I would suggest all readers here subscribe to NYIFC twitter page so you get plenty of updates daily or just follow the feeds/crawls here with the latest.
As for the hockey and this blog entry....
Quick hits:
* For the 09-10 New York Islanders take it in five game segments, do not look too far beyond that or project where they may or may not be and don't worry about what anyone wrote in their preseason predictions. Most media outlets have enough problems covering one team much less thirty.
* I'm looking forward to the road trip, schedule has a lot of teams on paper the Isles should compete with and get more than their share of points, if they don't that goes on the players/coach.
* I would suggest you prepare for a trade/transaction from Garth Snow, the loss of Radek Martinek, which is huge leaves this defense painfully thin with several others who's trends suggest it's not a matter of if, but when they do sustain an injury. I do not see any kind of long-term answer in Bridgeport between Katic, Kohn and MacDonald.
It's also obvious Mark Streit seems overworked in games.
It's a minor miracle the group stayed healthy as long as it did based on the career records of the individuals on the backline. Martinek, if possible will be back for the final year of his contract but the coach got it right about his value to this defense.
* It's also fair to write Doug Weight simply cannot stay healthy for very long, he played well the last week, did not look like a liability at even strength and did the board work that led to the goal Tavares scored on Monday against Edmonton. There is no answer given the current production in Bridgeport at right wing nor is Jon Sim on that side of the ice part of the answer.
Nothing there I have not twittered about already.
* When Rick DiPietro returns to full practices and travels with the club then we can discuss when he will get a start in Bridgeport or somewhere else. Barring any problems or set backs until that happens there is nothing else to write.
* I have no preference between Roloson or Biron starting and if the split goes fifty vs fifty so be it. Both will have streaks and slumps, Biron seems a bit more mobile but Friday reminded me how quickly he can let in a very soft goal. Both know the circumstances when they signed and their play will determine what Scott Gordon does.
* So now the trend/changing climate is no more head shots in hockey (including clean hits) but you can always fight someone and punch them in the head and that's only five minutes even if someone is fatally injured? This seems almost impossible to legislate out of hockey because players put their heads down during games or sometimes duck or are off balance.
Hits to the head, inadvertent or otherwise will continue regardless of the league penalty.
Funny but when Gary Roberts started his run from center ice during the 2002 playoffs and finished by taking his hands and slamming Kenny Jonsson's head into that new glass in Toronto no one made the same complaints for changes?
This almost feels like the immediate change years ago because one young individual suffered a fatal injury being hit by a puck. If you remember all NHL facilities immediately had to have nets surrounding the area behind the goals and that is the way it's remained to this day. Who knows if it may have saved another life or if to date it had made no difference at all?
Of course to ask that question is to answer it, no one else has been injured or worse.
* What a surprise the Detroit Red Wings have injuries and on this day have the same amount of points as the New York Islanders with a few games in hand, perhaps this means we will read more about man games lost to injury in hockey and not x is just a bad team with a ton of front-loaded contracts like Detroit.
Fear not, Wings have more media salesman than the Islanders, we have subscription coverage, Ranger die-hards at Newsday creating perception and a few papers with blurbs as our entire print media.
When a team has sustained injuries after a while no one wants to read that as an excuse for losing because everyone is frustrated, will the spin be different out of Detroit if this continues?
Islanders for those wondering are still in the top five in man games lost, it's a bit padded with Jeremy Reich but nothing was padded about last season.
As for the media....
* Will Dan Martin of the Post or his editor give us a break using his three or four paragraphs to tell us about announced attendance at every Islander home game or is he in that bad a mood he has to drive out and do an article? If it's that aggravating to cover our team please stay home or ask for another assignment and save us all the grief?
It's gotten very old, Mr Martin and there are a lot of good story lines about this team so far.
* Anyone notice even before Newsday's subscription coverage those Islander Insiders went away this year (so much for enhanced coverage) and as soon as the Islanders started winning/Mr Wang stopped speaking Mr Herrmann, Staple, Baumbach stopped writing about them?
I guess winning some games does not merit coverage for those who did subscribe?
Did you really expect Mr Botta to go there now that he is on the other side of the fence in terms of coverage? Minus.
* Mr Howie Rose, a little respect toward one of this sports all time greats in Jacques LeMaire. Tom Renney trapped for close to four seasons in Manhattan and never faced the shots/insults you were very quick with during Saturday's telecast.
* Speaking of Newsday how come Mr Zipay is not blistering the Rangers as Greg Logan and staff (along with Mr Botta) did last season for not disclosing injuries when the coach says a goalie will start but is only healthy enough to dress as backup while management plays the upper/lower body game and will not give specifics?
Seems like a big double-standard to me.
* Sunday's Daily News did not even have the AP coverage of Saturday Islander win with baseball season over and no excuse for a writer/Peter Botte/Kristie Ackert not around for postage stamp coverage of New York Islander home games.
If an article was written, I could not find it.
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