Isles vs. Pens & Fan Appreciation Day

Does it have to end? I realize it's an 82 game season, and that's pretty long. But it seems to go so quickly.

The older I get, the faster it goes.

Here's some thoughts about tomorrow night with some quotes from coach Jack Capuano about the awesomness (that's me, not him) of the PK and preparation for tomorrow's game.

And don't forget that @IceCreepsMike and his crew will be broadcasting from Doolin's from 5:30 pm to 7. Come down and say HI!

Bruins 3 Grabner 2

Just quick notes. I was too busy playing fan-girl on the couch and dog sitter to a puppy that leaks every 10 minutes.

The Islanders played an excellent first period. The young defense and the kid who just played two games for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers weren’t a push-over for the 3rd seed Bruins.

The Isles Penalty Kill proved to be spectacular once again including killing off a5 on 3 early at 7:03 of the first when JT and Trevor Gillies shared the box. Rick made some excellent saves and caused a few heart failures when he left the net unattended. But with one tenth of a second left of the first, he let u the first Bruins goal to Thornton. He wanted that one back.

Josh Bailey couldn’t buy a goal, but boy, does that kid have some moves. He did manage an assist point. While I was trying to invoke the hockey-gods into giving new kid, Campanele, a point in his first NHL game, the only thing he’ll have to remember from this game is his first NHL penalty -- and playing against the Bruins. Tomorrow, he’s back to Bridgeport. But he didn’t look out of place in his 8:21 of ice time.

But it was speedy Michael Grabner that put the Isles on the score sheet -- Twice. New daddy Grabs scored his 32 and 33rd goal of what is considered his rookie season. Grabner scored one short handed goal and one power play goal. All because he’s now keeping his head up. One his shortie, he looked to have borrow a move from Frans Nielsen who has scored seven short handed goals. It was his fifth multi-goal game this season and he leads the team in plus/minus. As one top NYI employee said, he was “dynamic” tonight. I say he was awesomeness.

I’m truly hoping that the balance of the voters for the Calder have seen him. As Butch said, he is a legitimate contender.

For the Bruins, goalie Tim Thomas was the difference. He made key saves that would have won the Islanders the game. One especially on Josh Bailey while sprawled eight feet away from the crease. He got a good laugh out of that once the whistle blew.

Jack couldn’t help but smile when talking about his youngsters. They gave him everything they had. “ It’s gratifying. We are out of the playoff race, but it gives the young kids an opportunity to play in the NHL and I’m pleased with the way they played against the Bruins who are pretty deep.”

John Tavares didn’t have a great night. Oh, he played an excellent game, he was just a target for the Bruins. If they could keep him on the ice face-down, they would have. Well, they tried.

“When you’re an elite player in this league, you want to stand up for yourself. He’s strong on the puck -- he’s pretty impressive in what he’s done.” Yes, John Tavares has done a lot of growing up this season. And as Jiggs and Butch questioned, so why HASN’T John been called by Hockey Canada yet?

So have a lot of other youngsters thrown into roles they wouldn’t have had if not for the Islanders run of bad luck.

Rick doesn‘t like to lose. Especially in his home town in front of family and friends. In the locker room he told Rob Carlin “I thought we played well. There were a couple bad bounces in the 2nd period. But, I thought we played well. When you have six weeks off midway through a season, it’s tough to get back when you’re not playing every night. All you can do is work your hardest and hope everything works out.”

So on to Friday’s match-up against the Penguins. All eyes around the league will be on that game, but according to the Isles squad “It’s another game. We’ll play hard. We expect our best effort.” Period.

Final Four: Game 2 Isles @ Bruins

Game Day: After a bumpy ride in turbulent weather yesterday, the Islanders landed safely in Boston. We know that from @MMoulson and @Grabs40's Twitter accounts. I thank them for that. We also know that they had a good dinner, took in a movie and Grabner ate all the chocolate out of his mini-bar. Sugar rush?

Okay then. Here we go.

With the Bruins currently sitting as the third seed in the East, expect the TD Center to be rocking. They are gearing up for playoff hockey and Boston is an awesome hockey town. The Islanders have now lost Milan Jurcina and Frans Nielsen. I'm not even sure if Jack Hillen has made this trip, so the Isles could be seriously depleted. There has been no word as of yet as to any call-ups from Bridgeport, but I would guess there has to be some new name on the bench tonight or Jack will looking at Doug Weight behind the bench and seeing if he's got his skates.

Interesting fact that Art Staple put out yesterday, only six players that started with the Islanders in October are still on the bench. This is certainly a season to remember.

The Bruins will be without Marc Savard due to concussion and Shawn Thorton has 40 fresh stitches that caused him to miss the game against the Rangers. Will he make this one?

What the Isles fans should root for tonight is goals. Goals, goals, goals. John Tavares is two away from 30 and PA Parenteau needs one more for 20. Oh hell, give Matt Martin another too. Or how about Trevor Gillies, who will undoubtedly be in the line-up tonight facing the mountain that is Zedeno Chara.

Rick DiPietro is a Mass native, so perhaps Jack will put him in net tonight and keep him away from the Penguins on Friday, Fan Appreciation Day at the barn.

The fact that Isles hockey will end on Saturday is starting to sink in. I'm starting to feel the dark cloud invade my sunny disposition. Ugh.

Mark Streit: A Season Lost

There was always hope that Mark Streit, the diamond in the lump of coal that was the Islanders 2009-2010 season, would be able to play at some point before the regular season end. Well, for the fans at least. Perhaps Mark actually knew better.

It took five months of physical therapy after shoulder surgery to be cleared just to skate with the team. But he knew if he wasn't cleared for contact with enough of the season left, there really would be no point.

Along with the physical aspect of a player injury rehab, there is the mental aspect that has to be far worse. As Mark Streit told the media a few weeks ago and reported by Dyan LeBourdais, "It's tough. You realize how much you miss hockey. It's been a long year. It was tough, but it made me realize how fortunate I am to play this game."

Knowing the season is was ending, I made the financially irresponsible decision to head to practice on Saturday morning, full well knowing I'd have to drive all the way back there at 5 pm. That's 110 miles on my car and $20 in gas (or two drinks at the Coliseum.) But after I sat in on Jack Capuano's pre-game Q&A and watched Deb Placey do her thing with the MSG cameras, I went back out to the ice.

Rick DiPietro, who knew he wouldn't be the starting goaltender for the game against the Hurricanes was in net with Mike Dunham to his right. At the blue line was Mark Streit under the watchful eye of Assistant coach, Scott Allen. There were small orange cones set up and Streit had to skate around them and shoot on Rick. I watched and took photos, but I noticed they were taking it very seriously. Over and over Mark skated and RDP went down to block the shots. One or two even got by him and hit the back of the net.


When Rick thought they may have been done, he skated towards the gate. No such luck. Allen called him back and the resumed the drill at the other end of the ice. It's a long and arduous process coming back to peak form after surgery. But the Islanders know that better than anyone.

Kyle Okposo was luckier than Streit. He did make his return to the roster. Doug Weight and Streit did not. Mike Mottau's season was cut short along with Mark Eaton's. You could honesty say if not for bad luck, this team would have no luck at all.

When Rick was finally allowed to leave the ice, I asked him how hard it is to work at rehabbing and not actually playing. "It's terrible. It's the worst thing in sports." And losing a corner-stone of the team for an extended period of time just wasn't easy.

"It's rough for everybody. I went through the same thing. You rehab as hard as you can with the hope that you'll get a chance to come back, but at the end of the day it's more tough mentally than physically. (Mark's) dealing with a lot of it now. The disappointment of not only not getting a chance to play, but not making the playoffs. It's just been tough all around. Period. I think the mental aspect of professional sports is the hardest to cope with."

I tend to believe him. The first year I was blogging, I mentioned countless times how hard it was to watch Jon Sim stand in the tunnel and just watch the game through the glass, night after night.

"The common misnomer that people talk about is that guys can't stay healthy. It's not like guys go out there and try to get hurt. You play hard and things happen. Unfortunately for us the last couple of years, not just myself, but pretty much 90% of the team has had to battle through almost season ending or half season ending or some kind of serious injury. That's the way things go. Especially for us." Said the man on the NHL team with more than 550 man games lost to injury. Yeah. Especially to them.

"But you try to keep positive." They all try. "It does give other guys an opportunity to try to step into roles that otherwise they wouldn't be playing in. It was a chance to develop the young talent." Young players who made a lot of people stand up and take notice of them. One player's misfortune is another player's opportunity.

Would 20-year-old Travis Hamonic been given the chance to be half a first line defense pairing if not for necessity? Hardly.

So like the fans, Mark Streit will set his sights on next season and the hope it brings. But the for next few days, I think he'll still be skating with conviction, even if it's just around little orange cones in an empty arena.

Pen proving mightier than Snow in NHL spat | Hockey | Sports | Toronto Sun

Pen proving mightier than Snow in NHL spat | Hockey | Sports | Toronto Sun

While the title of this article isn't my favorite, the content is very telling. I have said for days that the PHWA may be biting their nose to spite their face, and it seems that's exactly what they're doing.

This is strictly trying to keep their power over content which is fast becoming anemic in the world of electronic media and non-paid bloggers with more talent than many of their members. Their audience is being eroded and pay-walls are making it more difficult for non-subscriber eyes to know their names.

But as this article indicates, there may be members of the League who were already looking to take the voting power away from the writers and place it elsewhere.

Nice going twenty members of the tri-state chapters. You may be left explaining to the other 157 members why they won't have to vote next year.

Isles vs. Canes 4-2-11 2-1 Isles

Parking lot was crowded and so was the social media desk at Doolin's tonight. Special shout out to @Jeannie_Moon and her husband Tim who stopped down to chat before the game.

Zenon Konopka and PA Parenteau presented a REALLY BIG CHECK to Garth Snow for the Islanders Chidren's foundation from the sale of their Vin-aire wine pourer

Bobby Nystrom got a rousing round of applause when he came out to present this year's Nystrom award to Frans Nielsen.

The first penalty of the evening was awarded to: Trevor Gillies. Two minuts for cross checking. Luckily, Carolina ended up with a bench minor for an illegal line up card. BWAAAHHHAA... I haven't heard that since my daughter's travel softball team. Nice going Mr. Maurice.

Sadly, (Or not depending on how you are looking at this game) Carolina ended up on the board first on a goal by Jokinen at 4:47 and at 11:13 Jesse Joensuu races down the the right boards and sneaks one behind Cam Ward. Jack Hillen (who made a save in Montoya's crease) earns the assist.

It looked like the Isles would have a power play around the four minute mark when Corvo was called for hooking, but only a few ticks later, JT got the same hooking call. So much for power play time for Doug Weight's coaching.




Second period started and Zenon went back to the box. The PK did what they always do and so did Matt Moulson and John Tavares. JT Tipped in a Matt Moulson shot for his 28th of the season to put the Isles up 2 - 1.

As the third is under way, the Isles lead with SOG by only 3. The Canes could tie this up quickly if they play what Jack said they would "a good transitional game

Did I just jinx this? At 3:02 Corvo blasted a puck that had eyes passed Montoya. All tied up at 2. Kyle Okposo ends up in the box for tripping at 3:57 and here comes the PK ... again!

Well, that didn't take long. Canes score a goal on a deflection by Cole at 6:04 which makes it an even strength goal and not a power play goal, so I'm happy.

PHWA Protest Through NHL Vote

Due to Thursday's game, Jack Hillen, Frans Nielsen and Ty Wishart are all listed as day-to-day. Considering how many "days" there are left to the season, that could mean they have played their last game this year. That doesn't make me very happy.

Also, here is another in my series of the Dee vs the MSM. It certainly won't win me any friends, but it is how I feel so... here goes...

While it may seem admirable for the Rangers chapter of the PHWA to take a vote of 7 – 3 in favor of boycotting the NHL Awards vote, who are they really hurting by doing so? Think about it. While the Rangers contingent of ten writers are only a small portion of the association that Kevin Allen is president of, it seems that the reports tonight are that the Islanders chapter (Katie Strang and WHO?) are joining in the protest and reducing the number of votes as well.

I’ll tell you who that will hurt the most – Frans Nielsen, the League leader in short handed goals and new daddy, Michael Grabner. Thanks. That really helps the cause.

What I don’t understand is why these writers would choose this route when it will hurt them in the long run. If the Islanders do not have enough votes, they will not be represented at the awards and no one outside of the media will really care about the catalyst of the protest. The fans only care about the players they watch and spend money on. Right now the Islanders fans care; really care, about Michael Grabner and Frans Nielsen. THAT’S who they care about.

Additionally, it is not as if a journalist NEVER had their credentials pulled before. If you take the time to search for it, you’ll find numerous accounts of reporters being banned from particular places and even countries. When it comes to sports writers, I found a few that were recent.

Most recently, and most notorious of the lot would be Scott Raab, the Esquire writer banned from Miami Heat games. Brian Allee-Walsh was banned from the New Orleans Saints media room during a Super Bowl. (Um, how many people watch the Super Bowl again? Right) and supposedly, that wasn’t the first or last time the Saints banned a reporter.

In January, there is the curiosity that surrounded Jerome Iginla when the junior team that he is part owner of, the Kamloops Blazers, banned Gregg Drinnan, a local reporter from covering the team due to “negativity.”

In 1995 a NY Post writer, Wallace Mathews was banished from a Mike Tyson public sparring session for being “unfair” to Tyson.

In July of 2007, the NY Yankees revoked a Japanese reporter’s credentials for the horrible act of – asking Roger Clemens for an autograph. He did not get them back.

Revoking of credentials also hits high school sports. It seems a Daily News writer was barred from attending a game that was open to the public at a Coney Island school when the Lincoln Railsplitters were heading to a third straight SAL title – in 2008!

The practice of barring writers also transcends our national borders. Robertson Henry of St. Lucia was banned by the St. Lucia Ministry of Sports to ALL sporting events the award winning Voice reporter would normally cover. It seems he may have punched another reporter.

All I am trying to say is that revoking credentials is nothing new or unique to the Islanders and their situation with an ex-employee. Read the back of them. Any organization has the right to terminate access at any time for any reason, even to public events.

Ever get turned down on a line for a hot night club because they didn’t like your look. It’s legal. So is pulling credentials. The truth of the matter is that just because your job is covering a sporting event doesn’t mean you have the RIGHT to access. Press Credentials are a PRIVILEGE not a RIGHT even if that is your job.

The same way I had a right to deny entry to my restaurant when I owned one, the Islanders or any team at any level have the same right. So while this show of solidarity might make the rest of the PHWA feel they are protecting their own interests, it is probably hurting the hell out of the Islanders being represented at the NHL Awards in Las Vegas in June.