Scott Gordon Teaching On Ice - 9-17-08

Okay, I'm a bad girl. I'm taking a few hours for mental health reasons from work. I'm here at IceWorks watching Scott Gordon in action for the first time. I must say...

I'M DAMN IMPRESSED!!!

Oh look! REAL DRILLS!! Real instruction and a whistle that doesn't stop. They huddle, they're told what to do, they get a little confused, but that's okay. They're young. He's patient. He tells them again. He stops them, tells them what they did wrong and they go back at it.

No. There is no fatherly yelling. There is coaching. Which is nice to see. The other coaches haven't said boo yet. They're all just hanging back, waiting. These are ALL he coaches including Bryan Trottier and Ken Morrow as well as the coaching staff from the Sound Tigers.

Since there are no names on the back of the jerseys, (something Gordon wishes to change) I can only assume that the littlest kid in blue is LI native Vlad Nikiforov. I still can't say his name. He looks like he's 12. The same way Bruno (who just passed me) looked when he first came to prospect camp. Like a boy among men. And we know how he turned out. Little Niki is fast, a little confused, but fast.

So... I did get one, maybe two pieces of new info from m good friend Josh Bernstein.

Check out the NEW ITV portal. It's NHL.com TV portal, and it's awesome. There will be some great new content coming up that will entertain and impress all us die hard fans.

Also, check out CBS News for the "Tunnel to Towers" Run on (I believe it's) 9-28. CBS News is doing a feature segment on the Islanders and their contribution to this worthy cause. There are exclusive interviews with Campoli and Gervais as well as Chris Dey. Sounds like a great piece with some good exposure on network TV.

They're clearing off the ice, so I'm sitting here waiting to see what's next.

"Dee! Dee!!" I recognize the voice, but am slow to turn around. Garth Snow just peeked out from behind the posters to say "Hi" to me, which was very nice of him.

Sitting chatting with Katie Strang from Newsday who concurred that the Hockey coverage should indeed expand with the Dolan's in charge. I'm thinking it's a clever move on their part to keep us very vocal Islanders fans from yapping back at them all the time.

I don't know what I'm doing up here just hanging out and typing. But... what the hell... it's cool up here and I do so love being in the rink. That's why I came down. I know that it will be a little while longer before I can see an actual hockey game since I'm not going to Moncton. (Neither is Katie.... she's not in Newsday's budget.) I guess Greg will have to be our only link. Not sure if Chris Botta is making the trip, but if he is.. that will be great coverage to send off his new (supposedly daily) Islanders Point Blank on September 25th.

Rookie Camp before Moncton

We get to hear skate blades on ice once again at Ice Works next week when 20 prospects participate in a Rookie camp Monday - Wednesday.


Of course this news would have tweaked my interest anyway because any excuse I can use to get out of work for an extended lunch hour to get down to Ice Works is always welcome. But what caught my attention was the name Vladimir Nikiforov.

A few weeks ago, the boards were buzzing with questions about this kid being tagged to play on the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. It seems either he or his relatives were telling patrons and pee wee players that he had been asked. Some members even asked me if I could get any additional information.

We all know that THIS is not the type of information that I can usually uncover. Prospects? Camp Invitees? Rumor? Not exactly my forte. But, I have a hard time saying no if someone asks me to investigate.

I sent Corey Witt an email about something else and, oddly, he answered me. When I figured I had his attention, I posed the question. "Hey! Corey! Rumor has it that Nikiforov will be playing for Bridgeport this coming season. Can you tell me if that's true?"

Surprisingly I DID get another response. Although I wasn't surprised at the content. One word, and the word was "HA!" Not exactly as clever a response as his former boss would have bestowed on me, but one I fully expected.

On today's Islander website story the following is posted:

Vladimir Nikiforov

Born- 10/7/1987

Height- 5'8" (Other sites have him listed as 5'7")

Weight- 170

Position- Right Wing

Nikiforov is a Long Island native invitee. Last season, he started the year with the OHL's Barrie Colts before being traded to Sarnia. Over the first 36 games of the
season in Barrie, Nikiforov scored 21 goals and 32 assists for 53 points.
Despite playing in just over half the season with Barrie, he was second on the
team in goals, first in assists and second in points. With Sarnia, in 15 regular
season games he had four goals and ten assists. He then added a goal and four
assists in nine playoff games. On the year, he had a total of 17 multi-point
games, including three four-point efforts.

So I guess being invited back to Rookie camp is one step closer to the Sound Tigers. Let's hope this Long Island native does better than he did in August when he was injured and couldn't continue competing.

We need more Long Island players in the league. Even if they were born in Russia.