Islander News Articles 7/25 quick hits

Newsday: Greg Logan reports John Tortorella will meet with Garth Snow this Sunday as the beatwriter makes comparisons between Tampa Bay and the Islanders and also reports Mike Sullivan and Scott Gordon are expected to interview next week.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Tortorella is an interesting choice but he has had a lot more talent to work with on offense in Tampa. By contrast he will have a lot of talent on defense and in goal if he is hired here. Garth Snow has no time for vacation and has a lot of interviews to go through, he may need some second or third interviews before a decision is arrived at.

Newsday: Greg Logan reports in the Islanders Newsday blog defenseman Bruno Gervais has been resigned to a three year/one way contract at a bit more than 2.1 million. At the conclusion of this contract he will still be a restricted free agent. His first-year salary equals his qualifying offer of $522,500 but will receive $800,000 and $900,000 in the next two seasons.

Islanders website: Has general manager Garth Snow's comments on the signing.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Great signing but it does mean seven defenders are signed for at least the next two seasons. That finishes up contract negotiations with all restricted free agents and no distractions in terms of player contracts before camp.

Someone with a contract will not be happy opening night if everyone is healthy.

For those voting in the poll we can eliminate Gervais will not be signed.

Times & Transcript: Cole Hobson has Moncton Mayor Ian Fowler's comments on the 9/23 exhibition game against Boston. More details surrounding the camp, public activities and open practices will be released at a later date.

Long Island Business News: Henry E. Powderly II has an interview with new Dragons majority owner Steve Silva with a few words about Charles Wang and negotiations.

Daily Graphic: Has an interview with former Islander Aarom Asham who talks about his time with the Devils and why he signed with Philadelphia.

Quick Hits:
Why is it Ken Campbell's Hockey News article on Maurice a front runner for Isles job
appearing on Espn, I think this is a repeat from THN. How come Espn does not have enough hockey writers?

The days of a staff of writers like Al Morganti seems long gone for Espn leaving us with the Scott Burnside, E.J Hradek or Teri Frei perspective.

Not to kick around the Isles TV staff because they did a great job on mini-camp putting up prospect interviews in bulk and obviously need to get this months version done early in the month but the Isles Illustrated needed to do more than throw in a very quick blurb on Ted Nolan not returning even if it was only Bill Jaffe's video comments last week. By the looks of this some brief prospect camp footage was included but it looked like it was held for the August version.

So what is that now, forty shows a week on Msg Ranger centric and nineteen minutes of quality Islander content? Who padlocked the vault of games for the Islanders on Msg + this summer? I know I would not mind seeing Al Arbour night a few times or all those Ranger or Devils wins.

InsideCal.com: Los Angeles Kings writer Rich Hammond had defenseman Jack Johnson's comments the Coliseum area and the rink was the worst in the league a few days ago in a long interview.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Which should be forwared immediately to town of Hempstead's Kate Murray and Smg.




'

Islander/Sound Tigers/NHL Monday Notables

Not much going on around the NHL today so far.

Mr Logan had a brief chat on the Islander Newsday blog, nothing really new was introduced beyond some speculation.

Both European signing sites do not list Josef Vasick signing in Russia at this time or even have it as a rumor.

Steve Simmons in one of the Toronto papers called the signing of Doug Weight a weird signing by a weird team as he did the shock jock game.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Nothing weird about a player signing with a club who wanted to come here during the season to play with his friend signing with that same club in the summer. We can question whether his production will be enough but if this what it takes to get more out of Bill Guerin and it works it could work out fine.

Or it could be a major bust.

Only thing weird is so far Doug Weight not releasing a statement through the clubs website after Mark Streit did a press conference from overseas.

Owen Nolan signed a two year contract here with Minnesota confirmed by several media outlets.

Todd Bertuzzi's NHL tour lands him in Calgary to start 2008-09here.

USA Today.com: Kevin Allen looks at some of the remaining free agents which include Mark Recchi, Pavol Demitra, Bryan Smolinski, Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Teemu Selanne, Yanic Perreault, Stu Barnes, Marek Malik, Mats Sundin, Steve Montador, Sergei Fedorov among several players still on the market.

Tsn.ca: Announced Flyers gm Paul Holmgren was signed to a three year contract extension.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Ken Hitchcock got signed to such an extension too by Philadelhia, he was gone a month into year one of the contract.

Flyers website: Report they have come to terms with former Islander Aaron Asham on a multiyear contract.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
It's going to be interesting to see if he took a paycut or even a two-way contract after a disappointing season with New Jersey and a pretty bad public altercation with Brent Sutter at one practice.

Best of luck to Asham with the Flyers when they are not playing the Isles.

Buffalo News: Bucky Gleason reports on how tough it is for the Sabres to keep or sign free agents.

Ottawa Sun: Don Brennan does an article that the Senators needs a few more trades like the one that landed them the Isles second round pick in 2001 or the one that Mike Milbury made with Florida, but did put the current New York Islander club in the mix for the eighth seed.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio reports in his Sound Tigers blog Bridgeport/Utah will be adding defenseman Joe Callahan and that another forward will be signed along with several items. Callahan's profile is available here.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
It should be noted all UFA in the Sound Tigers/Utah section have been deleted at this point. If they are resigned at some point I will add them in again but too much clutter. Mr Fornabaio will do a great job keeping us up to date.

Islander News Articles 12/13:

Newsday: Greg Logan's article is on the mistakes and poor penalties the club made in the loss to Buffalo. Despite scoring three goals for the third time in four games Ted Nolan is losing patience with some of his players as the coach explains why Jeff Tambellini was taken off the top line for Chris Simon and Bryan Berard saw limited ice after a penalty.

"We've been pretty patient, giving guys all kinds of opportunities," Nolan said. "But patience can only go so long. You have to produce, and you have to work hard. If you don't maybe somebody else will."

"You get tired of watching one line in our defensive zone the whole two periods," Nolan said of his top line. "They didn't get out of our zone more than one or two times. That's just unacceptable. You have to have your top line get out of our defensive zone so you can at least attack the other end. At least, with the change, we got out of our zone the last period."


Newsday: Greg Logan also reports Marc-Andre Bergeron is not comfortable on the ice because he expects mistakes from his offensive play could leave him out of the lineup once again and that he's not playing enough, while the coach singles out Richard Park and Chris Simon for their effort. Miroslav Satan talks about the booing crowd in Buffalo.

"I would love to, but it's hard when you're in and out of the lineup," Bergeron said. "I'm not feeling that comfortable out there. I know that every now and then I'm going to do something wrong and I'll be out again.

"So, it's not a position I really enjoy. But I'm going to work hard, and I'm sure everything is going to be brighter."

Newsday: Greg Logan also has a review of the game with no quotes from the players.

Erie Times-News: Victor Fernandes has a full feature article former Erie Otters defenseman Chris Campoli after Wednesday's game, how he has already matched last season's production and what's different for him on this year's club.

Arizona Republic: Jim Gintonio has a few words from Coyotes Coach Wayne Gretzky praising the Islanders, what his club needs to do on it's road-trip and how hard they have competed.

"(Tonight) we'll be playing a more-experienced hockey club, and we've got to be ready from Day 1. The things about road trips are, if you can get off to a good first period, a good first game, it really sets the tone for the whole trip."

"They've got a really good coach (Ted Nolan) and one of the best goaltenders in the league," Gretzky said. "They play a methodical system, and they don't break down in many areas.

"As I've told our guys, we've got to utilize our speed, energy and youth, drive to the net. We've got to create holes and openings, and we've got to make them break down. They're one of the best defensive teams in the NHL, and that makes it difficult, especially the first game on the trip. When you fly east, you try to get your legs as early as you can."

Of course the NY Times, News and Post goes all A.P on the Islanders but the Times even allowed Lynn Zisner to travel to Washington and posted a 1am blog on the game with a newspaper article. Tonight's Islander opponent, the Coyotes got a feature for the paper a few days back while the Isles got a quick blog that needed to link to Newsday and hockeydb.com for it's information that read more like a ten year review then about the current club.

NY Times: Altered it's new slapshot blog page description which did advertise the Islanders but now only includes the Rangers and all things NHL in another sad display.

NYI Fan Central Coverage:
If the Times can pay to send it's Ranger beatwriter on the road after a few years of home-only coverage, it can afford to hire a full time Islander beatwriter to go with all the writers they have in place for blogs.

Of course the New York Post which did not cover last night's Islander game and gives mininal print to most home games, had enough of a hockey budget to send a secondary writer named Howard Kussoy to Devils practice where he reports former Islander Aron Asham got into a heated exchange with Devils coach Brent Sutter here.

"It was just one of those days. Things happen," Asham said. "It was an inappropriate event and tempers flared. I shouldn't have said nothing and kept my mouth shut.

"I'm sure I'll say something to him. I'm sure he's not sitting in his room right now expecting me to come in and say, 'Sorry.' That's not the kind of guy he is."

Buffalo News: Has the Sabres coverage on their win.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio writes about the Sound Tigers inconsistent play which is unacceptable to the coaching staff and the players after a loss to Albany on Wednesday where they fell behind 4-0 in front of a record low crowd of 1,611. Bridgeport has lost seven of their last ten games, Tim Jackman spoke about the effort.

"We had great player meetings (Tuesday). We talked about desperation in our game, how we need to play 60 minutes," Bridgeport coach Jack Capuano said. "As a coaching staff, you try to prepare them the best you can. ... At some point, guys have to be held accountable."

"The guys know certain guys have to play better," Capuano said. "We have good leaders on this team. They have to take over. It's just frustrating for the coaching staff, how hard they work, the effort they put in."

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio's blog reports Jack Capuano was at his angriest, but restrained after the game. Mr Fornabaio also writes the club only played about four or five minutes while Steve Regier talks about the club's low confidence level and how they have time to correct things. Also reported was Gregg Johnson has left Bridgeport to play in Finland.

Eurohockey.net: Tom Henriksson confirms Johnson will play for SaiPa Lappeenranta.

Times Union: Has coverage on the Albany River Rats and their win.

10/20: New York vs New Jersey FSN 7pm

Islanders Website: Has the pregame for tonight against the New Jersey Devils and former New York Islander Stanley Cup Winner Brent Sutter who returns as a head coach.

Devils head coach Brent Sutter told the media this morning that he will go with Kevin Weekes tonight in goal, following New Jersey's 4-0 loss to Philadelphia on Thusday.

Aaron Asham also makes his return to the Coliseum tonight.

NYI Fan Central Comments:

Brent Sutter won two cups here, is a former captain and no hype at all for his return? He was not at the 25th anniversary celebration.

Devils game against Philadelphia was not like the Islanders game vs Toronto where it was too many games in too many days because New Jersey competed. Brodeur's defense deflected in a few outside shots and the play on the ice was closer than the final score. Not sure what kind of team the Devils are under Sutter yet, he's done some things to shake up how they play but they are scoring goals which means the Islanders may have problems keeping up unless some players can break out who have no goals or have not been producing.

Going to the game, will have a full recap tomorrow.

Ct Post: Sound Tigers play Saturdayt at home against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at 7pm.

Game is available on WAVZ-AM 1300; Webcast and B2 Networks Internet pay-per-view at www.soundtigers.com

Islander News Articles 10/2: NY 4, Boston 2

Combining the news articles and the postgame today.

NYI.com game summary has the following:

"Any time you win your last preseason game, you have to be happy with that," said assistant coach Gerard Gallant. "I thought the performance of our veterans and overall was very good."

"We like what we have," said captain Bill Guerin. "We're a hard working team, and we're going to play as a team. We have 82 games in front of us, and we're going to play hard in every single one of them."

"Billy is a competitor, who competes hard," said Gallant. "He had a pretty good battle in front with Stuart. That's just part of the game."

With 1:22 left, Sim salted the game away with a sharp-angle shot for a 4-2 Islanders lead. Andy Hilbert earned the assist.

Defensemen
32 Brendan Witt – 24 Radek Martinek
25 Andy Sutton – 47 Marc-Andre Bergeron
4 Bryan Berard – 8 Bruno Gervais

Forwards
26 Ruslan Fedotenko – 89 Mike Comrie – 13 Bill Guerin
16 Jon Sim – 18 Mike Sillinger – 7 Trent Hunter
11 Andy Hilbert – 63 Josef Vasicek – 81 Miroslav Satan
15 Jeff Tambellini – 10 Richard Park – 27 Darryl Bootland

Newsday's article talks about the win, decision day regarding Berard, Tambellini, Bergenheim and how many skaters the club will carry.

* Signing Berard would create a surplus on defense, but Chris Campoli and Freddy Meyer, who sat out yesterday, can't be sent to Bridgeport without being exposed to possible waiver claims.

"One positive is that we have a lot more [salary] flexibility," Snow said. "Last year, we were right up against the cap at the beginning of the season."

* Berard, who was happy with his preseason play, said:

"I played five games and showed I'm healthy. My game's only going to get better because I've played just 50 games or so in three years. I'd really like to be an Islander."

* Forward Sean Bergenheim sat out yesterday, but that might have been to give Tambellini one more opportunity to stick. He began on the fourth line while Andy Hilbert moved up to take his place with Josef Vasicek and Satan.

* Asked about a possible return to Bridgeport, Tambellini said:

"That's not even on my radar right now. I'm pushing to play in this league every night. I'm going to do whatever it takes, whether it's playing second line or fourth line. I'm at the point where I need to make my way in this league and get a foot in the door."

Logan updated his blog on the lineup and numbers game before the Bruins game
here.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Bergenheim played Friday and Saturday so he was not permitted to play Sunday according to NHL rules.

Missed the game but Islanders played an NHL lineup for the most part. Witt, Guerin are fighting and the shots against were low and the team closed the game strong with the two goals. Berard said he wants to sign here, now it's up to the club to create a spot for him or give it to someone else and not sign him but the staff does have a tough decision here and a numbers game to contend with. Satan scored on a slapshot which has been rare for him the last two seasons.

Boston Globe blog had some good ingame comments. Boston Herald had it's update here while Telegram has the best game report here.

Sound Tigers lost their final preseason game 2-0 at Hartford here. Michael Fornabaio 's blog reports the cuts to this point, the lines used in the preseason game and what's next here. Ct Post articles were about Gregg and Keith Johnson, roster decisions here and a feature on Matt Spiller here.

Snow told Asham to look for another job.

Former Islander Arron Asham was quoted today in a national post blurb why he decided to sign with the Devils for a 200k pay cut.

The Islanders believed veteran tough guy Chris Simon could replace Asham's grittiness in the lineup and general manager Garth Snow told Asham that he should look for another job. After negotiating with four teams, he and his agent chose New Jersey.

"I got a better offer from one other team, but I thought if I was ever going to play on a Stanley Cup champion, it would probably be in Jersey," Asham told Winnipeg's Grass-roots News last Thursday. "When you have a goaltender like Martin Brodeur, you have a chance to win a Cup."

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Asham is usually quoted once a year in the National Post. Last year the Islanders wanted to sign him to a longer-term contract for more than he signed for. Have to agree with his comments that a team with Martin Brodeur in goal has a chance to win a Stanley Cup. Nothing more I can add other than what was written here when his signing was reported.

Bye Bye Asham

Good Bye and Thank you to Arron Asham. Today he signed a contract with the New Jersey Devils, terms not disclosed according to TSN.

I will add more articles if Islanders or Asham have something to say but his
NHLPA profile will likely be first with his salary for next season, do not count on many comments from him as a member of the Devils.

NY Islander Fan Central Comments:
Arron Asham was the kind of player who outright won 2-3 games a year with his great acceleration and shot. To me he is one of the best middle weight fighters in the NHL and his hit toals reflect his grit and how hard he works. That said for years he disappeared for far too many stretches of games and forced coaches who put him on the top lines to move him down to the fourth line because he did not produce. His fifteen goals in his first season here should have only been the beginning after stealing him from Montreal in the Czerkawski trade.

Reportedly he played a good part of last year with a bad hand/wrist that may have been a factor for him but his point-less streaks for years always stood out as did the games he was a major offensive factor in winning.

Good signing for the Devils, but the right move for the Islanders to say goodbye at this time. Thanks for making Barnaby cry and the great stretch drive in 02-03.