New York Notables

Monday's entry has a few words on the NHL draft, a preseason split-squad against Edmonton, the latest taxpayer handout (including selective editorial coverage) to subsidize a local sports team, with a few other items.

A few words: Howie, Billy and Deb

I do not want to be critical of the on-air performance because I think in general all three do quality work overall.

Having written that I was taken aback at how little credit Howie Rose and Billy Jaffe were giving the Isles in Toronto. Mr Rose either seems too excited after any chance to score when the Isles are struggling to do anything or when they are scoring barely raises his voice after a great save or play and sometimes both announcers talk through important plays.

Mr Jaffe has a little too much cheerleading in his coverage but Islanders are so starved for someome to show them a little love in the media it's easy to look past it. Only downside to his on-air work is Islanders could play a terrible game and somehow be winning and he see's all the positives or they could be losing and playing well but all he does is point out the negatives.

Of course, I just was critical of both after a good win so that goes in several directions at times. Again, to me the overall work has quality.

But that's not why I'm doing a blog today about them.

Deb Kaufman has full access to Ted Nolan and seems to be leading the media with quesrtions after games, specially on the road in terms of questions for the coach.

She has a blog at Msg that was updated on Feb 1st and 6th here but before that had not written one article since October 22nd?

Mr Jaffe has had a few recent sit downs with Chris King on Islanders television and sometimes does the practice reports. We all know on occasion he's on Versus for games as well. But he also has a blog at Msg here and outside of one blog on Feb 1st, has done only two blogs this season for the team aside from telling Islander and Ranger fans to respect the national anthem.

Mr Rose also has a blog at Msg here which has not been updated all season but had two blogs in the playoffs against Buffalo and one on March 29th 2007.

My question is if they are around the club on game days and have a blog why not give the fans some information on a consistent basis? I'm sure Ms Kaufman still has to do pregame interviews and get the coaches comments but overall the pregame has been eliminated from Islander television coverage this year for the most part.

Devils have Steve Cangialosi, Ken Daneyko, I'm not sure if Mr Fischler has been to Newark. Butch Goring's appearances have been infrequent.

I think these are fair questions. I know the updates have been so rare I do not post them here nor am I asking for daily blogs but how about once a week?

Butch Goring is not included for those wondering.

You may ask why did I not include Chris King and Steve Mears in this?
1. They do not have blog space at Msg because they are not employees of the Garden.
2. Both do most of the practice reports on game day for Isles TV and do postgame shows from the Coliseum on the radio.

11/1: New York vs Tampa Bay 7pm FSN

NYI.com & Associated Press: Have preview for tonight's game against Tampa Bay.

Islanders TV: Chris King and Steve Mears archived seven minutes of practice Wednesday. No lineup changes expected but Brian Berard was healthy enough to skate in a coaches warmup suit.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Some may look at Tampa's 6-1 loss at New Jersey last night and see a club that has not won on the road all season. I watched this game and it was 2-1 with less then fifteen minutes left before the Devils took control and there were a lot of fights from a team that skated very well. The final score did not reflect how hard they worked. If Johan Holmqvist plays it will be his third game in four days, Marc Denis did come in when the Devils broke the game open.

You can bet coach John Tortarella will be pushing everything he can out of his team, Islanders better shake off any rust and excuses early and get into the trenches.

Tampa Bay has been outscored 9-2 on its current trip and 24-10 in five road games, it will try for a ninth straight victory over the Islanders since losing 3-0 on March 21, 2004 even though many of those losses were with Garth Snow and Mike Dunham starting. DiPietro is 2-5-0 with three ties and a 3.01 GAA in 10 starts versus Tampa Bay.


Note-I'm not sure many know there is a message board here but there is a game thread posted for every game for folks to talk about the games or post their own Islander-hockey related topics.

Feel free to stop by and talk about the game.

Updated 11am:
Newsday: Mark Herrmann had two blog updates on Mike Sillinger's night and a quick word from Ruslan Fedotenko meeting his former team tonight.

Regina Post Leader/Cam West News: Greg Harder
had an excellent feature on Mike Sillinger that's a must read with more than anything Newsday has provided for their hometown player. Bill Guerin is also quoted.

"I hate to sound modest about it because I'm very, very proud," Sillinger said from his Long Island, N.Y., home. "I just can't believe I'm at 1,000 games.

"There's not a lot of players who have done it. When you sit back and reflect, I guess you want to give yourself a pat on the back. It's quite an accomplishment"

"I'm very thankful," he said humbly. "Ever since I signed here last year, the Islanders organization has been fantastic to my family and myself."

Islanders Wednesday Practice Report

Islanders tv had several video reports from practice Wednesday
here.

Steve Mears and Chris King covered practice.

Nine defenseman practiced, including Bryan Berard who was not with the club tuesday but returned to practice today. Video report also said things were close with Berard in terms of contract negotiations.

Practice Combinations:
Fedotenko-Comrie-Guerin
Hilbert-Vasicek-Satan
Sim-Sillinger-Hunter
Bergenheim-Park-Bootland

Witt-Martinek
Sutton-Bergeron
Campoli-Gervais
Johnson-Meyer
Berard

The point was brought up last years teams went the first thirty five games with the same six defenders healthy. Also to this point outside of Bates the entire roster is healthy.

DiPietro
Dubielewicz

Report also confirmed what Logan wrote that Gervais, Johnson would have to clear waivers, even though I have read several times that Gervais and Johnson have two way contracts.

Club leaves for Buffalo tomorrow afternoon.