Picture Day for the NY Islanders

Every year the Isles gather all the players and employees on the ice and take one huge group shot. It serves history buffs well as the years pass. The photos of past teams grace the walls of the offices and practice facility. It helps to see how time really DOES fly and how quickly things change as men go from jerseys to suits in a blink of an eye, in Garth Snow's case.) And from jerseys to track suits in Doug Weight's.

When I heard it would be photo day, I wondered how many goalies there would be. In 08-09 it was three in '09-'10 it was three. In 2010-2011 it went to an evenly balanced four. This year, it could have been five -- easily. But nope. The benefit of being called up from Bridgeport has put Anders Nilsson in this year's team photo having only played two games.

But it's this photo that bothers me the most.

Ten stitches and a three inch scar. No call. That's bull-dinky.

Nilsson Blanks the Devils

Another 1-0 game between the Isles and Devils.  This time the Isles were on the winning end of it.  Kyle Okposo scored the only goal of the evening, even though John Tavares should have had two and if you give P.A.Parenteau credit for being taken down into the net, if he was a puck, he'd have one too.

In only his second NHL game, Anders Nilsson was well protected by his Defense.  It seems they took extra special care blocking shots and getting in shooting lanes.  Steve Staios even ended up in the box for a few minutes after protecting Nilsson when he felt Bernier was a little too close for comfort.  But at Nilsson's size, he really doesn't need too much protection as he proved when he whacked at Clarkson's ankles on his own.

The biggest problem was that there should have been more goals considering the amount of power play opportunities the Isles were given.  Teams should score especially with a two man advantage.  They didn't.  That needs to be fixed.

Perhaps the NHL could also fix the mistakes on calls or lack there-of.  Matt Moulson took ten stitches to the face after being hit with a high stick. With three zebra shirts on the ice, no one noticed the hit?  How about the blood?

The Islanders blocked 27 shots today and laid 20 hits.  Now only five points out of that last play-off spot, but with no games in hand, the Islanders are not ready to give up.  I don't think Islander Country is either.

Photo credit to the NYIslanders Twitter feed and my buddy Rob McGowan from TheCheckingLine.com who is on Nilsson's left.

Tavares' Boot Gets Picked Up by Yardbarker

So late last night I dashed off an entry that took me a very long time to write because everyone in the house wanted my attention. It was rediculous. All I wanted to do was just dash off a few lines about what had come over my Twitter stream all day that I couldn't report on because - uh -- like I have a day job. No one would let me. The dog, the kid, the husband, the laundry all needed SOMETHING. Throw in a sucky wi-fi connection that causes me to have to stand at the kitchen counter to ger service and it was just not a good night.

By 10:30 pm I finally finished what I had started at 8 pm. Here it is over at HockeyBuzz. But the funny thing is, this morning in my Google Alerts I see it was picked up by YardBarker.

Good Grief. I guess Angry Dee is the way to go to get attention.


Nashville Flood Auction: Don’t forget to check out the online hockey auction at http://donations.ebay.com/charity/charity.jsp?NP_ID=14161&searchString=theviewfrom111#buynp for a good cause.


**Photo from @NHLPA on Twitter from today's Goals & Dreams event. For full information see http://www.nhlpa.com