Islander Notables/NYI Fan Central Update

Point Blank: Mr Botta had a blog update where he says Newsday will providing more Islander, Ranger and NHL coverage in the paper.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Sounds nice, reads well but the Rangers should not be covered at all in Newsday for the same reasons the city editors do not cover the Islanders. If anything Newsday's editors should see the problems with the city papers and double-up on Islander coverage by using the Rangers space in the paper, eliminating all of their coverage.

What Mr Botta should be writing about is this little footnote below Steve Zipay's Rangers blog because that sums it up best about Newsday's increased coverage:

Think Long Island is really Rangers country? Prove it by visiting Steve Zipay's Rangers blog.

The circumstances are a joke considering the sports section is dominated by Islander advertising, so is the coverage and lack of blogs about our team.

No team in the US hockey markets has worse Newspaper coverage than the New York Islanders.

Dallas Morning News: Mike Heika previews the Eastern Conference and lists the Islanders fourteenth writing they appear ready to go with youth, yet they signed Doug Weight?

Mr Heika listed the Devils first or fighting for first based on Brodeur and signing Bobby (older than Weight) Holik.

Quick Hits:
* The Times has a feature on John Davidson of the Blues by media writer Richard Sandomir but did not send a reporter to Scott Gordon's press conference? Comical.

* Islanders have had a few website updates on Rick DiPietro at the NHL team store among other things.

* Tampa's new ownership must be clueless or worse giving up a first round pick for Andrej Meszaros who's a good defender but not equal to the value of a potential lottery pick in another great draft. If Garth Snow gave up his draft pick next summer for this he would be rightful crucified.

Also good for former Islander assistant Jeff Jackson of Notre Dame for blasting Lightning ownership for eliminating a prospect tournament in Tampa.

* Hopefully in a day or two we can stop talking about any Bryan McCabe updates.

NYI Fan Central Update:
Some necessary blog tweaking to make the page load faster with the new prospect center getting priority:

I'm considering opening a second NYI Fan Central Prospects blog for our prospect section.

* Schedule widget pulled for now which is available in several spots.
* NYI Fan Central Widget deleted, if you want it drop me an e-mail.
* Free agent section deleted, will return for trade deadline.
* Widget for junior prospect news deleted, prospect section and slow page loading with advertising not what I was looking for as Newsgator made some changes.

* Some blog header tweaking putting in Duane Sutter and pulling out Brent Sutter as were going for a core of the four centric look. Josh Bailey takes Jeremy Colliton's spot for now, Radek Martinek has his third jersey picture back and as soon as we can classic jersey pics for Nielsen, Tambellini, Bergenheim, Comeau they will be added.

* A core of the four header has been designed for special occasions and will be rolled out when appropriate.

* When camp opens our classic color-scheme with scoreboards, standings will return.

Islander News Articles 4/13

Islanders website: Reported defenseman Jack Hillen was named a first-team
all-American with Garth Snow's comments.

AP: Reports Boston College defeated Notre Dame 4-1 on Saturday night for the NCAA championship.

Calgary Sun: Randy Sportek profiles Robert Nystrom of the Calgary Flames, who played twelve minutes for the Flames in a recent playoff game.

Note-Robert Nilsson was signed to a three year contract by the Edmonton Oilers that will see him make almost five million dollars.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I saw this a few days ago when it was reported and did not see it as Islander news. Robert Nystrom has the ties to his father which makes it Islander-centric. Glad Robert Nilsson has security and a good contract annd congratulations to Robert Nystrom and hope he gives the Flames what his father did for the Isles.

College Hockey News: Adam Wodon reports Bridgeport will be one of the hosts for the NCAA tournament with games played at Harbor Yard next year.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio recaps Bridgeport's loss and has a full features on Sound Tigers captain Mark Wotton with his comments here.

Hartford Courant: Has the Wolfpack Coverage.

Islander News Articles 4/11

Newsday: Greg Logan updated the Newsday Islander blog Thursday with a wide range of subjects discussed. From Dubie not being in shape at camp, to how well he played, his UFA status, Joey MacDonald and a set goaltending rotation. The veterans were discussed in detail as the gm praised Guerin and Comrie, in Guerin's case for his leadership beyond the numbers and apparently gutting out injury as well.

Jack Hillen playing those two games used up one year of his two year contract according to Mr Logan and would be restricted next summer but was praised by the gm for how he performed. Hillen wanted this arrangement in his contract to sign for two years and lose a year by playing for an NHL team going into signing with any club.

Garth Snow also talked about the direction in building with prospects means they have to improve or it will not work, that expectations are to win next season while they could add UFA also. The draft and who the gm is looking at was also discussed in detail.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
This was a very good update, without Mr Logan stirring something up. I guess he saved that for the print edition most of the fans read already. I'm somewhat confused why Kyle Okposo can play nine games in the NHL and not lose a year off his contract while Jack Hillen does?

If there was competition to sign Hillen and this had to be in the deal, Isles decided to accept it.

Reading from the general managers comments it's simply hard to guess at what direction he wants to go in. On one hand he talks about veterans underachieving, on the other we have read Satan was offered a contract extension. I have seen offers to Fedotenko and Vasicek along the way also. And of course the gm talks about the prospects playing and it being a younger team.

I have no problem with the guessing, I think a gm should always keep any opportunity open to improve his club and not tell the media what he's absolutely going to do.

If Dubie came into camp not in the best shape, I cannot answer to it. What I can write is he played four poor periods against Toronto/Atlanta and in all of them the team in front of him was terrible. I do not remember much of the 8-3 loss against Carolina. Aside from that I saw a goaltender who gave his team a good chance to win every time he played who in my estimation stole some games.

College Hockey: Notre Dame advanced to the NCAA Championship game Saturday with a 5-4 overtime win against Michigan.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Congratulations to former Islander assistant coach Jeff Jackson.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio's preview for Friday night's game at Harbor Yard vs Lowell Devils has Blake Comeau's comments on playing in the NHL with Jack Capuano's comments as to how much he has improved. Mr Fornabaio also reports it appears unlikely Tomas Marcinko, or Rob Hennigar, will join Bridgeport at the end of the year.

Lowell Devils at Bridgeport Sound Tigers
WHEN — Tonight, 7:30
WHERE — Arena at Harbor Yard
ON THE AIR — No radio; Webcast and B2 Networks Internet pay-per-view at www.soundtigers.com

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio blog reported Frans Nielsen skated on Thursday among several items.

Lowell Sun: Covers the Devils affiliate which is out of playoff contention is coming off a 3-0 loss to close out it's home schedule.

The Patriot News: Tim Leone has Hershey coach Bob Woods comments about the Sound Tigers and his own team entering the final weekend.

Islander News Articles 1/10:

Newsday: Greg Logan asks Miroslav Satan about his line demotion, the move back to the first line left wing spot later in the game as the combinations were juggled and his shootout goal.

"At the beginning, I didn't know what to think," Satan said. "I just waited for a chance. All you can control as a player is how hard you play your shift. So, when I get a chance, I try to play as hard as I can. It was unexpected. But it could be a wake-up call for our line, basically."

"I was on the left side, which is not the right side. If I can say that," the Slovakian sniper said with a laugh at his play on words. "I don't know if I will play there next game, but if I will, it's going to take two or three games to get the steps and measure up the distances ... But I started basically with the fourth line and ended on the first."

South Bend Tribune: Steve Wozniak reports former Islander assistant coach Jeff Jackson called Garth Snow after his comments about Don Lucia's Golden Gophers program and talks of his own NHL prospect he current coaches and what it means for the Notre Dame program.

"I talked to Garth the day after," said Jackson. "I don't like commenting on these things, because I don't know what happened behind the scenes.

"The only thing with Garth, and I told him this -- was that the player has some responsibility for his development, more responsibility than the coach. A lot more."

Updated 1pm:
Newsday: In a stunner Newsday's Greg Logan released a
mid-morning article with a full mid-season report with the paper also promising a weekly Thursday feature called The 'Insider' which will offer analysis and commentary, plus a minor league report in the future.

"We're way ahead of schedule from where people had us predicted at the beginning of the year, which is a good thing," Nolan said. "But I think the best thing about the second half is that we haven't played as good as we can with everybody playing the same way on the same nights. We haven't played at a consistent level yet with all four lines going at the same time. It's something to look forward to in the second half."

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Excellent mid season review by Mr Logan across the board. A weekly on-line feature sounds promising and long overdue with prospect reports.

Islander News Articles 12/23-24-25

A little catching up from the last few days:

Pioneer Press: Bruce Brothers asks Gary Bettman about the Islanders trying to sign Okposo, while George Gwozdecky, president of the American Hockey Coaches Association, labeled the Islanders' actions "deplorable,

"I don't think you can just look at the team in these circumstances; you've got to look at the player and the totality of the circumstances."

NYI Fan Central Comments:
For those keeping scoring at home George Gwozdecky is the head coach of the Denver Pioneers. In others words he's Islander prospect Rhett Rakhshani's coach and basically Mr Gwozdecky sent him own little message here to not even think about signing Rakhshani. I wonder why Bruce Brothers did not put that in his article as if he was trying to make Mr Gwozdecky here seem like he has no stake in this.

Pioneer Press: Bruce Brothers has more from Garth Snow on Kyle Okposo who did not comment on negotiations but did say the club has a plan for Okposo.

"I've gotten to know him; he's a special player, and more than anything he's a special person," the general manager of the New York Islanders said by phone from Long Island.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Someone has to help me with this one. Why would Bruce Brothers make issue of Okposo possiblity geting getting hurt at the WJC as any kind of difference whether he was returning to Minnesota or signing with the Islanders?

Ottawa Sun: Bruce Garrioch reports Doug Weight wanted to be traded to the Islanders as opposed to Anaheim to be with his friend Bill Guerin but the Isles only offered a draft pick. Neither Weight's agent Steve Bartlett nor Blues president John Davidson would comment.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Bruce Garroich puts about fifty rumors into one article, usually with no quotes so do not put a lot of stock in this. St Louis and Weight's agent have no comment. We will find out of it's true come summer time if Guerin is still here and Weight is an unrestricted free agent.

South Bend Tribune: Steve Wozniak has a feature on former Islander assistant Jeff Jackson who is the head coach at Notre Dame.

Point Blank: Chris Botta checked in Christmas Day with a blog on Jason Blake and what he's meant to the New York Islanders as he makes his return Wednesday.

Garth Snow responds to Minnesota

Star Tribune:Brian Stensaas reports Garth Snow blames Minnesota coach Don Lucia's coaching which led to Kyle Okposo leaving the university and responded to speculation this was done because of Chris Simon's suspension. Lucia responded to Snow along with Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi who was dumbfounded by the gm's comments.

Asked for specifics, Snow said, "[Okposo] just wasn't getting better -- bottom line. And to me, that's the frustrating part. We entrusted the coach there to turn him into a better hockey player, and it wasn't happening. We feel more comfortable in him developing right under our watch."

"Whether it was Kyle or another player, until things change in that program we'd probably make the same decision. There should be a coach there that looks in the mirror."

"Obviously, it's Kyle's decision whether to stay or leave," Snow said. "But we contacted Kyle and asked how things were going. And that's why we're where we're at."

NYI Fan Central Comments:
A few publications defended Garth Snow who is a product of the college system for his decision here. One pointed to Ted Nolan at Moncton using some US college players but not sure of specifics.

Why Don Lucia could not have shown some class and respected Okposo's decision and wished him luck without assigning blame here is not in the best interest of Okposo moving forward whether he understands this or not. It's not as if the Islanders issued a press release blaming Don Lucia until the coach put this on the team with his NHL rights.

Bottom line Don Lucia can blame the Islanders all he wants but his player decided he has had enough of playing under this coach and his program. Okposo could be right or wrong in the end but it's his decision.

This is a Minnesota paper so of course things are going to be a bit slanted toward the University's side with them getting the final word because when all is said and done they will be covering Don Lucia's team and Joel Maturi's sports programs but Garth Snow had his say and explained why the Islanders did what they did. Islanders have had a lot of high draft picks this did not happen with.

This just puts a big shadow and more pressure on Okposo at the WJC and especially when he returns and has to speak about it or perhaps does come to an agreement with the Islanders. That's why Lucia should have kept quiet if he really had the best long term interest of the player which should always be the priority.

Joel Maturi had no place speculating on a spot for Okposo with the Islanders.

CSTV.com: Elliot Olshansky has comments from Tim Whitehead, the head coach of Maine which is Garth Snow's alma mater, former Islander assistant Jeff Jackson who is head coach at Notre Dame and Michigan coach, Red Berenson. This was also not Don Lucia's first time having problems with an NHL team he spoke out about. Jack Johnson's situation is also brought up here for discussion as well as the new cba changing the relationship between college and NHL organizations.

One thing that can be said with some certainty is that this is not a problem that is specific to the Islanders. "I happen to know [Islanders general manager] Garth Snow," said Tim Whitehead, head coach at Snow's Alma mater, the University of Maine. "He's a great man. I think this must have been a very unique situation. Garth was fabulous with us last year with [the pursuit of undrafted free agent] Teddy Purcell, so I think this is a very unique case. I think every case is unique, each player's situation."

Updated 9:30am
CSTV.com: Elliot Olshansky has a full update and response to Snow's comments and the article from the Star Tribune.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Forgetting Don Lucia's comments about Calgary having a similar ring to his Islander comments it's a good discussion on the changes through the cba. The days of teams going European under this cba (at least for the moment with rumblings of changes to this) and keeping a players rights forever have ended so the gm's now look to the college level which can give a gm four full years or more before a club has to sign that prospect.

Of course this is completely contrary to Kyle Okposo's current circumstances.