New York Clean-Up Day/Notables

Our final entry on the 2011-12 season will be released Thursday at 10:00am.

The 2011-12 season is over so it's time to retire the 40th Anniversary logo.

Islanders website: is conducting their final interviews with the players.
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Lottery:
See last year's entry or the year before/ect.

Last year the Isles dropped a spot back, losing the lottery. The Devils selected Adam Larsson, the Isles Ryan Strome.

Our past thoughts are any team missing the lottery five years in a row should not be entitled to a lottery selection. Our thoughts are also teams should not be allowed to front-load contracts, or hide bad contracts in the AHL.

This blog does not own the league, see you Tuesday at 8pm.
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Response to Friday Entry:
My Thanks to all for the positive response on Friday's entry.

All we did was correct information not in Mike Sielski's article.

Buffalo News: Bucky Gleason on Sunday interviewed Pat Lafontaine about the WSJ article where he did not have much to say, but knew it was coming out.

NYIFC Comments:
Mr Gleason seemed to play off the WSJ cliff notes regarding the Isles or Charles Wang's ownership which is lazy but expected. He included Milbury as a member of Charles Wang's board of governors with Lafontaine/Smith which was not correct, while Tom Golisano inherited a taxpayer funded new arena from the Rigas ownership, and lost out to the Isles for a few playoffs.

You would think Bucky Gleason would know Lafontaine was honored in Nov 2003 by the Isles given that he knew Charles Wang had full control of the Isles by 2004? That there are several people, who absolutely need to be inducted into the 2005-06 Hall of Fame before Pat Lafontaine.

Butch Goring, John Tonelli, Jiggs McDonald, all of the core of the four.

Most interesting was Mr Gleason asked Lafontaine about the Isles not honoring the Long Island Royals this week at the Coliseum.

Was he serious?

Mr Gleason's own Buffalo News: reported the Royals won the title on 4/1, which was the Isles fan appreciation day game against Ottawa.

Beyond that there was only the April 5th season finale, but the Royals Website on 4/2 announced their celebration was going to be 4/5 at 7:30pm at Superior Ice Rink in Kings Park where they advertised the unveiling of their 16-and-under state and national championship banners to be hung.

This was the day/time the NHL scheduled Winnipeg vs the Islanders last summer.

Ed Mangano/Nassau/Isles absolutely do something in the future to honor the kids.

Gleason wants to impress us (beyond fixing his broken e-mail address) he should be just as quick to ask Darcy Regier/Lindy Ruff, why Ted Nolan had to leave Rochester as soon as it became a Sabre affiliate again under a new owner?

Gleason was asking last May here when the new owner reacquired the Rochester affiliate.

Ted Nolan wound up in Latvia.

Mr Gleason the day after the WSJ article 4/3 was quick to support the injury card in Buffalo, but that management could have been better.

Never have the Isles used back to back games as an excuse. I guess Gleason missed all the years the Isles lead the NHL in man games lost before this season.
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People will write/say whatever they want about Mike Milbury, a lot of it will be fair/correct, some of it will be unfair/vindictive.

Having written that anyone who criticizes Mike Milbury for shots at Sidney Crosby's health, but takes the same cheap-shots at Rick DiPietro or any injured player on any NHL team is just as guilty as Milbury.

You have clowns with media credentials making fun of Radek Martinek because he discussed Ryan Hollweg trying to pull out his stitches long ago.

After the tragedies of last summer media should learn there are limits, regardless of the laundry any player wears or how long he's hurt.

New York Has Fifth Selection In 2011 Draft

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The New York Islanders will have the fifth selection in the 2011 draft based on Tuesday's NHL lottery result, basically the worst possible result of what could have happened.

NYIFC Comments:
I don't believe another pic of Bill Daly with another Islander logo makes much difference anymore and hopefully this is the final time we see the New York Islanders in one of these unless a team trades them a future lottery pick.

This blog has not done the research on the draft class of 2010-11. NYIFC has added/moved things on sidebars to provide our readers more information. Obviously the outstanding work of E.J McGuire will be greatly missed by hockey fans around the world.

As for June in Minnesota, we'll see where the Islanders go with the pick. Another trade down/up or perhaps for an actual player? We have over two and a half months to speculate.

For those believing the organization has enough prospects, many have graduated to AHL level either with the Islanders or were not signed. One look at the updated NYIFC prospect blog here shows a lot of forwards on paper but many may never be signed.

Remaining defenders: Calvin deHaan (signed) Tony deHart, Shane Sims (must be signed upon graduation) and Blake Kessel. (deciding whether to sign/return to school)

In goal it's Anders Nilsson (must be signed this summer) and Cody Rosen in goal.

Thomas Marcinko, Jesse Joensuu, Robin Figren are all RFA, it's possible one or more may not return. I can keep listing Troy Mattila/other college players yet to graduate and there are some forward prospects in the system like David Toews, Brock Nelson, Jason Clark (among others) but depth goes quickly.

An NHL team building from within must be dedicated to a fault adding talent to sustain it's success long-term. The time will come where this franchise will not be able to keep everyone out of Okposo, Tavares, Bailey, Hamonic, deHaan or whoever else emerges as top level talent from within.

This happens all over the NHL as few players stay with one franchise their entire career.

Bottom line you can never have enough prospects.

The twitter box will return Wednesday at 3pm, unless something major happens it's time for a break after stepping things up here down the stretch.

If coverage of the World Championships here it will be infrequent, no special section will be created.

New York Islander Fan Central Twitter Page New York Islander Fan Central RSS/not Twitter.

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CONTACT:NYIFANCENTRAL@YAHOO.COM

It's Lottery Day For New York

Not much to write here about the bouncing ping-pong balls. Islanders will have the first pick or the second pick coming out of this. I'm not sure if that means if the Isles envelope is the first drawn (fifth) they are immediately given the second slot and the others battle for first.

Everyone can only fall back one spot, but five can move as high as one. I know there is a formula that if you hear x team in x spot as the lottery progresses it means another team won or moved up or back, call me lazy but it's not worth the time for the five minutes it takes to explain it vs when it actually happens.

I will have more AFTER the lottery but if you read NYIFC on 3/16 no sense repeating where I stand if they actually do win here.

Obviously based on Garth Snow's comments Monday the general manager is not going with my idea.

Islander News Articles 4/14

Will add in more articles later tonight or tomorrow morning to this entry.

Newsday: Greg Logan has general manager Garth Snow's comments that he is considering several options with his draft pick regardless what happens tomorrow and will not rule out a possible trade, head coach Scott Gordon comments on his goaltending and what could be done with the pick.

"We can't control what unfolds," Snow said, "but I do know, whichever scenario it is, we'll get a good hockey player."

"There's five or six that are good players that I think will be selected in that range. There's a process we're going to go through, and we're going to have our meetings and have some really good debates on what decision we ultimately end up making."

"It's a desirable situation to be in leading up to the draft," Snow said. "I would be crazy not to take [trade] calls. It's part of my duties as general manager to look at all options."

"It's too early in the process," Snow said. "We have our scouts following players and teams now. We have meetings coming up in the next week or so. We have another round of meetings in May and June."

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Obviously the general manager and the staff is going to go through the process which means for Islander fans the drama will continue until they select on draft night whether we agree or not.

Newsday: Mr Logan also had comments from general manager Garth Snow who declined Monday to discuss the Newsday beatwriters late Sunday report about Rick DiPietro seen using crutches recently.

"You're asking about players' rehab and what they've got to do,'' Snow said. "I'm not going to get into all the rehab. What I will say is Rick is progressing nicely. We expect him to be skating in August like he usually does in getting ready for training camp."

"His rehab is going smoothly," Snow said. "We're planning on him starting to skate in August. That's the protocol for his rehabilitation."

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Not going to hit this very hard but Cablevision owned Newsday Ranger beatwriter Steve Zipay Monday was not critical of the team he covers not announcing any update at all on an injury to Chris Drury or had one word of criticism all season for the team the paper owns going with league policy in the extremely rare instances they did sustained an injury while the Islanders took a verbal assault almost on a daily basis in print from Mr Logan and the Newsday staff for the first few months of the season.

In this instance today Mr Logan has a job to report and is obligated to press the general manager for comments on something he writes in the newspaper about a player injury in terms of Rick DiPietro, Snow is not required to be specific by league rules but if he goes beyond upper-lower body is not allowed to make a false statement.

NY Post: Dan Martin also had the general managers comments on the teams season, the lottery, the draft in June and goaltender Rick DiPietro with Mr Martin also reporting DiPietro was seen on crutches.

"I don't think when you're in 30th place, we should be satisfied with any one aspect that transpired this season," Snow said.

Point Blank/Mr Botta: Has an excellent interview with Pierre McGuire of NBC/TSN on the top picks and the NHL draft.


NYI Fan Central Comments:
As always folks should visit Mr Botta's outstanding blog for the information he works to produce for our fans.

Associated Press: Has a brief preview of Tuesday's NHL lottery with teams and percentages to win the top overall pick.

IIHF.com: Had the release announcing Mark Streit will play for Switzerland at the World Championships.

Globe & Mail: David Shoalts reports Leafs general manager Brian Burke hopes to sign Boston University defenceman Matt Gilroy, the Hobey Baker Memorial Award winner as the top player in U.S. college hockey as early as today while Toronto Sun Steve Buffery reports talks between the Maple Leafs and Gilroy continued Monday, but no deal has been reached with BU spokesman Brian Kelley saying the defenseman is going to take the next couple of days to decide which NHL team to sign with.

Canadian Press: Has Senators general manager Bryan Murray's comments that Mike Comrie did not do enough in his twenty two games with the Senators to warrant a new contract in a season ending review.

Tampa Tribune: Erik Erlensson reports the Lightning will send former captain Dave Andreychuk to represent them during the proceedings after winning last year.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
That means for those scoring at home Garth Snow is not required to be on live television tonight or represent the club on stage.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio has the Sound Tigers Notebook with comments from head coach Jack Capuano

Tampa Clinches 29th with Colorado shootout loss

Colorado gained another point on Thursday losing in a shootout to Dallas here meaning Tampa clinched 29th place and the next best chance at winning Tuesday's lottery.

28 Colorado Avalanche 80 32 44 4 68
29 Tampa Bay Lightning 81 24 39 18 66
First tie-breaker is wins which Colorado wins.

Lottery percentages
TEAM-----% TO GET NO. 1
1 New York 48.1
2 Tampa Bay 18.8
3 Colorado 14.2
4 TBD 10.7
5 TBD 8.1

Teams in fourth and fifth can only move up in NHL final standings but above are the percentages of winning the first overall pick Tuesday.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
What's significant about Tampa finishing 29th is if you subscribe to the theory the Lightning will selected Victor Hedman (a defenseman) after drafting Steven Stamkos last year if they win the lottery and keep the pick.

Some articles out of Tampa suggest this will be the case but that means absolutely nothing until they actually draft him in June if they are in that position after Tuesday.

In theory (only if true about Tampa-Hedman) means Islanders winning a pick to select Tavares based on how the lottery balls bounce just went to 66.9 percent for Tuesday.

In theory anything can happen, including another team beating the odds and taking Tavares or Hedman.

Of course the best result is for the Islanders to control the top pick after Tuesday.

Kurtis McLean Out for Season/Quick Hits

Islanders website: Announced forward Kurtis McLean is out for the season with a torn achillies.


Updated:
Media Blog: Reports the NHL Lottery Draft Drawing has been tentatively scheduled to take place on Tuesday, April 14.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
It should be noted McLean's injury was not counted on our man-games lost to injury recently because his status as an Islander or Sound Tiger has not been updated.

I will add in the games the Islanders played recently with McLean out to our official/unofficial number which would be five starting from the first game he missed on 3/12 in Montreal.

Total games lost to injury 505 so far, last season 402.
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* Not much to write about the New York Islanders and Queens anymore until the Lighthouse is off the radar and Charles Wang says he is willing to sell to someone who is willing to play there in the future or retain the club himself until 2015 (and keep absorbing losses) until NYC pays for an arena (not happening) as part of the development.

I do not see Charles Wang retaining ownership until 2015 without the Lighthouse project approved.