KHL Team Plane Crash

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Bloomberg News: Yaroslavl Lokomotiv, a team that is part of the 24-team Kontinental Hockey League, has a list of the players who were killed in a team airline crash, which includes former New York Islander, assistant coach, Brad McCrimmon, former players Josef Vasicek and Alexander Karpovtsev.

Islanders website: Released a statement.

NHL.com has comments from former Islander Alexei Yashin/Evgeny Nabokov.

NYIFC Comments:
Condolences to the people/families of those who lost their lives in this horrible tragedy. To the best of my knowledge, no current/former prospects of the Islander organization are on the reported list of those who perished.

Some Quick Hits for Saturday

Josef Vasicek looks like he is headed to Russia to play on Lokomotiv with Alexei Yashin here according to a Russian newspaper.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Good luck to Josef Vasicek. He came here off two years with knee problems, stayed healthy and gave all he had. To ask for more production than he gave would not be in line with what he has done in his career. With Vasicek your going to get a player when he is healthy who could score ten goals in fifteen games but eventually will go twenty games or more without a goal. Last season that approached thirty games.

For a team using him as a second line center, that's a big problem on a team without a true first line talent.

In the Quick Hits Department:
No shock Kevin Lowe is firing back at Brian Burke. I'm a bit more on Burke's side
(maybe because he sued Larry Brooks) but this stuff does nothing for hockey and is worthless. Lowe since his holdout from Edmonton has always seemed about himself and has a little too much of that Messier sense of entitlement in him for me. I wonder how long before the new ownership puts their own general manager in place?

Dan Boyle is upset he was basically verbally threatened (players words) he would be placed on waivers and wind up in Atlanta if he did not waive his NTC. Impossible to blame Boyle here because the new owners in Tampa should have respected the old ownerships agreement or at least had more class in asking him to waive his no trade clause but this seems to be the latest trend which leads us to Bryan McCabe and the media reports about pressure being placed on him.

For all the revenue the so-called experts guessing about franchises making money vs losing money why didn't Toronto simply buy McCabe out and show some class if they make all the money so many claim?

That buyout period has ended, McCabe has a no movement clause which means exactly that.

No waivers, no trades, no AHL. He plays in Toronto or he goes home a suspended hockey player. I think the NHLPA will have something to say if they try and send McCabe home healthy.

A lot of Islander fans were not happy at the deadline about the NTC Mike Milbury gave Miro Satan when he signed, thankfully Snow kept his thoughts out of the newspaper.

One paper today wrote the New York Islanders will go into next season without a twenty five goal scorer on the roster. To be fair based on that I do not expect to see any predictions with them in the playoffs like the few from last year come August or September.

Good thing the Islanders have that twenty minute Islanders Illustrated to keep us going. I guess Cablevision forgot to release a schedule of Islanders games from last season with all that incredible programming on Msg Plus.

Now free agency starts getting interesting as some players get some serious lowball offers while others wind up on the unemployment line or also head to the new Russian league. If Garth Snow is considering a trade the battle of wits with other general managers looking to create cap space begins now.

Maybe that's why he kept Toronto's second rounder?

NYI Fan Central Final Review: Josef Vasicek

Today's season ending review is on center Josef Vasicek.

Going into 07-08:
Vasicek returned to Carolina in 06-07 in a trade with Nashville where he produced a combined six goals in a split season with both clubs. When you go back to where you did your best and that team is not interested in signing you it's not a good sign.

Garth Snow specifically targeted Josef Vasicek for his grit/ability/skills and felt with the knee problems that hindered him for a few seasons behind him could match & surpass his most productive season with Carolina in 03-04 with nineteen goals & forty five points in a fresh start.

2007-08:
Hard to complain with the early effort of Vasicek last season where he was visible, drove the net and most importantly with his few shots he took made most of them count as he raced out to a great start where he was given a role as the teams second line center with Miroslav Satan and Sean Bergenheim for the most part. His overall effort was solid in all three zones and he did display an edge to his game that helped the club.

Having written all that the Isles got what they paid for which was a track record of someones who at best was streaky and at worst was unplayable in your top six. After November 21st he did not score another goal until late February and despite solid defensive play where he seemed to do everything asked he had far too many nights as a second line center where he could not produce as a top six forard on a club desperate for scoring, many games he was not very visible.

Ted Nolan moved him around at times, nothing really seemed to spark his offensive game to where he could prove consistent.

You get what you pay for and out of Vasieck they seemed to get an honest effort from a limited player. For a checking center on a club with good balanced scoring it could be enough. On the 2007-08 Islanders, the lowest scoring club in the league it was not nearly close to being enough. Vasicek is not going to look to shoot often and like former Islander Viktor Kozlov did not use his offensive gifts nearly enough as he looked to create a perfect goal with far too many moves. He was strong on his skates, the few times he drove the net it was impressive. For a big man he seems to have the potential to play big at times also but last season he did not give that to the club nightly.

Best example of Vasicek's offensive game can be described by his shorthanded goal in a 1-0 win against the Devils where he made what seemed like an endless series of moves before finally flubbing a shot over Brodeur where it looked nice but he seemed to make it as tough as he could on himself. Other times he would move from high quality area's to take lower percentage shots.

Moving forward:
Vasicek signed a one year contract with the Islanders, he's unrestricted at this time and it's fair to say with Sillinger & Comrie signed the club has to look to find a more productive second line center despite how he did a good overall job in the defensive zone where he proved he could be durable. Someones going to sign him, give him a better offensive supporting cast but I doubt any club will use him above their third line.

There is a chance he is back too, but I tend to think the club has to improve it's scoring and look for consistency. I do not think another club in the league would carry him as a top six forward & given a choice my guess is he would like to return.

It's also fair to ask should Ben Walter, Jeremy Colliton, Frans Nielsen & even Rob Hennigar get a shot also now that they have seen Vasieck for eighty one games.

Final grade:
Giving Vasicek a poor grade here would be like giving Richard Park a poor grade for not being a front line offensive talent and that would not be fair. He proved himself durable after years with knee problems, posted a plus rating among a group of forwards who were terrible at even strength as a unit and gave a club with no front line offensive talent and a brutal powerplay sixteen goals & thirty five points and he seemed like a good team player on the ice.

Vasicek receives a B. All in all he did a nice job here and may even be back but I do not see a role for him and he's not going to become a twenty five goal player who can produce critical goals or dominate games.

His next goal will always have me wondering will we have to wait thirty games before we see another one.

New York will select fifth in draft

Lottery Results:
1-Tampa
2-Los Angeles
3-Atlanta
4-St Louis
5-New York
6-Columbus

Islanders website: Issued a release after the lottery with comments from Garth Snow.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Let the debate begin on who the Isles will select with the fifth pick. Stamkos did not seem to be doing cartwheels.

Josef Vasicek and Trent Hunter and Rick DiPietro did ITV interviews on the season. Vasicek said he wants to return next season when interviewed by Chris King. Isles had over forty games with two goals or less.

Expect more interviews to be added.

Canadian Press: Had a full article today with comments from Bill Guerin, Richard Park, Ted Nolan and Miroslav Satan on the injuries, slumps and disappointment.

Miroslav Satan said he hopes not when asked if Friday was his final Islander game as he talked about his numbers not being up to his standards and that next year is a better season.

Islander News Articles 2/29:

Newsday: Greg Logan recaps the Isles win with Ted Nolan's comments that it was a bad hockey game and did not like how his club fell apart but was glad they got two points. Rick DiPietro talked about Atlanta's offense and that he should have had the second goal while Hunter and Vasicek talked about their big goals and play in the win. Frans Nielsen reportedly said his x-ray looked good.

Newsday: Greg Logan disclosed in his blog after some speculation about a possible injury to Rick DiPietro he suffered a loss in his family Thursday but still decided to play against Atlanta. Speculation is he could miss a game this weekend to attend a funeral.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Condolences to Rick DiPietro and his family on his loss and highest marks to him for trying to play under very tough circumstances. Dubie will find a way to get himself ready if necessary.

Islander Insider added Friday morning here and linked to Newsday's Islander blog will feature a contrast of this year’s trade by Pittsburgh with the Islanders’ rental of Ryan Smyth, Miro Satan’s contract situation and Sean Bergenheim's development.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
With Hossa already out for a week because of a knee injury in his first game for Pittsburgh so far the edge goes to the Islanders.

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Craig Custance has the recap of Atlanta's loss with Ken Klee's comments where he took the blame and credited Josef Vasicek for a good play to set up Trent Hunter for the game winner.

NY Post: Justin Terranov writes a full preview of Islanders-Rangers for next week with Dave Maloney and Bill Jaffe's comments.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
For all the substandard coverage decisions this season this ranks near the top because it makes no sense.

Dan Martin is out writing on the PSAL, the Islanders win in Atlanta got about sixty words and the Post decides to preview games next week with a full article?

NY Times: Michel Schwirtz has a full interview with former Islander Alexei Yashin and his wife Carol Alt on players from the NHL coming back to Russian as the league builds itself to one that they hope surpasses the NHL and the preimer league.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Nothing negative or Islander-related for those curious. Congratulations to Yashin for getting married and best of luck. I miss his big shot. Too bad he never spoke up for himself or let the fans get to know more about him because it did not help him in the end. That written he never said a bad word about anyone and many players spoke well of him.

USA Today/AP: Dave Campbell in an article on efforts made to create new rules regarding college prospects leaving school has Kyle Okposo's mother who recaps why his son decided to leave school along with what seems like new quotes from Don Lucia, Garth Snow.

Bill Daly is also quoted as is former Islander Mark Parrish, who also left school early to sign with Colorado in 1997. The writer adds his personal speculation Okposo will see some games with the Islanders this season.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio has Sound Tigers president Howard Saffan's comments about acquiring Colin Fretter, Jason Pitton on his season ending shoulder injury and more on the clear day roster as injury status for Bridgeport is updated.

Bridgeport Sound Tigers at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
WHEN — Tonight, 7:05
WHERE — Wachovia Arena, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
ON THE AIR — No radio; Webcast and B2 Networks Internet pay-per-view at www.soundtigers.com

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio's blog updates the fallout in the Sound Tigers division from the trade deadline and how it effected teams in terms of clear day.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Sorry folks, I thought lists were released the day they were due. Mr Fornabaio got everyone the advanced version but it still has to be approved by the league for their official news release.

Islander News Articles 2/21:

Newsday: Greg Logan's game recap has Josef Vasicek talking about how Kolzig came out to challenge Hunter which gave him an angle to shoot from behind the goal and bank in the tying goal, and how he felt the team did not panic as DiPietro held them in. Mike Comrie talked about his shootout winning goal while Ted Nolan agreed with a question about his club stealing two points but the coach felt Freddy Meyer and Radek Martinek did a great job on Ovechkin.

Newsday: Greg Logan reports during Caps game Ted Nolan likely will break up the Islanders' kid line with either Jeff Tambellini or Frans Nielsen returning to Bridgeport in favor of Simon's toughness because too many teams have been taking advantage of his club in the physical department. Simon comments on how he must do things differently and play within the rules.

Washington Times: Has the recap of Washington's shootout loss.

Leader-Post: Greg Harder has an article on Mike Sillinger with a lot of comments from the New York Times feature a few weeks ago here from 2/9 update.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio has comments from Jack Capuano on Matt Keith and his club's five game winning streak as they came back in this game with Kyle Okposo scoring on the powerplay in the third to tie the game. Ben Walter left after a shift with a right shoulder injury and is out for the weekend.

Strong turnout at Harbor Yard with 4,174 in attendance.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio has the Sound Tigers weekly with some items on the NHL trade deadline as well as Bridgeport's upcoming schedule and a bunch of items.

Virginian Pilot: Paul White has the recap of Norfolk's loss to Bridgeport.

Islander News Articles 1/12:

Newsday: Greg Logan's game article at this time has no quotes but recaps the game with several Islanders breaking out of scoring slumps.

Newsday: Greg Logan has reaction from Rick DiPietro on his first all-star selection who praised Martin Brodeur.

"Being a fan of hockey growing up, you watch the skills competition and the All-Star Game," DiPietro said. "It's kind of cliché to say the dream came true, but it really did."

"When you get a chance to play against Marty on a consistent basis, you're learning from the best," DiPietro said. "I've had the last six years to study him and watch how he carries himself. You learn a lot, and it definitely makes you pick up your play when you look down at the other end and you've got arguably the best goalie to ever lace up the pads. It definitely increases your intensity level."

Newsday: Greg Logan's other article despite the win had criticism from Ted Nolan on how some of his players have been struggling, especially Josef Vasicek who has taken one shot or less in fourteen of his last sixteen games and Ruslan Fedotenko, who are both quoted.

"Joe Vasicek is a good player. For whatever reason, the last five or six games, he hasn't been skating and he's been losing some battles. I had a good discussion with him. I talked to Tank, too, and showed him a couple things we felt he wasn't doing the best. We've got to get him into position where he's going to get the puck and do some creative things with it."

"I didn't shoot much, did I?" Vasicek said. "I don't know why. That's the thing, I guess early in the season, I didn't think about it as much. Lately, we've been getting some chances, but it seems like we always hit the post. You start to think about it a little more, and that never helps."

"It's really up to Teddy how he's going to split up the ice time," Vasicek said. "I'm just trying to do my job and play as hard as I can. I've got a lot of respect for him. I know he knows what he's doing."

New York Times: Jeff Z. Klein makes a statistical argument why Rick DiPietro and Tomas Vokoun should not have been selected as reserve goaltenders for the All-Star game based on shots against and save percentage.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Perhaps the Times should send Mr Klein out to cover Islander games on a daily basis so he could get his answer beyond numbers? If there is a goalie playing with less margin for error facing the quality chances DiPietro faces nightly I do not know of one. Islanders goals against down significantly from last year and an improved record
is why DiPietro deserved to be named.

Oh yes, in the first four games of the Islanders' five-game road trip, DiPietro has faced an average of 39.5 shots and has gotten three of four games to overtime.

Calgary Sun:Steve MacFarlane has comments from Jerome Iginla, Ted Nolan, Mike Keenan on how well Rick DiPietro played.

"He played well. I thought we had a lot of chances, especially in the first period," said Iginla, who somehow found his side down 3-1 heading into the the second period. "He kept them in there."

"I looked at it. We had three good chances to score," said Flames head coach Mike Keenan of the powerplay opportunity. "He's a very athletic goaltender. He picks up a lot of points for them."

Calgary Sun: Eric Francis has reaction from Rick DiPietro on Ovechkin's contract and Charles Wang's decisions.

"If anyone's a trend-setter, it would be our owner," said the 26-year-old Islanders netminder of the oft-ridiculed Charles Wang.

"People are always first to point out how crazy he is and the crazy things he does. Then at the end of the day people start following suit. We do my deal, and everyone is all over him. He hires Snowy (GM Garth Snow), and people criticize him for that, and next thing you know, Dallas hires Brett Hull. He's ahead of his time.

"If you're a business person in general, and you have a chance to lock up one of your young franchise guys for a long time in this salary cap age and it's tough to hold onto top players, it seems like the smartest thing to do."

NYI Fan Central Comments:
It should be noted Eric Francis has always gone all out to rip the Islanders out of Calgary over the years. It was likely the first time he has seen DiPietro since the draft in Calgary in 2000.

Calgary Sun: Steve MacFarlane had an interview with Ruslan Fedotenko on his great final with Tampa Bay against Calgary in 2004 and the celebration in the Ukraine.

Calgary Herald: Scott Cruickshank's game coverage and some comments on Rick DiPietro on spending two days in Calgary:

"The thing about having two off days in Canada is that you get to see a lot of hockey highlights," New York Islanders netminder Rick DiPietro was saying before Friday's game at the Pengrowth Saddledome.

"I feel like I've already scouted the Flames by watching TSN."

Islander/NHL notables

Canadian Press/Several news sites: Report Penguins forward Mark Recchi cleared waivers Wednesday.

Espn.com: Sean Allen has a feature on the hard luck shooters and the good luck shooters. Josef Vasicek is listed among the good luck shooters, Bill Guerin, Viktor Kozlov, Jason Blake among the hard luck shooters.

Josef Vasicek, C, Islanders (9, 33, .273): I'm not sure you'll get too much for him in most fantasy leagues, but if you can ditch him for a No. 4 defenseman in deep leagues, do it. Vasicek is connecting on way too many shots, especially noteworthy since he has never had a season with a shooting percentage higher than .120.

Espn.com: Jonah Keri in a special feature about Martin Brodeur has quotes from the future Hall of famer where he credits Rick DiPietro as the best puckhandling goaltender in the NHL and one of the three best netminders in the league.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio's blog reports center Michael Haley was signed by the Sound Tigers to a PTO and practiced with the club after being brought up from the Utah Grizzlies.

Long Island Business News: David Winzelberg reports on the plans released today by RexCorp to transform the Marriot hotel next to the Nassau Coliseum.