NYI Fan Central Update

Some changes at NYI Fan Central.

As always I'm always trying to upgrade this blog to bring more information and features to it for everyone.

I announce these changes sometimes so everyone knows where to find new features here along with things they may have been moved because some folks may may come here just to find links to other sites.

For the remainder of the summer up until training camp begins the new brighter page look will we be third jersey (home white) version of this blog.

So what's next?

* I have been bulking up sidebar with some links to some Independent Islander Fan Sites, many links are included. My requirement for listing folks here are regular hockey updates and no profanity from your site.

If interested please send an e-mail.

* We now have a Hockey Database (hockeydb.com) player finder widget from their excellent site added to the NHL Trades/Transactions/Free Agent Signings section which will now be a permanent fixture here so we can follow player transactions, not just trade deadline days or July 1st.

* Faceoff.com has a feeder of sorts showing it's latest update which is now listed below the picture link to that site.

* I found something that has an RSS feed for the Sound Tigers, the Ct Post does not have exclusive Sound Tiger rss feeds for Mr Fornabaio so where stuck and I asked him enough about that last year which is beyond his control.

* I also added back in the Sound Tigers live scoreboard widget which will have live game scores and the schedule. If AHL.com comes up with something better I'll go with that but it seems no one in North America has created anything for live game AHL updates to put on a blog, but the Utah Grizzlies are offering a toobar for computers which will not be here because it's not for blogs.

* When the Isles announce their new blog box members I will add them all to the current feeder for it regardless if I am part of the blog box moving forward.

* I pulled the Isles rotonews widget for the summer because there was just not enough updates for it, however I did add a new one for the entire NHL in the media section toward the bottom of the blog because they only reference information from newspapers and do all the teams. The specific Isles widget will return to the sidebar along with NHL scoreboards, standings when camp opens along with our classic look.

* I moved the Daily News, Times and Post feeds below Newsday up from the bottom of the blog, there are too many sites down there now to keep them buried despite how terrible a job their editors do providing our club coverage. If anyone remembers a very old movie called Walking Tall (Joe Don Baker Version) the scene where he puts the judges chambers in the men's room was kind of where I decided to put the Post, Times and News for year one of this blog in our media section given the decisions of their editors with regard to our team.

* I'm working on a fix for not having a message board this season that used to have Mr Prospects outstanding game by game prospect updates for all of us but for now I have added a link to the prospect coverage section that includes Newspaper Coverage for all Junior leagues in North America, I also found a link that can reference most prospect boxscores in North America.

What's in the works/under consideration as a solution is a brand new widget like the one we have now for the local writers, Islanders website updates and the separate one for the blog box updates.

This new one will be the most involved of all because it will have every RSS feed from every North American/College paper that covers a specific club where an Islander prospect plays. I'm not sure how many of those papers link up to their hockey teams that way and depending on how this goes will determine if I do it or not because many small town/college papers do not have specific rss feeds for hockey, Tsn does not even have it for hockey coverage so it's a long shot but if I that local paper has an feed we can get their game coverage so we have more information.

Linking to the major league sites (OHL, WHL, QMJHL) will give us league wide updates but that cannot be narrowed down to specific Islander prospects, I will also include this in these feeders.

What I will do for sure and have almost finished behind the scenes is locating links for our prospects that linking to their latest games or team boxscores so you can visit here and follow what they are doing, some leagues do game by game player breakdown, others do not (QMJHL) or you have to go to the boxscore sections.

I'm not sure if I can do this for the European prospects but first things first.

I will never have the time to go from page to page and put together a digest of weekly/daily game summaries as Mr Prospects does so well. I think that's an element of coverage our fans need.

Anyway that's what's up around here, this is one of my pre-scheduled vacation blogs on the timer.

Updated Wednesday:
I spoke for about twenty minutes on Tuesday afternoon with Professional Hockey Writers Association President Kevin Allen as we discussed briefly the process for joining the association and a lot of hockey-media related subjects. It was very classy of him to go out of his way like that to return my call and was a pleasure to speak with and taught me a lot in that short time.

I will have more on this in a few days.

Boss, Bergie, AHL, WC, Mr Prospects & Tom Liodice

NY Times: Jeff Hale, staff editor on The New York Times sports desk did a blog on former Islander Michael Bossy Saturday and what his current role is with the club in the business department as the talk turned to hockey.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Good interview and as always great stuff from #22 who's never been shy about talking about the game and being frank about some things he does not like. I missed his blogs last season when the club had him doing that as part of his role.

HockeyCanada.ca: Reports Sean Bergenheim played in Saturday's World Championship exhibition with Finland vs Canada and had a penalty in the 3-2 loss.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio is doing his usual great job on the AHL playoffs and filling in the blanks on contracts regarding some Islander-Sound Tiger players and elgibility.

Noteable:
With prospects Jason Gregoire and Blake Kessel still playing games I followed through on my message board change. Mr Prospects did such a great job on that thread here all season for everyone, my thanks again to him for a fantastic job.

Like Tom Liodice over at Tiger Tracks both have a great talent. Tom in live blogging and writing, Mr Prospects in following prospects daily which is not something I had the time for here besides some articles.

IIHF.com: Released Germany's World Championship roster with former Islander Uwe Krupp as head coach and I think former Islander Jason Holland on the roster. (if it's same Jason Holland?)

Team Switzerland : Also announced it's lineup with Paul DiPietro. (It's the same Paul DiPietro who killed the Isles in 93 playoffs w/Montreal)

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Yes, I'm still annoyed with Paul DiPietro. Mike Lupica ripped him big time back in those days but back then the Isles actually had writers who got behind the team.

Finally:
Great turnout on the poll. No, I cannot alter the choices once it's started. Maybe I should have broken up the top three but I kind of felt those three would not drop to the Isles or most would have voted Stamkos.

Only going to get tougher next year when the Stanley Cup Champion New York Islanders select 30th.

Updated Sunday:
Victoria Times Colonist: Sharie Epp has a full interview with former Islander and Sound Tiger, Kevin Colley who is an assistant coach with the Isles ECHL affiliate in Utah.

Vancouver Province: Ben Kuzama had an article on new Canucks gm Mike Gillis that also had a lot of comments from Garth Snow and some of his experiences as gm in his first two seasons.

Latest from Mr Prospects

Here is the latest from Mr Prospects as he updates the Islander prospects updates for all of us on the message board and does a fantastic job.

*********************************************************
April 2nd
OHL Play-offs-Belleville 7,Barrie 2-Tomas Marcinko, 1 goal(3), -1.

USHL-Sioux Falls 4,Lincoln 3-Jason Gregoire,2 goals(34,35), + 1.
Waterloo 2, Green Bay 1-Blake Kessel,1 assist,+2.
*********************************************************
April 3
OHL-Belleville 5, Barrie 1-Tomas Marcinko, 1 goal(4),-1. Belleville leads 2-0.
*********************************************************
April 4
OHL-Kitchener 3,sarnia 0-Mark Katic, even.Kitchener leads 1-0.

QMJHL-Rouyn-Noranda 4, Rimouski 3(OT)-Maxime Gratchev, no points, even.
Rouyn-Noranda leads 1-0.

USHL-Lincoln 4, Tri-City 2-Jason Gregoire, 1 assist,+1.
Waterloo 7,Green Bay 1-Blake Kessel, 2 assists, + 3.
**********************************************************
April 5
QMJHL-Rouyn-Noranda 2,Rimouski 1(2 OT)-Maxime Gratchev,no points, even.
RN leads series 2-0.

OHL-Kitchener 3,Sarnia 2(3 OT)-Make Katic, no points, -1. Kitchener leads 2-0.
Belleville 2, Barrie 1-Tomas Marcinko, 1 assist,even.Belleville leads 3-0.

USHL-Lincoln 3,Sioux City 2-Jason Gregoire,2 goals(36,37),+ 2.
Waterloo 3,Cedar Rapids 2 (OT)-Blake Kessel,1 assist, even.

Latest from Mr Prospects

Mr Prospects does a great job updating the Islander prospects in his prospect log on the message board for everyone.

Here are his latest postings on prospects in the playoffs or college.

**********************************************************************
March 20
OHL Play-offs,Game 1-Barrie 3,Brampton 1-Tomas Marcinko, 2 goal (1,2),even.
WCHA Play-offs-Minnesota 3, St. Cloud 2-Jase Weslosky,23 saves,26 shots.
**********************************************************************
March 21
QMJHL Play-offs, Game 1-Gatineau 4,Shawingan 3-Simon Lacroix, no points ,even.

College
ECAC Play-offs-Princeton 3,Colgate 0-Brian Day,no points.
Harvard 3,Cornell 1-Doug Rogers, 1 assist
WCHA Play-offs-Denver 3,North Dakota 1-Rhett Rakhshani, 1 goal(14), + 1.

USHL-Tri-City 4, Lincoln 3(OT)-Jason Gregoire,no points, even.
Chicago 4, Waterloo 3-Blake Kessel,1 assist,+ 1.

Latest from Mr Prospects

Mr Prospects does an amazing job on the message board here updating the game by game reports on the Islansder prospects for everyone. Here are his latest updates.
***********************************************************
March 14
QMJHL-Quebec 2,Rimouski 1-Maxime Gratchev,1 assist,+ 1.
OHL-Brampton 5, Barrie 0-Tomas Marcinko, even.

College Play-offs
ECAC-Clarkson 1,Colgate 0-Shea Guthrie,Tyrell Mason,Clarkson,Brian day,Colgate, no points, each.

Harvard 11,Quinnipiac 0-Doug Rogers,1 goal(12),2 assists.

WCHA-Denver 6,Minnesota-Duluth 3-Rhett Rakhshani,no points, + 1.
St. Cloud 3,Wisconsin 0-Jase Weslosky,24 saves.

USHL-Waterloo 5, Omaha 2-Blake Kessel,1 goal(16),1 assist, even.
Lincoln 4, Des Moines 2-Jason Gregoire, 2 goals(30,31), + 1.
***************************************************************
March 15

OHL-Mississauga 4, Barrie 1-Tomas Marcinko,no points,-1.
College Play-offs

ECAC-Colgate 4,Clarkson 3-Brian Day,Colgate,3 assists,Clarkson, Tyrell Mason, 1 assist,Shea guthrie,no points.

WCHA-Denver 1, Minnesota-Duluth 0-Rhett Rakhshani, no points, even.
St. Cloud 4,Wisconsin 3 (OT)-Jase Weslosky,43 saves, 46 shots.

USHL-Cedar Rapids 4,Lincoln 2-Jason Gregoire,1 goal(32), even.
Waterloo 4, Soiux City 1-Blake Kessel, 1 goal(17), 1 assist, even.
****************************************************************
March 16

QMJHL-Baie-Comeau 4,Rimouski 3-Maxime Gratchev, no points, -2.

ECAC Play-offs:

Colgate 3,Clarkson 2(2 OT)Brian Day Colgate, no points,Tyrell Mason, Clarkson, 1 assist,Shea Guthrie, no points.

Harvard 3,Quinnipiac 1-Doug Rogers, 1 goal(13), 1 assist.

Latest from Mr Prospects

As everyone knows Mr Prospects does a great job on the message board here for everyone updating how the Islander prospects do on a game by game basis.

With things so busy lately regarding the Islanders I wanted to add his work to a separate blog posting for everyone as soon as possible and thank him once again for doing an outstanding job at something time would not allow me to include here or do it nearly as well.
*******************************************************
Febuary 29
QMJHL-Rimouski 7,Victoriaville 1-Maxime Gratchev,1 assist,+1.
OHL-Kingston 6,Barrie 3-Tomas Marcinko,1 goal(19)-3.
Sarnia 6,Plymouth 5-Mark Katic, 1 goal(5),+2.

College-Harvard 3,Colgate 3(OT)-Doug Rogers,Harvard,1 goal(11),Brian Day,Colgate,no points.
Clarkson 4,Princeton 3-Shea Guthrie,Tyrell Mason, no points each.
Wisconsin 2,St. Cloud 1-Jase Weslosky,32 saves,34 shots.
Miami-Ohio 4,Ohio State 3-Shane Sims,1 assist.
Denver 1,Michigan Tech 0-Rhett Rakhshani,no points, even.

USHL-Waterloo 3,Cedar Rapids 2(SO)-Blake Kessel,no points,even.
Lincoln 4,Tri-City 2-Jason Gregoire,1 assist,+1.
**************************************************************
March 1

OHL-Brampton 3,Barrie 1-Tomas Marcinko,1 assist,+1.

College-Clarkson 8,Quinnipiac 0-Shea Guthrie,1 assist,Tyrell Mason, no points.
Dartmouth 5, Colgate 2-Brian Day,no points.
Harvard 3, Cornell 1-Doug Rogers, no points.
St. Cloud 3, Wisconsin 2-Jase Weslosky,25 saves, 27 shots.
Michigan Tech 2, Denver 1-Rhett Rakhshanim1 goal(13),even.

USHL-Ohio 4, Waterloo 3-Blake Kessel, 2 assists,even.
Lincoln 5, Des Moines 1-Jason Gregoire,1 goal(26),+1.
******************************************************
Mar 3rd
OHL-Kitchener 4,Sarnia 2-Mark Katic,no points, even.
USHL-Waterloo 2,Green Bay 1-Blake Kessel,no points, + 1.

Latest from Mr Prospects

I thought today would be a good day to take Mr Prospects latest update and give it a blog posting of it's own for all the time and effort given to bring this to the message board for everyone.

Febuary 8
QMJHL-Shawinigan 5,Drummondville 3-Simon Lacroix, 1 assist,+1.
Rimouski 5, Halifax 2-Maxime Gratchev, 1 goal(6),1 assist,+ 2.

OHL-Barrie 7, Kingston 3-Tomas Marcinko,1 goal(15),1 assist,even.

USHL-Waterloo 5, Soiux Falls 2-Blake Kessel,1 goal(12),1 assist,+ 2.

College-Clarkson 4, Cornell 1-Tyrell Mason,Shea Guthrie,1 assist each.
Denver 1, Minnesota 1 (OT)-Rhett Rakhshani, no points, + 1.
Colorado College 5, St. Cloud 3-Jase Weslosky,26 saves,30 shots.
Ohio State 3, Nebraska-Omaha 3(OT)-Shane Sims,1 assist.
Harvard 3, Union 2-Doug Rogers, no points.
Colgate 2,St. Lawrence 1-Brian Day,no points.

Update from Mr Prospects

As many of you know from visting the message board Mr Prospects updates the daily results of the Islander prospects on a game by game basis and does a fantastic job for all of us doing something I simply do not have the time to do or nearly as well.

I wanted to single out Mr Prospects efforts for helping this blog out and bring you his 2/1 update in a new blog on the main page.

Thanks as always for the great effort you put in to visit and update the message board and how much I appreciate it.

2/1 Update:

QMJHL-Shawinigan 4, Drummondville 1-Simon Lacroix, 1 assist,-1.
Rimouski 3,Gatineau 1-Maxime Gratchev,no points, even.

OHL-Guelph 3,Sarnia 0-Mark Katic, -1.

College-Minnesota State 5,Denver 1-Rhett Rakhshani,1 goal(9),even.
Colorado College 5,Clarkson 2-Tyrell Mason and Shea Guthrie, no points.
Cornell 2, Colgate 1 (OT)-Brian day,no points.
Brown 4, Harvard 2-Doug Rogers, no points.
Bowling Green 5, Ohio State 2-Shane Sims, no points.

USHL-Soiux City 3,Waterloo 1-Blake Kessel,1 assist,-1.
Omaha 2,Lincoln 1-Jason Gregoire, 1 goal(21),-1.

Latest poll is up, I hope all bases were covered and in this one you can pick several responses.