Bridgeport 4, Portland 3

AHL.com: Reports Peter Mannino, Mike Iggulden and Joel Rechlicz were returned to Bridgeport on Sunday.

Mannino started in goal Sunday for Bridgeport with Nate Lawson a scratch, Mike Iggulden played his third game in three days with Rechlicz not dressed.

Robin Figren recorded his first point in North America/AHL with an assist.

5,300 for the third home game in three days.

AHL.com: Reports Bridgeport defeated Portland Sunday
4-3 at Harbor Yard.

Peter Mannino was money down the stretch with thirty four saves.

1. POR Whitmore, (11) (Rank), 3:35
1. BRI Lee, (5) (Joensuu, Bentivoglio), 5:09
1. BRI Smith, (28) (Walter, Lessard), 5:45
1. BRI Haley, (3) (Marcinko, Figren), 13:39
2. POR Zagrapan, (18) (Murphy), 12:39
2. POR Darche, (23) (Gerbe, Kostka), 15:20
2. BRI Bentivoglio, (8) (Colliton, Mannino), 19:24 (PP)

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio recaps Bridgeport's win over Portland on the penalties with blog entries here.

Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram: Covers the Portland Pirates.

Hershey won 3-2 in a shootout Sunday at Manchester with two games in hand, they continue to trail Bridgeport by two points.

WBS Pens did not play, Bridgeport increased it's lead over them.

Islander News Articles 3/22

Newsday: Greg Logan's recap of New York loss to Ottawa had comments at length from Chris Campoli and Mike Comrie where the beatwriter brought up head coach Scott Gordon's recent criticism of bad apples no longer in the room with their reaction.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
This was a day that merited extra blogs and articles. If Mr Logan had Campoli's comments Friday as he writes where was the blog entry Saturday?

No pregame blog for Comrie, Campoli or even a report while Newsday provides blanket coverage and a live blog of the team they own for their game among several updates.

Sorry gang, no one else will write it so we have to here. Seems like only thing Newsday does more of is advertise their product during New York Islander Hockey games these days.

Campoli and Comrie as expected were both class acts with their comments who went out of their way to praise general manager Garth Snow and owner Charles Wang.

Hopefully there is something on Josh Bailey's two goal game and post-game from Scott Gordon.

Ottawa Citizen & Ottawa Sun: Recap Ottawa's win Saturday 5-2 with early Canadian Press update here.

AHL.com: Reports Bridgeport defeated Providence Saturday 3-2 at Harbor Yard.

2. PRO Ryder, (4) (Penner, Knackstedt), 13:27
2. BRI Sim, (8) (MacDonald, Smith), 13:45
2. BRI Lessard, (12) (Fraser, Sim), 19:39 (PP)
3. BRI Kohn, (4) (Colliton, Wotton), 13:05
3. PRO Marquardt, (8) (Lehtonen), 18:49

Nate Lawson started with twenty eight saves.
Robin Figren did not play.

Hershey won 5-4.
WBS Pens lost in regulation.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio recaps Bridgeport's 3-2 win against Providence at home Saturday night, with comments from Junior Lessard, Dustin Kohn and head coach Jack Capuano and Bridgeport is down to single digits for clinching it's first playoff spot in two seasons. Mr Fornabaio previews Sunday's home game at 4pm against Portland here with blog entries on the game.

Providence Journal: Uncredited special to the Journal covered Scott Gordon's former team in their loss at Harbor Yard Saturday.

Bridgeport 5, Portland 2

AHL.com: Reports Bridgeport won 5-2 against the Portland Pirates Sunday afternoon at Harbor Yard.

1. BRI Morency, (1) (Fritz, Marcinko), 2:18
1. BRI Iggulden, (21) (Colliton, Joensuu), 5:47
1. POR Murphy, (5) (Mancari, Schutz), 15:42
1. BRI Walter, (13) (Smith, McLean), 17:45
2. BRI Walter, (14) , 0:57
2. BRI Haskins, (5) (Iggulden, Joensuu), 12:54
2. POR Schutz, (10) (Murphy, Bonneau), 18:59

Nate Lawson started in goal, Joe Callahan a paper transaction back to Bridgeport but not playing. Mitch Fritz had an early fight and other assist.

Jamie Fraser was a plus four on defense.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio's game coverage and blog entries here.

Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram: Covers the Portland Pirates.

AHL.com: Justin Skelnik had a feature on former Islander and Sound Tiger Brett Skinner Saturday afternoon.

Bridgeport is home against Albany on Wednesday which at this time is still scheduled to be played.

Islander News Articles 2/22

Newsday: Greg Logan's game article has comments from Yann Danis and Mark Streit about the goaltenders first Islander shutout.

Newsday: Mr Logan's other article was a recap of the press conference with general manager Garth Snow and head coach Scott Gordon's comments.

Newsday: Mark Herrmann has his usual hodgepodge of misery about the team and the Lighthouse with a few words from Bruno Gervais on the trade of Chris Campoli questioning how long our fans can be patient and dismissing them from competing next season already.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Mr Herrmann went nowhere near the Islanders man games lost to injury or that in the four games against the Atlantic this week the Islanders won two, lost a one goal game (less open net) to a team the Islanders are virtually even in scoring with and aside from some self-inflicted mistakes against the Flyers trailed 2-1 on the road last week in the third period before they made a few more.

I get no satisfaction questioning Mr Herrmann but he does not apply the same journalistic standards to the Cablevision-owned team he also covers for Newsday. In fact in their case he goes in the exact opposite direction keeping the glass full at almost all times.

Can the 2009-10 New York Islanders be a bad team and not compete? Absolutely, but not for the reasons Herrmann gives us.

NY Post: Dan Martin's coverage was mostly on general manager Garth Snow's press conference but Bill Guerin and Bruno Gervais also comment on trade/teams direction.

NY Post: Mark Everson's mostly Devils centric coverage did include comments from Yann Danis on his shutout but did recap the game and the Islander goals.

Daily News: Peter Botte's article split coverage and content from both the Devils and Islanders with Garth Snow the only Islander quoted content.

Newark Star Ledger: Rich Chere's Devils coverage and blog entries.

Ottawa Citizen: Ken Warren had comments from Ottawa gm Bryan Murray on how the trade with the Islanders came together that was worked on for close to a month.

CP: Seemed to have to most comments from Chris Campoli after their loss to Montreal.

Point Blank: Mr Botta had an excellent article on Sean Bergenheim after the Islanders win with a good postgame breakdown with the forwards comments.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I only feel it's fair to provide a small sampling here because this is Mr Botta's content and you should visit his blog.

Ct Post: Staff reports recap Bridgeport's 3-2 shootout loss to Springfield Saturday with Michael Fornabaio's blog entry here.

Ct Post: Mr Fornabaio previews Sunday's 1pm home game against Portland.

The Republican: Gary Brown
has Springfield coverage of their shootout win.

Islander News Articles 2/1

Newsday: Greg Logan's game recap has head coach Scott Gordon's comments about his teams improved defensive coverage and goaltending while Yann Danis also talks about his play.

Daily News: Peter Botte's extremely limited space is almost as much about the Islander fans losing ground in the race for Jonathan Tavares than it is about the teams play. Head coach Scott Gordon comments on Kyle Okposo, Yann Danis about how a shutout made no difference to him.

NY Post: Dan Martin's theme is mostly the same as Mr Botte's noting the club's improved health. Kyle Okposo comments.

NY Post: Larry Brooks was long overdue to throw something against the wall about the Islanders, today was the day claiming they are in the bottom five or three in NHL gate receipts (he did not elaborate if this includes Smg taking part of gate) and that they should be entitled to participate in NHL revenue sharing because they are not a big market team despite being in New York.

NHLPA Director Paul Kelly is quoted that the television-market clause discriminates unfairly against teams like the Islanders and Ducks and that the union would certainly support eliminating that clause based on Hawks past problems under Bill Wirtz with the Hawks games not televised during that era which was why many feel it was put into the CBA.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
In the world of Larry Brooks some will see this as a positive article, but it's not.

One year Mr Brooks is telling us about all the Islander fans at the Garden, the next how they have no fan presence in New York at all as he did toward the end of last season.

It's as bad as him praising Ted Nolan and then a month later running him down in print last season.

Too bad Mr Brooks left out what company does all they can to restrict New York Islander access in this market to keep their marketabilty low. If Charles Wang is losing 20m a year, that's less than the paper Mr Brooks is employed by reported the Rangers were losing according to the Post a few years ago.
********************************************************
http://www.nypost.com/business/28740.htm
(broken link)

By PAUL THARP
September 17, 2004 -- The owners of the perennially money-losing
Rangers hockey team are going to plug up a big red-ink hole with the
National Hockey League shutdown of the season. The Rangers haven't made the playoffs in seven years or any profits in years.

In fact, industry sources say the team loses between $25 million and
$30 million a year with its highly paid players and steep overhead in
Madison Square Garden arena.

With the team now on ice, owner Cablevision, controlled by media
mogul Chuck Dolan, won't have to write that many big checks for
hockey players.

It'll lose revenue, of course, from the 41 home games at the Garden,
but analysts say the typical $45 per seat for Ranger games is hardly
a drop in the bucket in Cablevision's fortunes.
********************************************************
Miami Herald: George Richard's coverage and blog on the Panthers loss calls Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum the Worlds Most Famous Arena in his pregame but felt the Panthers had the better of the play while head coach Peter Deboer just feels the Islanders have their number at the Coliseum.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Works for me, I used to like Fort Neverlose which Mike Lupica gave as a nickname long ago.

Newsday: Mark Herrmann's coverage of the Islanders three game winning streak is about Nassau Coliseum lineage with comment from the son of the late Welton Becket and Denis Potvin on his days in the brand new " Nassau Coliseum " with a few words on the Lighthouse project.

Former Islander Bryan McCabe also comments.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Did you really expect Mr Herrmann to write about the team on the ice when they win a few games?

Of course he got his quotes in advance of the game.

Sun-Sentinel: Steve Gorten's coverage.

Palm Beach Post: Not sure if Brian Biggane's paper provides road coverage.

NY Times: David W.Chen in a feature on politicians and sports reports Representative Anthony D. Weiner idolized Islanders goaltender Chico Resch was he was growing up.

Toronto Sun: Steve Simmons plays the shockjock game big time and writes Jonathan Tavares should refuse to play for the Islanders because there is no hope for the franchise.


NYI Fan Central Comments:
As opposed to playing for Toronto who have four less championships than the New York Islanders since 1967 and lost their playoff spot outright to them in 06-07?

Sure seemed like there was plenty of hope here during the 2002 playoffs.

How fast would Jason Blake be on the next plane here if it were not for the money, despite finally finding his offensive game after a year and a half.

All due respect to Mr Simmons but there is not a lot of hope in the Leafs current roster and Garth Snow has Toronto's draft pick, silly stuff.

Newsday: Mark Herrmann does his latest Ranger infomercial on Henrik Lundqvist.


NYI Fan Central Comments:
Looks like Mr Herrmann is the front-man for the man who pays his salary here. This was what we got after a team that spent 90m dollars on two centers who could not play with Jagr were handily eliminated by Pittsburgh last spring.

No knock on Lundqvist here who obviously is one of many professional sporting figures who gets it and gives back to the community but how come DiPietro and so many Islanders do similar things and Mr Herrmann does not go to these extremes to hype them?

I guarantee we would not be seeing the same article from Mr Herrmann if DiPietro gave up the goals Lundqvist did against Pittsburgh or had the same mediocre save percentage and gaa Lundqvist does this season.

I have never seen an article written about the Islander franchise goaltender that allows us to know last years All-Star in this manner. I have seen enough pictures of the team events where he is involved.

Not about the Rangers or Lundqvist but a double-standard in reporting. I guarantee we will see the same theme Tuesday night from Mr Herrmann if he is assigned the hockey beat after he put out his negative theme on the Islanders big nights for Al Arbour and the Core of the Four.

AHL.com: Reports Bridgeport won at home against the Portland Pirates Saturday 2-1 on Ben Walter's goal with fifteen seconds left in regulation.

2. BRI Nikiforov, (1) (Hillen, Haskins), 6:57
3. POR Darche, (15) (Kennedy, Mancari), 3:25 (PP)
3. BRI Walter, (11) (Haskins), 19:45

Nate Lawson made twenty six saves, seven thousand in Bridgeport.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio has game coverage and a blog entry here head coach Jack Capuano praised his team top to bottom, Ben Walter and Jack Hillen also talk about Bridgeport's win.

Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram: Covers the Pirates.

Sunday Notables/Quick Hits

Ct Post: Bridgeport lost in overtime at Portland after taking a 1-0 lead into the third. Sean Bentivoglio and head coach Jack Capuano commented who praised the teams effort.

Point Blank: Mr Botta had a few updates from Mark Streit who was not hurt after falling on his breakaway attempt in the skills competition Saturday.

* Passed on posting about the misrepresentations in Forbes and the LIBN on the Islanders but did sent David Reich-Hale the author of the LIBN article an e-mail to clarify his mistakes and omissions.

Forbes simply takes sports items this with no documentation and throws claims against the wall because teams do not supply them information. Other businesses are a different matter but Forbes has no place reporting on sports until teams and leagues decide to provide them actual numbers so they stop making estimates.

* No shock Larry Brooks had a cheap shot for Garth Snow and the Islanders, he's been overdue for a while now. Maybe Garth Snow should have put Islander training camp in NYC and really given Mr Brooks something to crow about.

Expanding the Islander fan base were some of the past reasons given for training camps in Lake Placid, Wheeling, Yarmouth, and Moncton.

Funny Larry Brooks did not write it was an insult to long suffering Ranger fans going to San Juan to play pre-season games in 2006 here which failed miserably here.

* Seems eliminating that highlight move goal competition from last year protected the goaltenders better this time. No way DiPietro has to go post to post on a wrap around which is how he got hurt.

I tend to agree with Gary Bettman if a player opts out of the ASG because of injury he should sit his next teams game unless he attends or at least represents his club off the ice.

That's a new rule that I did not know about.

The counter rule needing to be added to protect the players interest should be anyone who wants the time off all-star weekend must inform the league at the start of training camp. In that instance they should not have to miss any time when the season resumes.

Updated:
Newsday: Greg Logan in the Islanders Newsday blog wonders if the urbanization of the area of the Coliseum is enough to make it worth keeping the Islanders as he writes " In the larger picture, 100 acres hardly compares to the downtown area of the major cities where most major-league franchises are located " as he introduced earlier articles and interviews as he gives us his view of Tim Leiweke with a few words from Kate Murray about local business reaction/concerns about the project.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
It's kind of funny every Sunday during football season we watch games from New Jersey which has no cityscape to identify the location to a point everyone simply calls the teams New York or they show the New York skyline.

That view from Queens and the Bronx for baseball has been less than flattering for a long time also looking out at a junk yard or what the Bronx looked like decades ago.

A lot of pro sports teams play outside their primary city area. The Caps played in Landover for a long time and I never saw the local media treat them like the media does our team slapping the LI label on every facet of the franchise.

The Islanders themselves are just as guilty of this far too often.

This all begs the question why would the Islanders need a signature shot and why not just show the Manhattan skyline. This is a New York based team even if some Ranger media likes to push them outside of that.

A lot of city-based teams move also, Mr Logan should know and have pointed out the Rangers in the early eighties were about to be one of the teams moved before NYC bailed out the Garden with it's tax exemptions because the building was not viable by itself.

Anything can happen here with this project, including Nassau County/Town of Hempstead getting the Islanders out of this Smg lease. That's the part of this the media folks stopped talking about (thanks to Charles Wang) with even part of the gate going to this company with parking, concessions for hockey games.

Lighthouse or no Lighthouse that is the primary reason Islander owners lose money operating this franchise. If the Lighthouse is the tradeoff to supplement that revenue for Charles Wang then it makes sense.

But there are a lot of alternatives.

I find it kind of funny a Long-Island based company that operates a Newspaper and sells it within NYC limits (for a time in NYC) fails to present content about it's primary sports team in the area exactly the same way to the New York readership?

They sure have no problem marketing New Jersey football as New York City so why not a team called the New York Islanders that actually plays in New York?

Again this goes back to an old question, why has Newsday bent over backwards to present Ranger coverage at all in Long Island based Newsday?

Correction:
Someone named Matt Gagne wrote the Islanders game story after the win against Anaheim for the Daily News, not Peter Botte.

Portland 1, Bridgeport 0

AHL.com: Reports Bridgeport lost 1-0 in Portland against the Pirates on Friday.

Nate Lawson had twenty two saves and was second star. Hillen, McLean and Mannino all dressed for Bridgeport.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio has postgame from head coach Jack Capuano who credited his goaltending but not his offense because they did not generate a forecheck until the second period and were in penalty trouble in the third which never allowed them to take momentum.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio had a live blog but apparently will not be in Portland until Saturday to cover the second game of this back to back against the Pirates.

Portland Press Herald & Maine Sunday Telegram: Cover the Portland Pirates.

Islander News Articles 1/23

Newsday: Eden Laiken has the latest on the back and fourth between the Town of Hempstead with their representative Hempstead Town Attorney Joseph Ra this time doing the mantra that the process would go quickly if the Isles would simply renovate while Paul Lancey on the Lighhouse side maintains that is not economically feasible for the area for them just to do a renovation.

Chief Deputy County Executive Marilyn Gottlieb (Tom Suozzi/Nassau side who approved project) voice support for the project given revenue it would create.

Islanders owner Charles Wang had no comment.

Newsday: Neil Best trots out Michael Bair, President of Msg to make a case why their corporation would strongly want the Islanders to stay here despite the enormous television rights fees they have to pay the club until 2030 as Mr Best talks about ratings for a team Msg/Cablevision puts on secondary networks to drive down ratings and regulate fan interest.

"We consider each of the teams [we carry] of equal value. We don't distinguish between the teams.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
This is the same Msg President Michael Bair who a few months ago tried to make a case why the Devils receive a pregame and the Islanders do not? Lets put fifty Islander games on Msg with weekly programming and specials and then hide the Cablevision owned club on Msg+2 (with poor picture/no HD at times) for fifty plus games a year and then keep them off television all summer and preseason for a decade and then we will get an honest view of the ratings for the Islanders or who has the most fans.

They are now paid all this money to control interest and perception, so are the Devils, when the Islanders signed this deal in the eighties, Cablevision did not own another NHL club.

What is Michael Bair going to say, the teams primary television carrier that now also owns their primary newspaper wants them to move so they can save hundreds of millions? That would officially end all Newsday credibility in their reporting which has been questionable at times even before Cablevision got on board with a staff of former Ranger beatwriters and admitted fans on the staff writing about the club and creating perception which includes Neil Best.

Far too much of it overtly negative which we did not see the years the Rangers were the biggest disgrace in the NHL going on a decade or for the Knicks of several seasons who have fit every criteria of a laughingstock.

NHL.com: Brian Compton has an excellent feature on Clark Gillies where he talks about his NHL debut for New York in Montreal against the Canadians as well as his Islander career.

Espn: Scott Burnside has a wide range of topics among which is the Islanders arena situation where Gary Bettman says he hopes no one is taking Charles Wang for granted.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Mr Burnside as usual has the glass half empty on the team and makes a mistake on the arena lease which he writes expires on July 31, 2015 but would be voided per the Memorandum of Understanding immediately if the project is not approved but does not include the Smg lease which if I'm correct runs until 2014 which is why there has been so much past talk of buying out the league before Mr Wang bought the club.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio previews Bridgeport's doubleheader Friday and Saturday in Portland against the Pirates.

Kurtis McLean, Jack Hillen and Peter Mannino were sent back to Bridgeport.