Ottawa Citizen: Don Campbell has Calvin deHaan's, comments upon signing his first professional contract that will be announced on Wednesday, and what's ahead going into 2010-11.
NYIFC Comments:
Ottawa Citizen had the first comments and not Newsday? This is a first rounder, selected 12th overall in the draft.
deHaan received a maximum contract allowed under the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement, with a base salary of $900,000 a season and bonuses of up to $600,000 per season, meaning the contract could be worth $4.5 million.
************************************************************ USA Wins Exhibition:
Kyle Okposo per twitter page, had two goals in Tuesday's 3-1 exhibition game win against France, and was named first star of game. John Tavares, had an assist, and a penalty in Canada's 4-1 win against host Germany.
Islanders Authorized: Reports Bridgeport Captain, Mark Wotton has been resigned to a one-year AHL contract for 2010-11.
NYIFC Comments:
Good news for Wotton, perhaps not good news for Brendan Witt in terms of staying in Bridgeport?
Time to roll out the dynasty header to celebrate Dad's Week for a few days.
Islanders website: Reports Tomas Pock will miss about a month with a hand injury, Mark Streit is day to day.
Joe Callahan and Jack Hillen were recalled. NYI Fan Central Comments: Fun never ends with these injuries.
Newsday: John Jeansonne has head coach Scott Gordon's comments he never felt he was losing his players during the losing streaks in December/January and that the recent play has helped the team building process. The coach also praised his veterans as the coach has given more opportunities to younger players because of the clubs record. NYI Fan Central Comments: Are we missing something here?
Granted Mr Jeansonne is going to have a negative theme to his questions but where has Guerin or Weight's opportunities been cut with them on every first powerplay unit and seeing a regular shift along with Richard Park a powerplay regular?
Doug Weight made it clear recently if he was contributing he expected to be on the ice.
NY Post: Dan Martin's only real difference from Mr Jeansonne's article was a few words from Mike Comrie about gaining experience and the big picture. NYI Fan Central Comments: The big picture is other than Guerin-Comrie-Weight being put together as a line the youth movement has taken a hit with Jeff Tambellini being benched without a reporter getting a single word from the head coach on the subject.
NY Times: Brian Heyman has a feature on Islanders captain Bill Guerin who was praised by Scott Gordon for his leadership in tough times as the captain talks about his season, the no trade clause while Kyle Okposo, Josh Bailey and Doug Weight credited Guerin for what he has done for them.
General manager Garth Snow discussed Guerin's NTC after saying he's a New York Islander and praised his value with the younger players.
NYI Fan Central Comments: As Guerin said, never say never if the Islanders come to him with the right trade or circumstances but I think a trade is unlikely.
AP: Ronald Blum reports Bob Nystrom was among the clients who invested with Bernard Madoff, according to a court filing released Wednesday night.
The family of Lighthouse co-developer Scott Rechler also had a limited exposure here with Cablevision on the list of 14,000 who were caught up in this according to Newsday here.
St Pete Times: Damian Cristodero reports once again forward Jussi Jokinen was placed on waivers. GM Brian Lawton said he has had contact with another team that expressed interest in Jokinen. We will find out at noon Thursday whether he was claimed. If not, Lawton said Jokinen and his $1.875-million salary will be shipped to AHL Norfolk.
Newsday: Former Ranger beatwriter Arthur Staple tells us the Rangers are in trouble. not Islanders trouble, but our two local teams aren't playing for the same thing right now. NYI Fan Central Comments: Since when is a team covered by Newsday that plays in Manhattan " our local team " given the city papers do not extend the same courtesy to the Islanders with Larry Brooks pushing our team out of NYC market every chance he can and the other papers editors providing token coverage at best.
Nothing like the paper being owned by the other team telling us we have two teams which is why Arthur Staple was shifted to hockey.
Plenty of pressure on the Islanders win or lose, btw.
Updated: Newsday: Greg Logan reports in the Islanders Newsday blog that Mark Streit did not practice but could play.
Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio's article is on Bridgeport's pk with comments from head coach Jack Capuano and team captain Mark Wotton.
A defender will be recalled from the ECHL to replace Jack Hillen/Joe Callahan.
Islanders website: Jason Lockhart in an early Saturday game preview had comments from general manager Garth Snow and Thomas Pock on the five game suspension and the hit to Ryan Shannon.
NYI Fan Central Comments: Complaining will solve nothing for Snow or Pock.
Both said the right things and of course you never want anyone hurt. For the organization in these instances less is more but from a fan standpoint this seemed excessive given the standard for other elbowing suspensions.
Newsday: Mr Logan did not find much in terms of tangible signs of progress during the games the Islanders blew four third-period leads until they won Thursday. Head coach Scott Gordon talked about the clubs five on five play being better in the last few games and a sixty minute against Ottawa effort while the beatwriter speculated about Radek Martinek's return.
NYI Fan Central Comments: I know I have seen signs of progress with the increased scoring vs last season, the blocked shots and how they have even been in position to win with key players out of the lineup.
Scott Gordon has been talking positives also so I cannot be alone. He seemed to finally come around about Okposo on the left wing and did a good job explaining why he switched the right wing to the left side recently.
NY Post: Dan Martin has an article on goaltender Joey MacDonald with comments from head coach Scott Gordon with a second article on Thomas Pock's suspension and the statements from the Islanders website here.
Dan Martin noted Radek Martinek has been activated from injured reserve.
Edmonton Sun: Jason Hills had a great feature on Al Arbour who is at a reunion for the Edmonton Flyers who he played with in the Western Hockey League and won three championships.
Tampa Bay Lightning co-owners Oren Koules & Len Barrie got a big time pass for firing Barry Melrose despite so many strange moves since the summer from the usual suspects who would make quick work of Charles Wang in Adam Proteau THN Scott Burnside Espn.
Tampa Tribune : Joe Henderson to his credit blasted Lightning ownership for it's circus-like moves along with Allan Muir of SI who has been critical of the Islanders here however Erik Erlendsson in the Tampa Tribune also gave ownership more of a pass putting the blame on Melrose here.
St Petersburg Times: Columnist Gary Shelton hit the nail on the head with what this says about Tampa's new owners while beat writer Damian Cristodero reported the story without much opinion only getting recently hired general manager Brian Lawton's comments here.
Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio's article is on Rob Hennigar's big game in Canada along with head coach Jack Capuano comments on rotating his extra players. Team captain Mark Wotton talks about the club getting away and bonding.
Newsday: Greg Logan has the Islanders post-game with head coach Scott Gordon on his teams play, Trent Hunter on the play that led to his goal with a second article on the youth and Mike Comrie's injury status along with Radek Martinek here.
Mr Logan's Friday Islander Insider will partially look back at the youth movement from 2002 with Spezza-Heatley vs Scott Gordon's long-term view as it applies to the prospects today.
Ottawa Citizen: Ken Warren's article even notes all the Islanders missing from the lineup which the local papers barely tough on at all. Ottawa Sun: Bruce Garrioch article has comments from Senators coach Craig Hartsburg along with blog coverage here from a staff that includes Don Brennan and Chris Stevenson.
Colorado had three scouts in Ottawa with so-called trade rumors according to Mr Garrioch.
NYI Fan Central Comments: Should be noted Mr Garrioch's trade rumors have proven very unreliable to a point it's hardly worth noting.
Darien Times: Steven Buono has a few words on Ryan Shannon getting hit by Thomas Pock.
Ottawa Citizen: Ken Warren has comments from Thomas Pock about his elbow on Ryan Shannon as the hit will be reviewed by the league while the Senators lobbied for a suspension while TSN here reports Pock's hearing will be at 2pm Friday.
NYI Fan Central Comments: This is more than I have read from Pock since he came here, Mr Logan had nothing from him.
The Telegram: BRENDAN MCCARTHY had a feature on Mark Wotton's return to NF and recapped Bridgeport's 6-2 win.
Newsday/AP: Has a recap from AP that list New York plays in Carolina on Monday, New York plays in Florida 10/6.
NYI Fan Central Comments: If a actual game article is written the AP article link is usually replaced by the beatwriter article.
Boston Globe: Julian Benbow had Bruins coach Claude Julien's comments that Scott Gordon will make the Islanders competitive and the he's paid his dues and being rewarded for it.
Newsday: Cablevison's preview of New York hockey has the New York Islanders going one for one with the Cablevison owned team in a publication that should be all New York Islanders given the city coverage disparity, but I digress.
Most of this was put together during the week at practice or from Moncton.
Newsday: Mr Logan's first article is on the blend of old players and youth that figures out on paper this is still very much a veteran roster with nine key players ranging in age from thirty one to thirty seven. Bill Guerin feels the team is " way ahead " with comparisons to where they were last season and this club could go further than some teams he was on in Edmonton that had success. Brendan Witt cites the age of the veterans but praises Scott Gordon's system while the coach was " cautiously optimistic " but credits his players for being able to do things he was not sure they could or would want to do.
Newsday: Mark Herrmann has Bill Guerin and Doug Weight's comments (among other NHL players) about how the game has changed since the lockout ended.
Newsday: Arthur Staple's article is on the young players and what they have to do for New York to be in the playoff mix with Guerin, Gordon, Tambellini, Comeau, Nielsen and Okposo commenting about the clubs chances, what they can do and how they have gotten to this point in their careers.
Newsday: Greg Logan has his keys to the season which also included writing it was a country-club atmosphere under Ted Nolan which seems unfair given his absence and that management has never publicly been quoted as saying this along with DiPietro's health, powerplay, Gordon, older players among other keys with team statistical background and roster/schedule notables.
Newsday: Mr Logan's final preview article had an in-depth interview with defenseman Mark Streit who talks about the differences in Guy Carbonneau's defense-first system vs what Scott Gordon wants his defense to do as Streit again talks like a player who has a very good knowledge about how to create a quality shot and set up a player Mr Logan felt Marc Andre Bergeron did not have the ability to do.
Newsday: Johnette Howard's article is the lemon in the bunch that tried to compare the Islanders to teams in other sports never in the playoffs despite them being in a playoff spot four of the last six years which reflects how rarely she covers hockey these days. The rest was her opinion the prospects are not very good nor will any quality players sign here despite how quickly Martinek, Witt, Hunter resigned.
NYI Fan Central Comments: All in all Mr Logan obviously had the best information, did the best job and should being the club beatwriter. His interviews with the prospects, Guerin and especially Streit were outstanding and the new defender (as in his interview during the summer) sounds like a very smart hockey player who is like having another coach on the ice.
Okposo sounds like a young man who is driven to win now and help carry this team.
The time for talking is almost over, we will soon see who walks the walk in the games when they matter and hopefully Johnette Howard can find something baseball related to cover. Katie Strang should have gotten that feature based on how many times she picked up coverage in Mr Logan's absences regardless of content.
Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio in his blog reports Bridgeport won it's Saturday game 4-3 against Lowell with Jesse Joensuu playing well according to the beatwriter.
Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio recaps Bridgeport's 4-3 win against Lowell in Shelton with comments from forward prospect Vladimir Nikiforov who talks about the speed at this level and that the soon to be twenty one year old would like to stay.
Mr Fornabaio also reports Bridgeport signed defenseman Andy Sertich to an AHL contract, supplanting the ECHL contract he had with Utah. Tomas Marcinko skated with the team for the first time at Saturday practice.
Bridgeport concludes it's preseason Sunday at 4:30pm when it faces Hartford at Champions Skating Center in Cromwell.
Ct Post: Mr Fornabaio's feature is on Islanders 2005 second round selection Dustin Kohn with comments about what he did to improve off this ice this summer and more from head coach Jack Capuano and team captain Mark Wotton about his potential.
NYI Fan Central: Current Poll extended into Tuesday after Islanders play against Florida which is when management in New York and Bridgeport will be making it's roster cuts for opening night.
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.
Newsday: Mark Herrmann has Ted Nolan's comments about how important the upcoming games are and the privilege of playing in this league with how much fans have to save to attend games. Mike Comrie talks about how the club must go out there and play the best the can and establish a type of mentality and work ethic. Mark Herrmann makes his point the club should keep losing to have a shot at a franchise player in the draft.
Newsday: Greg Logan had another early blog with a full interview with Wade Dubielewicz who would like to resign with the club. He talked a lot about Rick DiPietro playing hurt and how well he played for the club this season and kept them in contention.
Newsday: Greg Logan's weekly Islander Insider on Zach Parise not being an Islander and his friendship with Kyle Okposo who had more on his debut and what he hopes to do. Ted Nolan and Snow being on the same page with trading Chris Simon to give him a fresh start and injury updates to Jon Sim/Andy Sutton with a few words on the Isles having fun with Jason Blake.
NYI Fan Central Comments: Funny how the Islander Insider is three days behind the Toronto papers covering the funny joke on Jason Blake or that it took this long to find out Ted Nolan wanted to give Chris Simon a chance for a fresh start.
As for Zach Parise the Islanders made a mistake in not drafting him. Having written that so did about eight other teams who had picks before the Isles passed on him and made the same mistake. I don't read anything from Mr Logan or anyone how the Isles made a mistake on not drafting Robert Nystrom the previous year and instead took Sean Bergenheim. The Rangers picked before the Isles and took Huge Jessiman and never hear a word about passing on Parise.
Credit the Devils, they traded up and made an excellent move but please bring up every team that left Parise sitting in the stands that day, not just one of several.
NY Post: Mark Everson of course covers the Devils which means no Islander centric coverage at the Post aside from a few words.
Boston Herald: John Connolly has a full feature on Islander prospect Doug Rogers with comments from Harvard head coach, former Islander Ted Donato as his club will face Cornell in the ECAC semifinals Friday.
Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio previews Bridgeport again at Worcester Friday night with captain Mark Wotton and Jack Capuano's comments on the playoff race and what the team needs to do from here in.
Newsday:Mark Herrmann reported on the Islanders visiting a local school before practice.
Newsday: Mark Herrmann had two blog updates on Mike Sillinger's 1000th game coming up on Thussday and a second blog here on Ted Nolan using owner Charles Wang's seats to attend a basketball game at Msg.
NYI.com Chris Botta had a great article on the teams website with Scotty Bowman giving his thoughts on Al Arbour who will be behind the bench Saturday to coach his Fifteenth Hundred game.
"As a coach, of course, Al Arbour put his stamp on the NHL forever. What he'll probably always be remembered for is how he molded a true TEAM. He had some brillinat players that had Hall of Fame careers like Denis Potvin, Billy Smith, Trottier, Bossy, Gillies. But it was Al who got them to be part of the team fabric. If the all-stars do not buy in to Al's concept, the Islanders do not become a dynasty.
"Al also worked wonders with the role players. Because he emphasized a team game and preached that the team always came first, the other players saw the commitment of the stars and the result was a team that worked as hard as any team in the league during that time. Al had a role for everyone on that team and was successful in getting each player to accept his role.
"Al had so much success as a coach because of his no-nonsense personality. I'm told that if there was ever a problem on the ice or behind the scenes, Al was a master communicator. He never let problems fester.
"And, of course, he was as good as anyone as a bench manager. They used to say the Islanders could beat you any style you wanted to play them. Al always pulled the right strings.
"He's always been a good friend and I'm so proud of everything he has accomplished. Saturday night is going to be an amazing time for Al and Claire and their family. I wish them nothing but the best."
Detroit News: David Goricki rates the top college current NHL goaltenders and has DiPietro second to Marty Turco.
Pittsburgh Post Gazette: Dave Molinari who has the best mailbag among newspapers in the Eastern Conference in my opinion answered a question on Eric Cairns and why he was not picked up by another team with a quick blurb on his current role with the Islanders.
Hockey News/several articles: Report the Boston Bruins traded defenceman Brad Stuart and forward Wayne Primeau to the Flames on Saturday for defenceman Andrew Ference and forward Chuck Kobasew.
Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio has an updated on the club's inability to finish off teams with comments from team captain Mark Wotton.
