Islander News Articles 9/23

Newsday: Greg Logan has an article on Doug Weight on what went wrong last season, how he feels he can contribute to this team, the young players on it and why he decided to sign here.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
All I know is a year ago Doug Weight reported to the St Louis Blues a fifty point player. If he had a poor season because of the circumstances around him or how he was used by the coaches in St Louis and Anaheim that's fair enough but on this team he has to contribute on the score sheet and make plays to score or setup goals that the departing players did not provide or his acquisition will not work out.

CBC.com: Marc Crawford had some comments about the new crop of NHL coaches hired over the summer and felt Scott Gordon's Islanders could surprise.

Montreal Gazette: Dave Stubbs reports Boston in it's first preseason game Monday won 8-3 against the Montreal Canadians in a physical game keyed by a huge return by Patrice Bergeron and Manny Fernandez.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
These teams played a seven game playoff last spring with first seed Montreal beating eighth seeded Boston.

Islanders website: Report the Islander rookies defeated the UNB 4-1 in a scrimmage with three shorthanded goals. Matt Martin and Justin DiBenedetto––both drafted by the Islanders in 2008––along with Sting alumni Mike Haley and Vladimir Nikiforov each notched goals. Kevin Poulin allowed only one goal on 23 shots.

Sound Tigers head coach Jack Capuano and Pro Scout Tim Maclean comments on how the club played.

ISLANDERS (ROOKIES)

49 Kevin Poulin
35 Peter Mannino

6 Jared Spurgeon – 15 Travis Hamonic
3 Andrew MacDonald – 5 Jyri Niemi
16 Simon Lacroix – 37 Jordan Hart

29 Matt Martin– 19 Tomas Marcinko – 39 Vladimir Nikiforov
17 Jason Pitton– 11 Justin DiBenedetto – 26 Max Gratchev
24 Joel Rechlicz – 20 Tyler Haskins – 18 Micheal Haley

UNB Website: Should have an update on tonight's prospect game at some point.

Times & Transcript: Gerald McLaughlin has Andy MacDonald's comments and a recap of the Islanders prospect win against UNB.

The Guardian: Jason Simmonds reports Islander officials were in Summerside on Monday in preparation for Thursday and Saturday’s games with comments from Islander assistant Kerry Gwydir.

Newsday: Greg Logan has a blog update with comments from Brendan Witt and Doug Weight to the club's new system and what it means to hockey they play.

From Monday:
CBS Sportsline: Wes Goldstein Monday had a conference review that was basically worthless beyond telling our fans about Rick DiPietro's contract and management doing things differently.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Tell us the club cannot score enough or it's not skilled or too injury prone, not about the all-star goaltenders contract or management structure and I would write that's fair enough. This was just thrown together and lazy.

Islander/NHL Notables

The News Pictou County: Has an uncredited article on Saturday's second annual Play the Pros event will take place at the John Brother MacDonald Stadium in New Glasgow which was started last year by Jon Sim and Colin White of the Devils. Jon Sim comments, Joey MacDonald will participate.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
What's fun about an article like this is last year's photo has Jon Sim wearing the Islanders 2006-07 jersey before the Reebok edge designed was released, Sim never wore that jersey playing in New York.

I referenced this information a few weeks ago and Bruno Gervais should also be one of the players participating.

I found it very interesting Ross McKeon of Yahoo Sports did an article about teams contracting here in a feature about things he would change around the NHL. Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis in his blog fired back with a strong response here as to why it's not feasible with a few choice words for the Yahoo sports senior writer who in turn responded to Mr Leonsis here and of course started by writing about page views.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Whatever happened to the good old player feature stories?

Is it really about page views for so many of these sites and revenue from their advertisers so they throw anything against the wall hoping it sticks and stirs up angry/passionate reaction? I was kind of offended Ross McKeon started his response to the Caps owner with that. It's just another reason I'm conservative with what I post here and I try and draw my own line between professional and amateur but I have included Mr McKeon's team ranking and work because clearly he is a professional and will be part of our blogs coverage regardless of content.

As for the article Mr Leonsis points out the almost countless reasons contraction is not feasible and it's impossible to argue his reasoning. I could sit here and make a case for the contraction of all thirty teams in this league at one time or another including all three New York area teams.

The team that won the Stanley Cup last year used to give away cars to get people to attend games when the New York Islanders owned this league, the Wings had problems selling out playoff games the last few years and play in one of the oldest building with the least revenue streams with it's management claiming it needed to make the finals to break even in past seasons with Wings president Jimmy Devellano's comments here about the situation in Detroit here during the lockout era.

Absolutely no club in this league is immune to being included in contraction discussion for folks who wish to start them and for me anyone who wants to start one of those discussions should include his/her favorite team first.

Congratulations to former Islander Gord Dineen who was named head coach of the Iowa Chops with the Desmiones Register doing a feature by Lisa Colonno
here.

Canadian Press here has an updated on the situation with forward Alexander Radulov with comments from Bill Daly from the NHL and KHL President Alexander Medvedev.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Good for the NHL turning down any compensation for Alexander Radulov, he signed a contract to play here, he should honor it and play here. If he signed his contract first in Russia first he should play there and honor that deal.

What Rudulov pulled on the Predators here is flat out bush league, you sign a contract you honor it, you don't decide to sign another one and leave for more money.

KHL president Alexander Medvedev says there no mechanism in the KHL rules to force Radulov's return to the NHL, and said the matter might have to be resolved in court is all well and good but if he was really interested in doing things properly he would be just as quick to blast Radulov and suspend him from playing in his league until he completes his obligation to Nashville as he is to threaten NHL players that they could be suspended from international competition. I know it's fashionable to pile on Gary Bettman and Bill Daly here but in this case it's not fair.

Calgary Herald/Several outlets: Bruce Dowbiggin has more on the Todd Bertuzzi-Marc Crawford-Steve Moore lawsuit from the incident years ago with Crawford now telling his side of what happened in court documents.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I would not want this hanging over my new coach as training camp is about to begin if Crawford was in any serious consideration if I were Garth Snow. Islanders coaching job is hard enough without that to work with as a sidebar. I wonder if it was a factor for Dean Lombardi combined with a losing record as this finally made it's way into the court system the last few months and received more publicity?

Hard to believe this is the same Todd Bertuzzi who was roughed up as an Islander rookie over a decade ago.

Islander/NHL Notables: Crawford out

CBC.ca: Report former Kings coach Marc Crawford will be joining Hockey Night in Canada next season with his comments.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I guess Crawford can be taken off the Isles coaching list based on this or it will be a very short run at HNIC.

Edmonton Oilers: Have announced Kevin Lowe has been promoted to President of Hockey Operations for the Edmonton Oilers and has named former Islander Steve Tambellini as the team’s new General Manager.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
So Jeff Tambellini's father is now an NHL general manager. He must have been on the outs in Vancouver to let him become gm of a rival team in the same division unless Lowe is what John Davidson is to St Louis with gm Larry Pleau basically a step below.

Somewhere Brian Burke is either laughing or unhappy. Would not shock me if the new Oilers ownership is kicking Lowe upstairs too.

National Post: Michael Traikos has Mats Sundin's agent, J.P Barry's comments on the saga to sign the long time Leaf.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Mercifully the professional media sources have kept his name away from the Isles, perfect fit for the Rangers to sign another veteran declining for big money with a front-loaded Cablevision contract which will not make the local papers. I guess Roberto Luongo and twenty million is not enough to get his to sign in Vancouver.

Canadian Press: Report unrestricted Philadelphia Flyers defenceman Jaroslav Modry signed a two-year contract with Czech club HC Liberec.

Daily News: John Dellapina reports through Czech newspapers two time Ranger Peter Nedved will be invited to camp for a tryout.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I'm surprised Messier did not call up already and try and to get his spot back for five million a year with the captaincy. Funny, I did not read about how old Nedved was compared to Doug Weight who must be fifty years old from some of the reports about him.

Nedved for those wondering both players were born in 1971. Weight in January, Nedved in December. Holik is oldest of the three.

Canadian Press/several sources: Report Scotty Bowman has agreed to become the senior advisor of hockey operations for the Chicago BlackHawks after six years with Detroit as a consultant, joining his son Stan who is the Blackhawks assistant GM.

Quick Hits:
The Isles website reported Doug Weight will appear from the signed unrestricted free agent witness protection program and be on hand for Islander fans August 9th at the next team shareholders meeting as we finally get to hear something from him.

The Magnificent Seven ride into New York

You read some of the speculation on why some coaches would be a good fit here vs those who would not be a good fit here and I kind of laugh at most of it. Unless someone who worked with these people in those places comments about what outright skills or flaws they had it's virtually worthless in terms of today or the Isles of 2008-09.

Every team and it's circumstances are different and things change a lot.

Unless we are behind the scenes working with these people on a daily basis we really have little idea of anything. Al Arbour came here in 1974 after leaving the St Louis Blues where he coached and helped build a club with prospects into a dynasty, second time when he came back for Terry Simpson it took a lot of growing pains and the club never really became a good team for a sustained period with a lot of playoff misses or mediocre clubs that only played well in stretches.

Al Arbour did not turn many prospects into star players in his second tenure as coach, however Vladimir Malakhov or Darius Kasparaitis were never better.

Of course if Arbour were looking for a job today we would be reading he can only take playoff teams to the next level and is not good for a rebuilding.

With that we present the Magnificent Seven with some background and a little speculation of our own in no particular order:

You can put the actors to the name, Gerard Gallant can play the role of Eli Wallach for this one.

1. Scott Gordon-For those who will do the Steve Stirling analogies that would be a huge mistake given age difference despite the amazing job Stirling did in the NHL as a rookie coach with an injured Isles team after a great job in Bridgeport. Scott Gordon has been an outstanding coach in the AHL with Providence as an assistant coach first who almost was named Bruins head coach last summer who is well regarded in the organization with many saying he is more than ready for an NHL head coaching job and would be a great fit as an NHL head coach. He can work well with prospects obviously but can he work well with veterans would be my question. It should be noted he was Mike Sullivan's assistant coach with Providence before before Sullivan was promoted to the Bruins coaching job.

Goaltenders generally do not have great track records as NHL head coaches (at least recently) for what that is worth but goaltenders do bond well which could be a big plus to our goaltender turned general manager.

It should be noted one of the star players on the team Scott Gordon took over in 03was current Islander Andy Hilbert who also played for Mike Sullivan and no doubt he has plenty of experience with Ben Walter.

2. Mike Sullivan-Not a lot to write here, he was promoted from Providence with little coaching experience in the AHL and was the youngest coach in the NHL at the time of his hiring guiding the Bruins to a playoff spot his first season. GM Mike O'Connell decided not to retain many veterans during the lockout that wiped out the 2004-05 season so at the end of 05-06 with the club struggling he was fired by new gm Peter Chiarelli who brought in Dave Lewis who fared no better. Sullivan was left waiting as replacements for his job were being interviewed by Boston. John Tortorella feels Sullivan is an excellent assistant as Sullivan moved on to Tampa Bay who was part of a Stanley Cup and has endorsed him many times as being more than ready to be head coach of another club.

3. Paul Maurice-I know a lot of folks will point to his cup run with Carolina but that team only had eighty three points in 2002 (thirteen behind the Isles) and were given third seed because they won the division. I know the word is he works well with prospects and gets along well with general managers (Jim Rutherford is one of the best) but what team has Paul Maurice ever made good for an extended amount of time? Since the Hurricanes' appeared in the 2002 Stanley Cup finals, their record had been horrendous with the club winning only seventeen games out of eighty before he was fired in season. His Leafs tenure was an outright failure which of course had more to do with his general manager's choice of players.

Sure he could be hired here and do a great job, but on paper this does not seem like a good hire. The relocation to Greensboro from Hartford bought him time, so did the Canes moving into it's permanent home as did the cup finals run before time finally ran out for him.

4. John Tortorella-This is a coach who had been with one club for a long time who has basically seen it all in his first full-time assignment. He has coached superstars, developed players into stars, won a Stanley Cup, finished 30th while pushing his clubs for all they can give and more with sometimes burning his clubs out as they fell apart or looked over matched come playoff time. He took a Tampa team that had done virtually nothing (aside from one playoff run) it it's history and turned them into a winner. Most of his players liked playing for him, he never had any public problems with former GM Jay Feaster and his reputation of being a troublemaker seems more of a media creation because he gives colorful interviews.

There were no complaints from Brad Lukowich or Ruslan Fedotenko about Tortorella when they signed here, despite Fedotenko's poor final season in Tampa where he was dropped on the third line.

If Charles Wang, Garth Snow and John Tortorella are all willing to take the growing pains, the criticism and buck the second year trend of head coaches around here and work in the prospects and stick with the plan, it's the right hire.

Given some of the outright strange moves by Tampa's new ownership keeping it's gm in limbo and bullying a player just signed off the roster, I'm inclined to see the club hire Tortorella as long as he can accept there will be no Martin St Louis or Vinnie LeCavalier on his first line come October. If Mr Botta is correct that DiPietro and Tortorella know and like one another that does not hurt.

He's also a big name coach for a team that desperate needs a bigger media presence and should fit right in with the club reaching out to the community.

5. Bob Hartley-If relationship with the gm here is the over-riding factor than the Isles might as well schedule the press conference. Hartley was one if not the lone outsider who endorsed Snow's hiring as general manager in 2006. Of course it will not be only about that but about track record and Hartley is another coach who has basically seen it all from Stanley Cups and amazing success in Colorado to struggling clubs rebuilding in Atlanta he did take to the next level, he's worn out his welcomes and comes well respected by many others. Will he buy into a youth movement here or did the playoff meltdown carry over or did Don Waddell's shortsighted moves catch up with him or did Hartley push for the short-sighted moves?

Either way the situation was so poor in Atlanta on a team with many talented offensive players he was gone after six games but left Atlanta as the most successful coach in team history who got a very quick hook last season. Hartley's presence did not keep Heatley in Atlanta for what that is worth and never got Lehtonen to the next level with a defense less than adequate that always played an offensive style.

This is a man who never played an NHL game for those wondering.

6. Joel Quenneville-Hard to argue with Quenneville's record as a great choice for a head coach other than that he has only taken his clubs to one conference final but is another who has long experience who is well respected but after a while organizations make changes because a coach took his club as far as management felt he could. How would he deal with a club that could miss the playoffs for years given he only had one spring without a playoff. Ted Nolan did not react well, how will Quenneville with the adversity losing can bring?

Fair to say Quenneville has had some fantastic talents, including Doug Weight during his career. He seemingly has never been part of a franchise with a lot of prospects competing for spots and has never coached in this conference.

7. Marc Crawford-A lot of long experience, a Stanley Cup in Colorado and helped turn around the Canucks with four playoff appearances but the message does grow old and coaches burn out teams and Crawford is that kind of coach. Like Quenneville has never coached in this conference but was brought into Los Angeles for a prospect team that struggled for two year and was fired by the general manager who hired him which has to raise questions for Garth Snow who did not have close to the franchise talents Crawford had with Los Angeles despite many young players producing well under this coach.

Gerard Gallant-This will likely be the least popular choice among Islander fans because of how poorly the Isles powerplay performed combined with his dismissal from Columbus, but Gallant like many Jacket coaches (including Ken Hitchcock) still has not had the right core of talent around him where he had a fair chance to show his abilities and was with Columbus for six years. He could not make it work as coach with Anson Carter and the addition of Fredrik Modin in a trade, or with Rick Nash.

Gallant took over for Doug MacLean midway through the 2003-04 season and finished with a 16-24-5 record. After the lockout the Blue Jackets went 35-43-4 in 05-06 but went 23-16-2 in the second half of the season after Nash returned from an injury but opened 5-9-1-0 when he was fired in November of 2006.

One thing for sure he will not be getting a star like Nash here nor did he get more out of Carter, Fedorov, Modin. Was his animated confrontation with former Islander Marc-Andre Bergeron be taken as a positive or negative?

Hot Tuesday update

Newsday: Katie Strang has an interview with Kyle Okposo and Garth Snow's comments about the young prospect.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
No doubt both were interviewed during last weeks business club event when Snow and Okposo were together.

Islanders website: Reviewed the picks the club will have in the upcoming draft.

1st Round: #5
2nd Round: #36, #53 (Ana to Edm to NYI)
3rd Round: #66, #73 (Edm to NYI to Edm to Ana to NYI)
4th Round: #96
5th Round: #126, #148 (Phi to NYI)
6th Round: #156, #175 (Min to NYI)

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Phoenix was awarded the 35th pick as compensation for losing the rights to Blake Wheeler recently so the Isles move back a selection. There may be more picks added as compensation so that could change again before June 20th.

Sudbury Star: Harold Carmichael reports Islander coach Al Arbour has been nominated for Joe Drago coach of the year award at the 40th Annual House of Kin Sports Celebrity Dinner and Awards Wednesday night.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Unless Al Arbour is being nominated for his win against Pittsburgh this season it seems late in the day for him only to be nominated now for his accomplishments, but impossible to know how this work.

J.D News, Jacksonville NC: Gregory Bond has former Islander Ed Westphal's comments about NHL salary and the struggle for some clubs to keep up.

SI: Darren Eliot reports on the goalie equipment working group which will meet Wednesday in Toronto and include Garth Snow and Rick DiPietro.

Lots of old updates on this one from March when this was announced here.

Updated 7:46pm:
Tsn.ca: Reports Anaheim traded the rights to former Islander defender Marc-Andre Bergeron to Minnesota for a third round pick.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
So Anaheim was able to unload Bergeron, got it's third round pick back and added depth for their playoff drive while Garth Snow obviously was concerned he would be stuck with him so he dealt him at the deadline and made the offensive part of his back line weaker subtracting the club's best powerplay point shot at a time they had just won six in a row and had nothing on the backline to replace Bergeron's shot?

Not one of Garth Snow's best moments today. Not saying Bergeron's shot would have made the difference by itself but the year before they desperately needed to add a shot and decided on Bergeron and he helped. This year they took a step back to where they were before that trade and left themselves weaker when they could have waited and gotten the same pick from the Wild.

Tsn.ca: Reports former Islander Trevor Linden will announce his retirement on Wednesday.

Kings website/several media outlets: Report Marc Crawford has been fired by the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday with comments from general manager Dean Lombardi.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I remember two years ago how many Islander fans were furious the club did not hire Lombardi and Crawford. It begs the question if ownership believes in Lombardi's development/prospect plan why did they not support the coach who had to take the pains to coach under those circumstances?

Dean Lombardi sure left him hanging a long time or someone was just fired he really is interested in?

The latest Todd Bertuzzi disgrace

Edmonton Journal/countless sources: Report former Islander forward Todd Bertuzzi filed what is called a third-party notice in Ontario Superior Court in Canada against his former coach Marc Crawford, for his attack on Steve Moore. He has not sued Crawford, as some reports have suggested.

Moore, who suffered a broken neck and a concussion, is suing Bertuzzi for $38 million

NYI Fan Central Comments:
It's hard to believe some Islander fans actually though this player was going to stay here and become a franchise star. He had a few very good years, then fell off the map and has been nothing but a headache for every organization he goes to now.

This one bears watching because it could be a landmark event in terms of coaches being accountable for their conduct in a court of law if Crawford is instructed to pay Bertuzzi anything. I'm surprised he did not sue the Canucks gm, the owner the of the team, the facility and Vancouver on top of it.

One thing for sure is fellow team owners and the coaching fraternity do not forget and will be very leery of working with Todd Bertuzzi in the future. It will be interesting to see if Vancouver is willing to stand by their former coach, who now coaches the Kings.

Makes me wonder if Bertuzzi is going to retire and this was the only payday he could get moving forward. If he really felt this way he should have said it when he had his hearing.

What about Garth Snow's contract extension?

In Greg Logan's rush to stir the pot and create an issue of Ted Nolan's status for beyond next season he forgot to address the real issue and that's the general managers contract status beyond next year.

Who gives a coach a contract extension after a losing season where he could have more term than the general manager?

Mike Babcock's Redwings are the top team in the league, he could become a free agent in a few months if he opts out of his contract here so why is this a major issue now for Mr Logan to a point no pregame was written before the Islanders played Philadelphia?

Mark Herrmann had a full feature on the Ferraro twins btw so please do not tell me there was not space for a pregame.

Those who recall Garth Snow officially retired as a player but I could not find anything on the term of Snow's gm contract beyond his playing status and whether it counted against the cap. No word on what Mr Wang is paying him beyond that to be general manager or for how long but I'm guessing it's three years.

Garth Snow's playing contract should have nothing to do with his gm contract.

Bottom line why should Mr Wang give a contract extension to the coach if the general manager is not locked up first?

As much as I like Ted Nolan and want him to return no coach should have a longer contract than the general manager. You tie them together and fire both together or fire one and then fire the other.

Having written that both Garth Snow and Ted Nolan should be back for next season with no job security beyond that until they show they are taking this franchise in the right direction long term.

Chuck Gormley has an article on John Stevens future coaching status here where Chairman Ed Snider who's as controlling as it gets for owners in this league puts the decision on Mike Holmgrem with regard to the coach.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Snider last year gave Ken Hitchcock a three year extension and fired him before the first month was over after taking a fit in the paper. Anyone who thinks Snider will let Paul Holmgren will decide this if the Flyers fail to make the playoffs should remember Snider was turned down by Colin Campbell for the general managers job before Snider gave the job to Holmgren.
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Not to go off topic too far but how come everything I read anything about John Davidson in St Louis are glowing reviews for a man who came in the same summer as Snow and Nolan and is a point behind the Islanders in the overall standings who signed a bust in Paul Kayira? The stuff you read about Davidson and Andy Murray make them sound like they have built an incredible team when in effect their only difference maker has been Brad Boyes.

That's right.

JD has friends in the media business who he has worked with for years so it's overlooked or dumped on Larry Pleau who deserves his share of blame for the struggles before JD arrived but it's time everyone got a share of blame and some of the golden image off the broadcaster turned team president.
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Meanwhile out in Los Angeles Dean Lombardi and Marc Crawford are heading for their second awful season in a row.

They have some great prospects to show for it (many from Dave Taylor's losing tenure) but almost lost Dustin Brown last summer with Rob Blake only getting older and goaltending marginal to be kind.

It's going to be a long-term rebuild in Los Angeles too.