Over the past 10 days, the New York Islanders have added depth to both their team and Bridgeport, signing Nate Thompson, Jack Hillen, Joel Rechlicz and Blake Comeau. I’ve already spoken at length about Thompson that I believe he’s better suited to play at Bridgeport and come up in case of emergency, but “The Wrecker” is a different story. If he can improve his skating ability even more, remember too, this was a dude who was in the ECHL for a spell last season, he’ll be a Steve Webb clone with better hands. If he can follow the puck, play tough in the corners and fight when he has to, the Isles will have a solid fourth line with him and Tim Jackman and whoever they decide to have center them.

As far as Comeau goes, lets hope he learned his lesson from last season and comes into camp in shape, scores 15-20 goals and plays good physical, two-way hockey. If he does, he could be one of the best third liners in the league and develop into a Kris Draper-Jay Pandolfo-type player. Won’t hold my breath though.

In other news, the Islanders have been stepping up their support of the lighthouse project on the site as of late, but there’s an even better way to get this thing moving. Sign another scorer.

Here’s a list of some players available right now.

Robert Lang
Viktor Kozlov
Maxim Afinogenov
Todd Bertuzzi
Petr Sykora
Alex Tanguay
Taylor Pyatt

Some of these guys are in need of a second chance, and some are even old, but Pyatt or Bertuzzi would be great on the third line and in front of the net on the powerplay. Sykora, Kozlov and Tanguay can all come in and score at least 20 goals and give the team some more name recognition.

That may be what the team needs more. Get fans excited to see that the team is taking steps to put a quality team on the ice. Then they’ll spend their money going there and give the government officials enough of a reason to support it as well.

Photo by Patrick Hickey Jr.

Posted under Offseason 2009

Well, things are changing in Islander Country.

Newsday’s Greg Logan thinks John Tavares can be the next Sydney Crosby, but you get the feeling he won’t be as dynamic. I am expecting him to be a force at times, but see him going through growing pains as well. He’s an offensive machine and doesn’t have a great defensive game and because of that, I see him getting a ton of time on the powerplay, but little with the puck in the defensive end.

Because of this, it’ll take him a few years to become the type of player he truly can be.

Even he doesn’t know what that player will turn out to be.

For my taste, I’d love to see him score 30 goals as a rookie and win the Calder, but I don’t know if that’s entirely possible. Many scouts have said that he projects to be a 40-goal scorer and that he’s NHL ready now, but there’s no real way of telling that until he steps on the ice. With Josh Bailey, Frans Nielsen and Doug Weight up the middle to back him up, I think the Islanders with some nice versatility. Bailey projects to be a solid two-way center, while Nielsen in my mind has the potential to be a Mike Ribeiro-type player. Weight is a trusty old steed that I think still has a 50-point season in him. With those intangibles, I think Tavares can learn a lot in his rookie season.

Thinking about him playing with Kyle Okposo is also something that I think is incredibly intriguing.

As far as De Haan goes, he was the defenseman I saw the Islanders drafting at 26 and I even said so in April. So while I’m happy they went out and got him, the fact that they got him at 12 and didn’t pick up Landon Ferraro as well at 31 kind of shocked me. Kudos to Garth Snow for trading up to get his guy, but we’ll have to see what happens before we pass judgment. All I know is that he made a splash and people are talking. That may be the best thing for the organization right now. Nevertheless, I’m happy that the Islanders have a defenseman in the ranks that will be a solid powerplay quarterback in a few years.

The Islanders also drafted two goalies and to me, that shows that they may not be as comfortable with Rick DiPietro as they are making out to be. Both goaltenders have a plethora of upside and may be capable of big things in the future. However, with both Yann Danis and Joey MacDonald UFA’s this summer, this move could have been to shore up the depth chart at the position and may not be indicative of what the Isles think of DP.

Now with the draft behind us, the free agent period should be incredibly interesting.

Posted under Offseason 2009

With all the hoop-la lately regarding what the Islanders will do with the number one pick this upcoming draft, it’s easy to forget that they also have the 26th pick [edit] in the first round, courtesy of the trade that sent the under-achieving Mike Comrie and the unhappy Chris Campoli to the Senators.

Now, while Islanders general manager Garth Snow has kept mum on his intentions, I offer a few thoughts as to what the team should do with their picks.

Option One- Draft John Tavares and a talented blue liner. Many believe Tavares could be the player to build around, but he’ll just be one piece to the puzzle that will get the Isles back into the playoffs. A guy like Calvin De Haan, who scored 63 points in 68 games with the Oshawa Generals this past season, may be a great choice. With Campoli gone, the Islanders could use more depth on the powerplay and De Haan has the talent to be that man. I don’t know how you guys feel, but I miss the days when the Islanders had a bunch of talented defensemen who could score. Considering that, De Haan has the potential to help the Islanders offense quite a bit.

Swedish D-man David Rundblad is a little bit older and while he doesn’t have the same offensive ability, he may be the better skater of the two and has more size, making him the Andy Sutton with a better shot of the future. However, he may be spending more time abroad before jumping to the NHL, making him a tougher guy to consider drafting.

Option Two- Draft John Tavares and a goaltender. Of course, now it’s obvious what I think the Islanders should do with the first pick, but with the 29th, they may consider getting a young goaltender, just in case Rick DiPietro injures another hip. Wait, he’s already injured both of them over the past two seasons.

If Edward Pasquale is available when the Islanders go for their second pick, they should consider picking him up. Winning 32 games in the OHL this season with a solid .911 save percentage this season, Pasquale could be ready to thrive in a few seasons just in case DP doesn’t come close to finishing him record-breaking contract.

Oliver Roy is another quality goaltender the Islanders could look at. Winning 35 games in the QMJHL this season, Roy is a guy that may be able to play 40 games a season and take some of the pressure off DiPietro.

Photo by Patrick Hickey Jr.

Posted under Offseason 2009

When the Islanders signed Doug Weight this past offseason, not much was expected from him, especially considering he had the worst season of his professional career last season.

I even set the bar pretty low for him in July, writing:

“If he’s healthy all season, I definitely see him scoring a dozen goals and adding 30 helpers, while setting a great on-ice example for the youngsters.”

And who wouldn’t have set the bar low for the guy after what happened to him the year before? As a matter of fact, many insiders thought the guy was finished after last season.

“I felt like I had a lot of hockey left in me and that I was not put in a good situation to play,” Weight said of his experience on 2007-08 on the team’s official website a few days ago. “But those things happen and it’s how you respond to those things. Fortunately, the Islanders wanted to give me a chance and I had a coach that had a lot of respect for my game and the way I play. I felt like I responded pretty well.”

Damn skippy you did.

In just 53 games, Weight scored 10 goals and added 28 assists, good for third on the team. Scoring 21 of his points on the powerplay as well, Weight did everything the Islanders could have asked from and more. Before the Islanders began their collapse and Joey MacDonald was doing just more than holding down the fort, Weight was also scoring a point a game and was screaming his head off on the bench, proving he was every bit the leader the Islanders expected him to be.

Considering what most of us expected from him, it’s almost impossible to argue with that.

“I wish I could’ve stayed healthy because I think I could have had a pretty good season and helped our team even more,” Weight said on the team’s official site. “But having said that, I am going to work hard during the offseason and come back and hopefully have a great year.”

If he is healthy, I expect Weight to score 15 goals and add 40 assists that should put him near Mark Streit and Kyle Okposo for the team’s scoring lead. That alone means the Islanders offense will still have its fair share of growing pains next season, but that won’t be because of Weight.

Simply put, the guy just fits into the Islanders system and is still a capable playmaker.

If the Islanders pick up John Tavares and perhaps a free agent signing and there is less pressure on Weight to produce, I expect him to have an even better season. At this point in his career, he can’t be asked to score 70 points, but if some of the youngsters can pick it up, Weight can and will continue to be a productive player for the New York Islanders.

Photo by Patrick Hickey Jr.

Posted under Offseason 2009

In the beginning, Jeff Tambellini needed time. It was a situation that is beginning to feel all to similar to Islanders fans over the past few years. The team deals a few veterans after they feel they don’t have what it takes to make the playoffs and youth comes in. He was still green after putting the finishing touches on his college career and finishing up his first year in the AHL, but he still had a ton of promise.

No one expected that it would take almost four years, but it seems that finally, Jeff Tambellini is becoming something that Islanders fans and he himself can get used to.

Very similar to Andy Hilbert, Tambellini is a beast in the AHL, a sniper and offensive force that would even scare Jeff Hamilton. In the NHL however, Tambellini is a guy that has to do a bunch of things in order to be successful.

Once he realized, his job was on the line and even veterans the likes of Jon Sim where being targeted by the organization for various reasons, that’s when I think Tambellini realized he had nothing to lose and began to take the body and shoot with more confidence.

So no more excuses about Ted Nolan not playing him, no more excuses about what line he’s on.

It’s all up to him now and he knows it.

“For the playoffs, (the games are) meaningless, but for each guy in this room, we’re playing for respect, we’re playing for jobs next year, we’re playing for ice time,” winger Jeff Tambellini told Newsday. “These are big games for us. No one is taking this lightly because this is a young group and we’re all trying to prove ourselves and put our personal mark on this team.”

Speaking of taking the body, Tambellini has has had no problem hitting players much bigger than him, which in turn has made him a much better player in corners, in the defensive end and on the powerplay. As a result, the guy has five goals in his last 16 games and has been on of the Islanders best players during that span, a far cry when he was barely noticeable at all.

Some would say that’s too little too late for the former first round pick, but with another year left on his contract and the team to get even younger next season, Tambellini, at least early in the year will get more ice-time due to his second half prowess.

My guess is he’ll be another Hilbert-clone, scoring about 10-15 goals a season that can play in all game situations, which may upset some Isles fans, but he will be a full-time NHLer next season and won’t ride the bench.

For him at the very least, it’s a step in the right direction.

We’ll see how much it helps the Islanders next season as well.

Posted under 2008-2009, Isles Thoughts 2009

Already playing with a thin lineup, the Islanders were forced to play against a Canadiens team fighting for their playoff lives with Kyle Okposo, Mark Streit and Dean McAmmond.

Calling up Sean Bentivoglio and Trevor Smith for the night, the team would have been better off calling up Kirk Cameron and Alan Thicke, because they were experiencing serious “growing pains.”

Without Okposo and Streit, the Islanders simply have no offense. Nothing against Bentivoglio or the sharp-shooting Smith, but they obviously don’t provide the same type of punch. In order for the Islanders to come out with a victory, they were going to have to play a perfect game and stay out of a penalty box.

That obviously didn’t happen and without McAmmond helping to man the penalty kill, the Islanders were eaten alive by a hungry Habs team.

“I’m upset about the penalties,” coach Scott Gordon told the Associated Press after the Islanders gave Montreal eight power plays last night. “If you’re going to take a penalty, it’s to save a goal. I don’t think there were too many saved goals tonight.”

On another note, I don’t think there was much of anything on the Islanders side of the ice last night. It wasn’t completely Yann Danis’ fault, as a pair of those goals came on the powerplay, but the Islanders defense was walked all over by the Canadiens.

Aside from Doug Weight dropping the gloves again and Jeff Tambellini’s rocket that for the moment got the Isles back in th game, this contest was an absolute stinker. I’ve said before, but with so many injuries, this team has to be perfect every night and last night, that was simply not the case.

“We’ve been playing pretty good, and this was a disappointing effort for our team,” veteran Islanders forward Doug Weight told the Associated Press.

However, in spite of the team’s play last night, the worst thing about the game was seeing Habs fans take over the building and hearing chats and nothing being called back by Isles’ fans makes me scared about the situation this fan base is in. A few years ago, when this team was making the playoffs, I don’t anything like that would have happened. Those Canadiens fans would have been drown out.

Overall, just like the situation the team is in right now, it seems like the fan base is going through similar problems.

Posted under 2008-2009, Post Game Rants

I have a message to all of my readers:

Peter Mannino is a god and you are not.

Well, at least until his next game.

Making 40 saves against any team in the NHL is no easy task, but against a team with nine players with over 35 points like the Chicago Blackhawks, it’s like trying to find all of Cloris Leachman’s liver spots. Seriously, the last time I saw Mannino in net, I thought he was in way over his head. He looked like Peter Griffin in the video store, trying to decide between two “Ernest” films.

But today was different. The Islanders defense was totally outmatched and Mannino did his best Yann Danis impersonation, stopping Chicago’s top players from the top of the circles, the blue line, on breakaways and in traffic.

“I felt good right away,” Mannino told the Associated Press after the game. “Chicago is an unbelievable offensive team and I wanted to get out the nerves as much as possible and stay focused. When you get a lot of shots, it helps, especially if you’re not letting them in right away.”

Well, the kid got his wish and was magnificent.

Chicago’s goaltender, Nikolai Khabibulin, making his first appearance after injuring his knee a few weeks ago however, was not. Only facing 19 shots, “The Bulin Wall” didn’t have what it took and ended up costing his team two points in the process.

It didn’t help matters that the Islanders powerplay was at its best. Mark Streit alone played a crucial role in today’s win by taking shots from the point and playing good instinctive hockey. Sometimes, when you have the ability a guy like Streit has, thinking less and just letting your instinct to score take over makes a huge difference. That’s exactly what happened today.

Another player that wasted no time helping the Isles was Richard Park. Islanders sideline reporter C.J. Papa said on the air on Saturday that the Islanders were going to take things slow with Park, who missed 11 games with busted ribs. While Papa was indeed correct, Park obviously didn’t get the message and has three points in his first two games back. Despite the fact that he got ice cold after starting the season white-hot, Park is still a more than useful player and someone that can teach the youngsters what they need to about this league while still being productive in both ends of the ice.

Players like that do not grow on trees my friends.

Posted under 2008-2009, Post Game Rants

First road point since Jan. 28.

Despite the loss, I’m sure the Islanders will take it.

Sean Bergenheim’s injury and a few defensive lapses aside [right now he's waiting to be further evaluated. Hopefully there is an update on his status soon. I personally think it's a pulled groin], this was a productive game for the Islanders.

Toronto is far from an amazing team and they’re currently going through plenty of their own struggles, but the Islanders didn’t flinch and played hockey for 60 plus minutes.

With a team this young, that’s all you can ask for. I’m sure I’m not the only fan of this team that has seen a marketed improvement in the Isles’ play over the past few weeks and considering that, things like this, losing games they should have won, are still bound to happen. On the whole, this team still has plenty of bumps and bruises left to earn.

That was the case tonight.

Nevertheless, there were plenty of positives.

The second period alone, when they drew five penalties because they were skating their tails off [Kyle Okposo especially] in all three zones put a smile on my face because things like that are what Scott Gordon has been preaching all season. Sure, the powerplay was flaccid and was unable to generate quality scoring opportunities, but that’s to be expected. This is a young team after all and I’d rather see little steps in the right direction than no steps at all.

For the most part, Joey MacDonald did his job in net, but his rebound control wasn’t as solid and played a huge part in the Mikhail Grabovski goal in overtime. Nevertheless, aside from that, he didn’t let anyone down and gave his team a chance to win.

Speaking of players that gave the Islanders a chance to win, Blake Comeau and Okposo have been exceptional lately. Sometimes I think what the Islanders season could have been if KO didn’t start the season the way he did and Comeau came into camp in shape. However, rather than continue the dream fest, I will say that these guys are proving themselves more and more every day.

Another guy proving himself is Bruno Gervais [kudos on the scrap], who has been playing much better hockey in his own end and has been showing the skating ability that almost got him a spot here as an 18-year-old. Is he going to be the 30-35 point a season defenseman the team thought they were getting when they drafted him? Probably not, but I do think he can still be a good two-way defenseman.

All that aside, the Islanders, despite the loss should have some momentum when they face the Canadiens on Thursday.

Posted under 2008-2009, Post Game Rants

I just want to apologize for the extra lewdness in this post; it’s all Sean Avery’s fault.

I don’t know how you guys feel, but seeing Blake Comeau finally put some fertilizer on his grapefruits and not only nail Avery near the Islanders bench in the first period, but then later blow him a kiss like he had a new man-servant, made my day.

It didn’t matter that the Rangers had the lead after the first 20 minutes, the Islanders skated hard against a much better team on paper and carried the play in the physicality and speed department. That’s what I want to see from this team the rest of the season.

The fact that the Islanders showed Avery his rear more times than my hands can count erase the bad penalties the Isles took, the mistakes they made in the neutral zone and the bad goal they gave up in the third.

Let’s face it, not many people expected the Islanders to stand much of a chance against a revamped and stacked Rangers team. Nevertheless, they kept it close for most of the game. Take away their mistakes, like running into each other and deflecting shots past their own goaltender [no sarcasm there, I swear] and I think they were the better team.

However, on special teams, it’s obvious the Islanders miss Doug Weight and have serious work to do with the man advantage next season if they are going to be a better team. Decent teams do what it takes on the powerplay and can get those extra tallies when they have to. 0 for their last 18 with the man advantage, it’s obvious the Islanders must change their approach if they are going to be a better team next season.

On a side note, I am quickly becoming a fan of both Dean McAmmond and Jesse Joensuu. Both of these guys were working their tails off last night. Aside from the play of Comeau, I think these two guys were the Islanders best players. Could McAmmond be earning himself a spot on this team for next season? Is Joensuu doing the same thing? Only time will tell with that, but overall, I think the Islanders showed tonight that they could hold the ice with a playoff team.

That in itself means a lot.

However at the same time, they are still a far way off from making themselves a team that can reach the post season in the not too distant future.

Still plenty of work to get done.

Posted under 2008-2009, Post Game Rants

Anyone who had a problem with the way this team played tonight is either a Ranger fan or out of their mind.

The Islanders where skating hard and keeping themselves warm in the first and it absolutely showed. Every line had some type of pressure and chances to try and take advantage of and Yann Danis, while mostly untested, made the stops he had to. Dean “Why do I have an ‘A’ on my jersey already?” McAmmond’s goal got the Islanders on the board. Even a few bad penalties couldn’t kill the Islanders momentum in the period, as they maintained their intensity and forecheck throughout. Overall, the team, without Brendan Witt, Trent Hunter [Who, according to IslesBlogger.com, is injured, so you don't have to worry about him being on the block] and Bill Guerin proved they still have some gas left in their tanks.

Things changed pretty quickly though, after Ryan Smyth [insert preferred insult about # 94 here] scored just 33 seconds in on the powerplay to make it a 1-1 game. The Islanders only needed about two minutes to get the lead back though, after a Jesse Joensuu goal, his first as a pro in his first pro game [reminds me of Chris Campoli...tear]. Watching him through his first few shifts, I have to say, I like his game and think if he can continue to get in front of the net with his size [6'4], he may be up here the rest of the season.

Speaking of doing good things on the ice, Bruno Gervais is a modern day Dennis Vaske, doing most of the grunt work, but not getting anything as far as statistics to prove it. His goal [Which Jon Sim assisted on for his third point of the game] put the Isles up 3-1 and looked to put the Isles in the driver’s seat. While the Islanders powerplay later in the period was absolutely atrocious and they got in penalty trouble, they were able to keep Colorado off the scoreboard and hold on to their two-goal lead going into the third.

However, just like the beginning of the second, Smyth scored to cut the lead to 3-2. Luckily, it was the Islanders who has a case of deja-vu themselves, as they struck right back and regained their two-goal lead after a Jeff Tambellini goal that was the result of some great work by Mark Streit, who carried the puck through all three zones. That seemed to be the final nail in the coffin and continuing their strong play in their own zone, the Islanders were able to fend off the Avs.

While Colorado is far from the team they used to be, a hard-nosed win like this, without some key players is just what the doctor ordered for this young team. However, a bigger question remains… how long can these guys keep it up?

Posted under 2008-2009, Post Game Rants