Islander News Articles 2/4

Newsday: Greg Logan's game recap (without quotes at this time) notes the smaller crowd that turned out in the snow and that things are going well when Radek Martinek scores his first in 101 games.

Newsday: Mr Logan's other article was mostly a repeat of his pregame blog on Josh Bailey vs Steven Stamkos where the Lightning's top pick credits the Islanders for selecting a player he had a big rivalry with when Sarnia played Windsor.

NY Post: Dan Martin after doing his attendance estimate asks head coach Scott Gordon if the winning mean anything changes with regard to his young players while Bill Guerin and Brendan Witt comment.

Looks like Peter Botte was given the game off for sports-ticker coverage while the Devils game had a writer assigned for their game and of course Filip Bondy (big Ranger homer) was an extra covering the Graves/Garden cash grab.

St Pete Times: Has Damien Cristodero's coverage on how McKenna played in goal & Tampa Tribune: Erik Erlendsson has Martin St Louis on his cross-check that negated a goal.

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Mike Knobler has comments from Thrashers rookie head coach John Anderson about his job status with general manager Don Waddell.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Posted this just to get some ground work about a team that just hired a coach with some of Scott Gordon's background may be going through in a losing season as the Islanders have. No doubt Don Waddell has Anderson's back because I cannot see him getting another coach and staying employed himself.

Of course Anderson has Kovalchuk and some firepower, not the Islanders three hundred man games lost to injury and no dynamic scorer/first line talent.

Two of the nine coaches hired last summer are gone with Barry Melrose and Ottawa’s Craig Hartsburg.

AP/CP: Report former Maple Leaf Bryan McCabe was booed every time he touched the puck in his return to Toronto, then he scored the game winning goal in overtime and was named first star.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Good for McCabe.

Never had an issue with McCabe playing for the Islanders, just that his contract combined with his defensive play was a non-starter for any kind of return and the media rumors assuming Snow would hand over any compensation for a bad contract made no sense. He got bullied out of Toronto by the media who were not classy at all with him and created a lot of negative perception.

Now the Islanders have a team to play with some momentum off that game on Thursday.

Sporting News via Sports Busness Journal/several articles: Liz Mullen reports NHLPA ombudsman Eric Lindros resigned Tuesday over differences with director Paul Kelly and is quoted as saying it should be noted that this is not the result of conflict of personalities but a fundamental problem between the Current Executive Director and the office of the Ombudsman and the effort to create transparency.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I can guess what an Ombudsman does but knowing Lindros past negotiating this is hardly surprising, maybe he was right here? People like Lindros and Healy have the ego to drive the NHLPA to another lockout.

Newsday: Mark Herrmann tells us if you are an Islander or Devils fan it's not our business that the Rangers overdo their celebrations and that retiring Graves number is a family matter.


NYI Fan Central Comments:
Reads all well and good but when the Islanders honor a homegrown dynasty or coach Mark Herrmann is one of the first to question the motivation behind the Islanders family matter and a franchise who cannot honor a true homegrown dynasty enough.

Mr Herrmann should follow his own advice next time he questions Islander family business.

He's no New York Islander Fan.

NYI Fan Central Notables/WC update

Sorry folks, looks like the blogger monster shut things down for a day or so with some problems.

From what I understand one of the new blogger feeder widgets was the problem for a lot of folks but being that I had a feeder for all those websites anyway I deleted it.

Along those lines the page may load slowly but for now it appears to be back which is what matters.

The comments in Joel Rechlicz topic got caught up in what happened and were lost as I attempted to approve them on Thursday so the wrecker apparently lived up to his nickname.

I deleted/reposted the thread but the comments I could not recover. If the same folks want to again repost what they had to say of course I will approve it.

I did push back some blogs I had scheduled for the next few days so they would be released at a point everyone can read them when hopefully things are back to a hundred percent.

Just wanted to update everyone on why you have not been able to access the page and of course thank everyone.

As for the important hockey-related items:

IIHF.com: John Sanful reports Finland needed a sixty one shot effort to win again at the WC Friday in their 2-1 win against Latvia.

Note-Sean Bergenheim had no stats, only played three minutes and did not see the ice in the third period after seeing a little more than a minute in the first two periods. He was not the only forward benched but he has not been seeing many minutes at the WC so far.

Finland's next game is Sunday against team USA.

It goes without saying Mr Botta's blog will continue here as long as he decides to write updates which seems to be 7/7 according to his update. I hope folks contact his blog and ask he keep it going permanently because obviously he loves hockey and what he has to say is always worth reading.

The Edmonton Sun had some comments from the Oil Kings on Robin Figren.

Katie Strang in Newsday's blog is promising a feature.

Mr Fornabaio in the Ct Post has been updating his blog on the AHL playoffs and some other things.

I did update the draft center with the latest update today from the Islanders website.

Of course by now everyone knows Toronto fired Paul Maurice.

Espn.com: Scott Burnside reports the Thrashers are about to ask gm Don Wadell to step down.

Denver Post: Adrian Dater reports Joel Quenneville will not be returning as coach of the Colorado Avalanche with comments from the former coach and and general manager Francois Giguere.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Can anyone imagine if Charles Wang or Garth Snow decided to do this. Quenneville was not hired by this general manager, he was hired by former gm Pierre Lacroix.

For those scoring at home: Dave Nonis, Bob Hartley, Joel Quenneville, Glen Hanlon and Paul Maurice are among the name coaches currently looking for work.

Bob Hartley fired by Atlanta

Tsn.ca: Bob McKenzie reports Bob Hartley has been fired by the Atlanta Thrashers and gm Don Wadell will coach the club on an interim basis after an 0-6 start.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Seems to me the wrong man got fired and Wadell should have been the one axed.

Hartley took Atlanta to their only playoff appearance in club history and got too quick a hook here considering Marian Hossa is also injured. Wadell has to answer for a lot of mediocre years, a lot of shortsighted trades and my guess is a new gm will be brought in to replace him sooner if the club continues to struggle.