Islander News Articles 4/3

Newsday: John Jeansonne interviews new Islander Jack Hillen, with Ted Nolan's comments. Hillen had impressed Islander scouts Rob Cowie and Toby O'Brien repeatedly this year.

Islander blogs in Newsday on 4/2: Steve Zipay 5, Greg Logan/John Jeansonne 0.

St Catherins standard.com: Bill Potrecz reports the Islanders were one of several clubs with scouts at the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League playoff between the Thorold Blackhawks and the St. Catharines Falcons.

AHL.com: Reports the Sound Tigers lost to the Manchester Monarchs Wednesday 5-1 Jeff Tambellini scored, Mike Morrison started in goal.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio recaps Bridgeport's 5-1 loss with Jack Capuano's comments his club did not have the intensity needed, backed off and did not deserve to win. Steve Regier talked about having to cash in on the early chances but if not they have to be resilient.

Manchester Union Leader: Covers the Monarchs.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio has the Sound Tigers weekly which includes the playoff race upcoming games, the rules explaining why Jack Hillen cannot play for Bridgeport at all after Friday with Peter MacArthur's comments about his future contract status.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio blogged on the lineup changes, the loss to Manchester which puts Hershey's magic number for eliminating Bridgeport at eleven. Scott Ford missed the third after blocking a shot.

Rapid City Journal: Jim Holland has an interview with former Sound Tigers assistant coach, Joe Ferras of the new Rapid City Rush in the inagural season in the Central Hockey league.

Islander/Sound Tiger Notables

Isles TV has interviews after Jack Hillen's first NHL practice with the website likely to follow.

Ted Nolan intends to pair him with Radek Martinek.

SoundTigers.com: Preview's tonight's only Sound Tiger visit to Manchester during the regular season.

AHL.com as of 4pm does not have any changes listed for Bridgeport or New York.

Michael Fornabaio does not have a blog update yet so we'll see if anyone goes to Manchester from New York.

Practice combinations:
Bergenheim-Vasicek-Guerin
Comeau-Park-Okposo
Nielsen-Satan-Hunter

Brennan-Aaron Johnson as a quasi fourth line.
MacDonald-Dubielewicz in goal.

Gervais skated, Jack Hillen wore # 38 on his helmet.
Absent from practice and likely going to Bridgeport from Chris King/Steve Mears:
Jeremy Colliton, Matt Keith, Matthew Spiller and Drew Fata.

Islander News Articles 12/23:

Newsday: Erik Boland covered tonight's win with comments from Richard Park on his goal and Ted Nolan on the club's effort.

"This gives us a great feeling going into the holiday. It will make the food and everything taste better," said Park, who scored his sixth goal of the season. "The last two games have been good for us. A different guy has stepped up for us."

"I think Richard Park's been our most underrated player the past couple of years," coach Ted Nolan said. "He does everything."

Newsday: Erik Boland's other article is about how the veterans have helped Blake Comeau with a few words on Kyle Okposo and if they could become Islander teammates?

"They've been great with me since I've been here," Comeau said before last night's game. "Coming up here, you're a little nervous, but they all told me, don't panic with the puck, make plays and when I get the chance, shoot the puck."

"I'm not sure what's happening in that situation, but all I know is I've seen Kyle play at minicamps and he's a great player," Comeau said of possibly playing with Okposo.

Daily News: Peter Botte's limited space game report is on Richard Park's overtime goal with quotes from Park and Miroslav Satan and Ted Nolan. Also reported is Kyle Okposo will be sent to Bridgeport (no quotes) and Shawn Bates will have season ending surgery on his hip.

"We knew going in we didn't have the firepower to blow anybody out 6-1...but we're getting back to the way we need to play," Ted Nolan said.

"We've been falling, so to get these four points (this weekend) is huge," said Miroslav Satan, who also scored to extend his point-scoring streak to six games. "All of a sudden, the picture looks a little brighter."

John Dellapina has a three page article on Drury/Gomez and a full game preview for today as well as a blog and games for the week updated.

NY Post: Jay Greenberg makes a rare Coliseum appearance so Dan Martin could be the second or third Knicks writer and does a good job in his short space letting the fans know the Islanders have problems scoring. Of course if this were a Ranger game he would be selling Lundqvist's goaltending as the story but nothing from DiPietro.

NY Post: Larry Brooks does a little stomping of his own on former Ranger Chris Simon.

Washington Times: Corey Masisak has the game coverage and comments from coach Bruce Boudreau on the Islanders back when they were a dynasty.

"They were so darn quick and so good. You didn't realize how good those guys were until you were actually playing against them and getting beaten 7-1 — which happened a lot."

Washington Post: Free subscription only.

Newsday: Mark Herrmann has a mostly Islander-centric feature on Mike Bossy and TV star Kevin Connolly going shopping with the United Way.

Newsday: Neil Best has a mostly Islander centric update on the history of the teams television contract with former general counsel Bill Skehan speaking out about why the Islanders are signed until 2030-2031 and will
will receive about $20 million from Cablevision this year.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Of course Mr Best makes it mostly negative about the club's losses and questions if the teams is worth the value they get each season and if they would still have a franchise without this contract before making sure to get in a Christmas plug for the Garden.

Islanders seemed to do well enough financially as soon as Roy Boe sold the club to John Pickett.

Newsday: Steve Zipay's Sunday Newsday feature in the Islanders only full time paper is on...............Henrik Lundqvist.

SoundTigers.com: Has the recap of Manchester's 5-1 win at Harbor Yard Saturday.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio's game coverage on the loss with Captain Mark Wotton's comments as Bridgeport fails to get back to five hundred with Drew Fata, Jack Capuano and Joey MacDonald. His blog here has more on the loss.

"We were a little sleepy-sleepy the first seven or eight minutes," coach Jack Capuano said. "We were outstanding the rest of the game."

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio has a great feature on Dustin Kohn staying with a Westport family which is an idea Howard Saffin credits Bill Torrey for going back to the days of when Bryan Trottier stayed with a local family.

Union Leader: Covers the Manchester Monarchs.

QMJHL: Karl Jahnke has an article with former Islander assistant coach Danny Flynn who's coaching the Moncton Wildcats, where he also worked for Ted Nolan as an assistant where they won the league championship.

"Working in New York was a great experience; the players were very good to me. But the opportunity to put my stamp on the team in Moncton was something I couldn’t pass up. I’ve been coaching 20 years in junior and college hockey, and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I’m excited to be back and I want to build a championship calibre team."