Archive for the '2007-08' Category
Not much to say here, we knew he wasn’t 100% since the All-Star Game, the season is all but over, and yesterday’s MRI confirmed the need for surgery.
For the second time in two seasons, Islanders franchise goaltender Rick DiPietro will have season-ending hip surgery. The operation will take place Wednesday at Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colo., an NHL source said, and DiPietro is expected to recover in time for training camp in September.
Dr. Marc Philippon, who performed surgery on DiPietro’s left hip last spring, will operate on his right hip this time.
Get well Ricky, see you in September for camp. Should we sign Dr. Philippon to a 15-year deal too?
DP is having an MRI on his hip today and will miss tonight’s game. You know, the hip he had surgery on last summer and the hip he apparently tweaked at the All-Star Game, but everything was fine (supposedly). Hmmm.
Wade Dubielewicz gets the start tonight and Joey MacDonald has been recalled from Bridgeport of the American Hockey League. Rick DiPietro will have an MRI on his hip this afternoon and the Islanders expect to have results on Wednesday.
James Mirtle has tallied the official NHL injury reports to determine the number of games lost to injuries this season for each team. It shouldn’t be much a surprise (Sim, Sillinger, Bates, Witt, Satan, Campoli, etc…) that the Islanders are currently in 4th place, right behind the Bruins. The Bruins however are the only possible playoff team near the top of this list.
Rk Teams Games Lost NHL pos.
1 Florida 362 22
2 Chicago 330 24
3 Boston 305 14
4 N.Y. Islanders 302 26
5 Edmonton 291 21
After a 3-0 drubbing at the hand of the Montreal Canadiens last night and Islanders’ golf season just 3 weeks away, the Isles answered the only remaining question of the season with a press announcement. Kyle Okposo the Islanders 2006 first round draft pick, will make his NHL debut at home on Tuesday night vs. the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Okposo, selected seventh overall by the Islanders in the 2006 NHL Draft, is considered one of the top prospects in hockey. After playing for Team USA at this year’s World Junior Championships, the 6-foot, 200-pound wing left the University of Minnesota and signed a three-year contract with the Islanders on January 11. He started his pro career in the Islanders organization by playing for their American Hockey League affiliate, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. In 29 games with the Sound Tigers, Okposo had 8 goals and 16 assists for 24 points. He had an assist in Bridgeport’s 4-2 over the Philadelphia Phantoms on Saturday night.
“It’s the right time to give Kyle the chance to show what he can do at the NHL level,” said Islanders general manager Garth Snow. “From the beginning we said that when it came to Kyle we would do what was best long-term for both him and our franchise. He has played well in Bridgeport and deserves a look. Our organization is very excited to see Kyle in an Islanders unifom, and I’m sure so are our fans.”
When run through Google Translator (using the new bullshit to english translator), Snow’s statement reads like this.
We looked at the schedule and realized there were still 5 home games left. 4 of which are not against the Rangers. He has played well in Bridgeport and we need to put some fannies in some seats for those games. Now is the right time for Kyle’s debut, even though the Soundtigers could really use him for the AHL playoff push. Besides, half the guys he’s been playing with in the AHL have been called up already.
In other somewhat Islanders related news, the NHL re-reviewed the tapes from the Chris Pronger skate stomping incident and decided that it warranted an 8 game suspension after all.
Duck’s GM Brian Burke was quick to point the finger at Richard Zednik’s scary skate injury, rather than the media/blog outcry of a double standard, or *gasp* repeated offender Chris Pronger.
“I think what’s happened here is there’s a lot of sensitivity to anything related to skates right now,” said Ducks general manager Brian Burke, a former NHL disciplinarian. “I would have to hope and believe that the NHL disregards any kind of outcry when they evaluate these kinds of things.
“I have a lot more confidence in Colin Campbell that he’s never going to respond to media pressure. I know I never did when I did that job.”
We all know that the Islanders have had major scoring issues this year. The team has gone stretches where it was unable to hit the three-goal mark in a game for more than a week.
Currently, the Isles have scored the third fewest goals in the league with 176 through 72 games. That puts the team on track to score exactly 200 goals. A quick look at the Islanders’ total goal tallies for each of the team’s 35 seasons shows that a 200-goal output would rank as the team’s sixth worst, not counting the lockout shortened season of 1994-95.
The only other times the Isles offensive was as inept?: The first two season’s of the franchise’s existence, in which the team registered a team record-low 170 goals in 1972-73 and 182 goals the following season; and a three-season stretch starting in 1998-99 when the team failed to surpass 194 goals in a season.
The 200 goals would also be the lowest total by the franchise since the 2000-01 season.
Here’s hoping the lack of firepower is addressed in the offseason.
And so it goes. Another game, another loss for the Islanders. Last night, the Panthers were the better team and skated to a 4-2 victory over an injury-plagued Islanders team that is showing the physical, emotional, and mental wear and tear of an up and down season.
The loss kept the Isles entrenched in lowly 13th place, eight points behind the Flyers for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. It also moved the Islanders under the .500 mark for just the second time this season.
The team that had started the season out so well surprising almost everyone, that was ranked #8 on ESPN’s Power Rankings the sixth week of the season, that was in the Top Eight teams in the East for most of the year, is bottoming out at the worst possible time. The Isles have lost six of seven. Coach Ted and Rick DiPietro might not be getting along. Injuries are piling up.
The Isles certainly haven’t quit but I don’t think they believe any more either. Ten games to go, eight points out, they know the deal.
Give me a “W”. Give me a “T”. Give me an “F”. And give me a giant “?”. What’s that spell?
The Islanders had one of the biggest WTF? nights of the season yesterday when the Lightning steamrolled them 8-4 in Tampa. DP’s line for the night? 36 saves on 44 shots. The team’s performance was uglier than Eliot Spitzer’s chances as husband of the year.
Coach Ted was none too pleased with the $67 Million Dollar Man after the game.
“We ask him over and over again not to play the puck as much,” Nolan told Newsday. “He’s one of the best puck-handlers in the league, but you just can’t overhandle it. When you overhandle it, you get yourself in trouble a little bit.”
“The only thing you can do is keep going through it over and over again. You can’t do that. You’ve got to let our defense handle it a little bit more. He just wants to play it. What can you do?”
The Coliseum Heroes are eight points out of a playoff spot with just 11 games to go. It’s over man. The dishes are done. The music’s dead. All that’s left is to turn down the lights.
I ended up passing on the Skate with the Greats fundraiser two weeks ago - 1) I was in the middle of moving that weekend and 2) cash was tight because of all the moving expenses. 
IslandersTV has some video of the event now online, check out what you and I missed. Looks like it was an amazing experience for those who did attend.
The Flyers downed the Isles 4-1 yesterday. Another bad loss to a team serving as a roadblock to a playoff spot for the OrangeAndBlue. The loss puts the Islanders seven points back of Philly for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Islanders now reside in 12th place out of 15 teams in the East.
They have 12 games to play. How likely is it a team can make up seven points in just 12 games? Not bloody likely. Even if the Islanders go 9-3, which would qualify as their best 12-game stretch of the season, the Flyers, who have 13 games left, would have to go 5-8. That would leave the Islanders with 89 points and the Flyers with 88. The Flyers would own any tiebreaker if the teams ended the season with the same amount of points, as they have dominated the season series winning five of six contests.
The two teams play each other two more times - Sunday, March 23 at Philadelphia and Saturday, March 29 at the Old Barn. If the Isles have any chance of grabbing that last seed, they need to win both games in regulation. There’s no other way. They simply cannot afford to lose any more ground to the Flyers.
To make the uphill climb even steeper, using the 9-3 scenario for the Islanders’ last 12 games, the team would still need Buffalo, Washington, and Florida to stumble. If the Isles finish with 89 points, they would need Buffalo to finish no better than 7-6 (for 88 points), Washington no better than 7-5 and Florida no better than 7-4. There’s a good chance that can happen but when you’re talking about the need for three teams to be no better than mediocre, one team, the Flyers, to be pretty bad, and the Islanders to be pretty damn awesome, the odds don’t look good. I wouldn’t take that bet. Would you?
The good thing is the Islanders are saying all the right things. Captain Bill Guerin told Newsday after yesterday’s loss “We’re making it a lot harder on ourselves. Is there enough time? Not a lot, but there’s time.”
Technically, he’s right. But it’s almost last call. No time to waste.
DP is back after dealing with the passing of a family member, but according to Newsday’s Greg Logan he’ll be riding the pine tonight as Coach Nolan rolls the dice with Wade Dubielewicz versus the Rangers.
Islanders coach Ted Nolan made the boldest decision of his two-season tenure this morning when he announced backup Wade Dubielewicz will be in net against the Rangers tonight at Nassau Coliseum with franchise player Rick DiPietro fresh and ready to go on the bench.
