Islander News Articles 1/23:

Newsday: Greg Logan's recap has Ted Nolan's comments on how the club held together and on Blake Comeau's play, Wade Dubielewicz talks about the pressure on the Isles and how a game like this can help give them their confidence back and Brendan Witt talks about bis goal and how the club had to have this after a game with three shorthanded goals.

NY Times: Richard Sandomir reports Versus has agreed to carry the NHL through the 2010-2011 season.

Newsobserver.com: Has the Hurricanes coverage.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio has a brief preview of Wednesday night's home game against Philadelphia.

Philadelphia Phantoms at Bridgeport Sound Tigers
WHEN — Tonight, 7:30
WHERE — Arena at Harbor Yard
ON THE AIR — No radio; Webcast and B2 Networks Internet pay-per-view at www.soundtigers.com

Herald Net: Nick Patterson reports a trade of Islander prospect Robin Figren was all but worked out with the Regina Pats however, the Edmonton Sun revealed that one of the conditions on Figren reporting to the expansion Oil Kings this season was the right to veto any trade, and he decided to veto the trade despite Regina being a contender with Oil Kings more likely to miss the playoffs.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
The comments from the Oil Kings gm Bob Green at the time here gave me the impression they were loyal to Figren, if he did in fact veto a deal as per his contract that put's things in a different perspective but in the end it comes down to what is best for Robin Figren's development and he's happy in Edmonton.

1/15: Montreal at New York 7pm Versus

Not going to use the Espn scoreboard in the game thread any longer, Fox Sports scoreboard on the sidebar is more accruate on the game clock and does the entire league.

Islanders website/AP: Has preview of tonight's game against the Montreal Canadians which will appear only on Versus.

Islanders website: Has updates on Radek Martinek and Brendan Witt who will not play tonight. Apparently Ruslan Fedotenko is questionable so check for a possible call up which would likely be left wing Jeff Tambellini.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
A little concerned about this one. Isles had problems getting home and did not arrive until late Monday, Montreal has been waiting since they lost to the Rangers on Saturday and struggled in that game. Last time Montreal skated well against the Isles and had the better of play by a lot, if many recall Isles had over forty shots but few quality chances overall.

Also life without Witt and Martinek is not going to be easy for this defense and goaltender for more than a game or two.

Teams after long road trips usually struggle in their first game back. We don't know how the Isles will react because this group has not had that kind of trip since before the lockout or early last season and it's a different group.

According to the Montreal Gazette Canadians will start Cristobal Huet and use the same lineup unless Patrice Brisebois cannot play.

Updated 12:15pm:
Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio's blog reports Aaron Johnson joined the Sound Tigers at practice on a conditioning loan. Jeff Tambellini remains in the NHL along with some notables including Justin Bourne called up by Bridgeport.

Updated 3pm:
Islanders website: Report Ruslan Fedotenko will play tonight against Montreal while Ted Nolan's comments on his injured players.

Newsday: Mark Herrmann had seperate blogs on the Islanders injury situtation, Jeff Tambellini and Mike Komisarek/Christopher Higgins.

Islander News Articles 10/15:

Newsday: Greg Logan's article is about the lack of scoring at even strength which was something the Islanders were very good at last season and Bergenheim's impact Saturday.

"Well, our offense is no secret," Nolan said. "It's not going to come tic-tac-toe and fly down and score off the rush. We're going to have to get a lot of those dirty goals. The way we played in the third period is the way we have to play."


"Bergy helped us a lot," Vasicek said. "He played a great game. He opened so much ice for us. We had a lot of chances. Bergy had one in the second period, and I hit the post."

"I'll do whatever, but playing on the second is much more fun," Bergenheim said. "If we play that way, I know we're going to score goals. My role on that line is to get Miro the puck, and if I get a chance, I've got to score, also. It's a pretty good mix, I would say. We have a little bit of everything in that line."

Ottawa Sun: Bruce Garroich reports the Senators are concerned that C Randy Robitaille may not clear waivers once a contract is completed. Robitaille has to go through waivers because he played in Russia.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I'm following this because Garroich reported Islanders had mild interest and with Sim out for the season would have an opportunity to claim Robitaille if he did sign a contract with the Senators. That said Garrioch puts out a lot of wild rumors, but it is Ottawa centric and he is a former Islander twice.

Personally, I would rather any prospect get a spot before Robitaille III because he cannot score and we have enough forwards who cannot finish.

Cory Witt's media blog: Today confirmed Newsday's Neil Best 1.8 rating on Versus for Islanders-Rangers reported last week here.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
1.8 was as high as any Ranger playoff game last year so for a rating like that for Versus is very good. That said with Dolan hiding Islander games on FSN-2 and networks like Time Warner not even listing the game on it's cable guide it's fair to write as usual all that can be done to keep Islanders ratings intentionally low to justify lack of coverage is in place as always and many fans are shut out.

Unless your a die-hard fan with a computer you just are not going to go looking for FSN-2 which here is the TV guide channel that again does does not even list the game so no casual fans can find it.

Hockey News:
Mike Brophy in an NHL centric article ask were the Islanders signings of Guerin, Fedotenko and Comrie more important than the Rangers signings and are the Islanders the team to watch?

Tuesday odds and ends

Globe and Mail checks in with an article on the league's television options.

Regular-season ratings (percentage of U.S. households tuned in) have been low: 0.9 in 2005-06 and 1.0 in 2006-07. But ABC's average of 1.1 for its final season,
2003-04, wasn't much better.

What if ESPN, which balked at a $60-million (U.S.) annual rights fee in 2005, agreed to pay the NHL $30-million? Each of the 30 clubs would pick up $1-million a year, more than what is being earned in the NBC deal.

There could be other compelling reasons for the league choosing ESPN and ESPN2 over NBC.Although the NHL would lose carriage on a main broadcasting network by opting for ESPN over NBC, it would renew its relationship with the most powerful sports channel in North America.

Exposure on ESPN's SportsCenter, which dropped 28 per cent after 2005, would increase. And the constant scrutiny of the NHL's paltry U.S. ratings would largely disappear. Cable audience figures do not receive as much attention in the U.S. media as those of broadcasters.

Everything is speculative that this point.
ESPN may have interest. NBC isn't planning an exit strategy quite yet.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
A lot of speculation, some of it political from the publications and websites producing the information that may need NBC, Espn or Versus.

Bottom line ratings will be poor no matter where games are shown.

Vancouver Sun is reporting former Islander Trevor Linden may sign an bonus incentive contract with the Canucks starting at 450k down from what he made last season.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Were a long, long way from a decade ago when his contract with the Islanders made him so unhappy he looked invisible on the ice for most of his time here, but nothing that happened under Milstein worked out. Linden belongs in Vancouver.

Daily News reports Peca's agent wants an answer today from Sather or he's likely going to sign elsewhere.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Sure tired of Peca updates, a player who has thirteen goals since the lockout ended and is injury prone is not worth this kind of fuss. Meehan's likley using the Rangers to up the price as many do and wants a lot of easily attainable bouns incentives. Just pick a team Mike and spare the constant updates, he's becoming like Lindros more and more.

Television Schedule released

Versus released it's television schedule today here.

Islanders are featured five times on Versus.

Wed. Oct. 10 N.Y. Rangers at N.Y. Islanders 7:00 PM
Tue. Nov. 6* N.Y. Rangers at N.Y. Islanders 7:00 PM
Tue. Jan. 15 Montreal at N.Y. Islanders 7:00 PM
Tue. Feb. 12 Philadelphia at N.Y. Islanders 7:00 PM
Mon. March 24* Pittsburgh at N.Y. Islanders 7:00 PM

NBC is doing a flex schedule for nine weeks beginning January 20th and does not include a single Islander game among the three weekly choices and has eight Ranger games despite horrible ratings in last seasons playoffs despite the fact one team can only be shown four times.

NHL.com issued a press release here involving the NHL kicking off in London and the All-Star game in Atlanta.

Anaheim is featured only once on NBC.

Hockey Night in Canada has it's schedule on cbc as well as
TSN schedule for our Islander fans from Canada or who have those stations.

NHL & ESPN TALKING ABOUT TV RIGHTS FOR 08-09

Interesting article, but Versus maintains the rights to the games and paid sixty millon dollars for the priviledge and have those rights until 2011.

On Espn, Hockey will always be the eighth or ninth sport but clearly Versus does not get it when they do not have studio shows or post-game press conferences for fans when finals games are on NBC.

Two finals were shown on NBC, twenty minutes after the cup was awarded they were off the air, Versus did not have the common sense to do coaches, players press conferences and a live studio show for the fans either year?

You may ask, they may not have had the rights to do any postgame following NBC coverage, but here's the kicker.

The only places to see the post game press conferences and the coverage were, you gussed it....ESPN NEWS.

Why pay for something, show it all year and then not be around for the end of the finals?

This even happened on some long ot games where Versus did the game, if a game went three overtimes, they got off almost immediately the show re-runs or repeats of programs.

I'm sure at 1am on the East Coast Bill Clement and the crew want to go home, but such great games require live coaches press conferences and player comments. They usually have people working the benches, go work the lockerooms.

I'm a die-hard fan, this is want I'm looking for.

Also what happened to all that programming Versus had on in year one for hockey with those old Islander History of Hockey segments?