on Chris Simon and speculates Simon's suspension will be announced today, even though his meeting is reportedly today in Toronto.

Daily News: Peter Botte who was not assigned the Coyote game with AP only coverage makes the trip on an off-day and is provided a little more space then he is alloted for games?

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Only act worse than Simon's is the double-standards by the sports editors in letting their part time beatwriters appear to get reaction on an event like this. If the want to cover hockey, cover everything.

Edmonton Joural: Jim Mathewson checks in with a Simon article asking if it is worth the trouble keeping him and has reaction from Geoff Sanderson.

"You want those guys to play on the edge, but sometimes it's hard to stay on the right side of the line," allowed Oilers winger Geoff Sanderson. "He might be done."


AHL.com: Jeff Tambellini was nominated for AHL player of week but did not win.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Today's the day we likley find out why Tambellini did not speak with anyone after Sunday's game where he had a hat-trick.