Since the season ends today, we figured why wait on handing out the hardware. So, without further ado, some of my thoughts on who did right by us Isles fans this season, with a top choice and a runner-up. I also refrained from picking any one player for two different awards. I love making up rules for myself. Murph, let us know what you think, too:
MVP - 1) Rick DiPietro 2) Brendan Witt
Ricky was the obvious choice here. On a team with very little firepower and a no-name defense, DiPietro stood on his head a ton of times to keep the Isles in the thick of things before going down with the injury. His play and Ted Nolan’s coaching were the primary reason the Isles had a shot at the playoffs for most of the season. For that reason, I almost picked Nolan as the runner-up but then I thought it was lame to pick a coach. Brendan Witt personified the team’s toughness and did a very good job manning the backline until, he too, went down with an injury (I sense a pattern here). Honorable mention goes to Mike Sillinger, Bill Guerin, Mike Comrie, and Trent Hunter.
Hardest Worker, aka the Jason Blake Memorial Trophy - 1) Trent Hunter 2) Bill Guerin
Both of these guys leave everything on the ice every night. I know a lot of Islander fans are disappointed in Hunter’s lack of points (just 12 goals this year and 40 points), but the guy is one of the few Isles playing physical from end to end, each and every game. He’s also the type of player who would be lighting the lamp much more regularly if the Isles were fortunate to have a true sniper on the team. Guerin is exactly what we thought he’d be. The guy works hard. He’s a little older now and maybe a little slower but it’s hard to gauge when there is just so little offensive talent around him.
The Wow He’s Actually Pretty Good Award - 1) Richard Park 2) Dubie
Richard Park! I can’t tell you how many times I caught myself getting excited at something Park had accomplished and then saying to myself, “Hey, that Richard Park is pretty o.k.” Maybe not the most ringing endorsement in the world but in all honestly it can take some time to win me over and Park is slowly doing that. The guy made a host of big plays this season and was fairly consistent. He currently ranks seventh on the team in points and leads the Isles with three shorthanded goals. Maybe that’s what won me over right there. Love those shorthanded goals. Back-up goalie Wade Dubielewicz was more than solid spot-starting for DiPietro for much of the season before DP went down with the injury. Since then he’s gotten even more time between the pipes and he continues to keep the Isles in games. He’s shown that last season’s heroics wasn’t a fluke and proven he can play at this level.
The Dumbest Play of The Season Award - 1) Chris Simon
The Jarkko Ruutu play. Totally unacceptable. Simon played hard but every once in a while the guy just went off the deep end. The Ruutu play got him a 30-game ban and a ticket off of the Island. Simon won the same award last year when he hit Ryan Hollweg with his stick and was suspended for 25 games.
The Invisible Man Award - 1) Shawn Bates
Another winner without a runner-up. Bates, you know we fell in love with you in 2002 but, man, where’ve you been? For the second straight season, Bates was pretty-much a no-show. He played in just two games this season. Makes last year’s 48 seem Ironman-esque.
The Why I Can’t Wait For Next Season Award - 1) Kyle Okposo 2)Blake Comeau
The Young Guns have shown some signs of things to come in their limited action this season and should give all Islander fans some hope for the future. The Isles need to get some help from the outside if they want to take the next step, but it’s nice knowing the cupboard isn’t empty.
As always, we look to our readers to let us know where we screwed up.
A quick look at the Isles’ player stats shows an awful lot of minusus where pluses are supposed to be. It’s somewhat understandable when the team has scored the fewest goals in the league, with just 108. But the Isles have given up just 122 goals, which ties them for 12th best in the league. So we need to take a look at the team’s goal differential of negative-14, which is 7th worst in the league. That’s where all the minuses are coming from.
Of the 27 Islanders currently on the roster, an astounding 19 have registered a minus this season. That’s exactly two-thirds of the roster. Wait, there’s more. Five Islanders have registered a 0 for plus/minus, which means they are breaking even. That means just three Islanders have a plus for the season. THREE! Or just 11.1% of the roster. That outstanding trio includes - Richard Park (+1), Sean Bergenheim (+2), and Blake Comeau (+3). Wow. That’s rough, man. By comparison, Niklas Lidstrom has the best plus/minus in the league at +34. Sort of takes some of the air out of Comeau’s +3.
Here are the most egregious offenders of The Minus Gang - Trent Hunter and Mike Comrie (both at -12), Bryan Berard (-9), and Mike Sillinger (-8). Ain’t pretty at all. In fact, just 12 players in the entire NHL have a worse plus/minus ratio than Hunter and Comrie.
For what it’s worth, nobody has been as bad in this category as Tampa’s Brad Richards and his -25. What’s crazy is that Richards has a solid 38 points (which would be good enough to lead the Isles). What the hell is happening when he isn’t scoring or assisting on goals?
So much for the fast start to the season. The Islanders continue to hover just above .500 and cannot get any momentum or excessive scoring going, dropping Saturday night’s game at the Coliseum to Pittsburgh 3-2. The Isles have not won back to back games in almost a month, dating back to mid-November and consecutive wins vs. the Rangers and Devils. Ah, the good ol’ days of mid-November.
The Isles fell behind early (bad) 2-0 partial thanks to an awful giveaway by M.A.B in his own defensive zone that led to a Sydney Crosby goal - like he needs any help scoring? The Isles came back though (good) to tie the game at 2 in the second period thanks to goals from Park and Vasicek who leads the team with 10 goals now. For illustrative purposes, Kovalchuk leads the league with 26. The Isles are 2nd to last in league scoring, the only silver lining being that the one team worse than us…is the Rangers. Back to Saturday night, later in the second period there’s some pushing and shoving between Witt and Crosby, two Pens jump in to remind Witt about their “no-touch” insurance policy on Sid. Vasicek jumps in to Witt’s defense, and after the zebras sort it out, the Pens get an early Christmas powerplay (No! Not the Pens! They never catch a break.) as Witt and Vasicek are sent to the Isles box, but only Whitney for the Pens. On the ensuing powerplay, Pittsburgh scores to make it 3-2 and that’s final goal of the game. Coach Nolan’s STILL looking for the extra penalty on that scrum.
“I still can’t understand how two guys have a little pushing match, and then two guys jump one of our guys and we end up in a short-handed situation,” Nolan said.
The Isles play a decent third period, creating chances to try and find the tying goal…and then Chris Simon gets all boneheaded on us…again. Simon takes an “attempt to injure” major penalty for using his skate to stomp on Jarkko Ruutu’s foot as both of them left the ice after a shift. Ruutu fell to the ice, but was not injured. The Isles spend 5 of the last 6 minutes of the game on the penalty kill - which surprisingly produces some of their best chances to score in the period, including a Mike Sillinger breakaway, but can’t find the equalizer.
Simon has been given a leave of absence by the team in advance of his 7th career NHL suspension. Having just completed a 25-game suspension in October, Simon is likely to have the rulebook thrown at him by NHL Dean of Discipline Colin Campbell, because of his repeat offender status. While this incident wasn’t as bad as the stick swinging incident from last year, I still think Simon is looking at 20-25 games again and probably some league mandated anger-management classes. Off the ice he sounds like a great guy, but on the ice he’s shown a history of not respecting his opponents, not thinking before he acts, and not acting in the best interest of his team. It is possible his Islanders and even NHL career could be over because of this incident.
If you play or played organized hockey, you probably know a guy like Chris Simon. He might have even been on your team. The guy who always loses his cool, takes the extra penalty, or takes the pointless, unprovoked penalty. The guy in front of the net who always has to get the last shove in. The guy who’s slashes like he’s chopping wood. Or the absolute worst guy in men’s league - the guy who forgets it’s all for fun and everyone has to go to work in the morning. The guy with no respect for his opponents and just wants to fight and hurt people. On the ice, in the parking lot, wherever.
Now I’m not saying Chris Simon is as bad as “that guy” or that he wants to fight Ruutu in the parking lot. I’m just saying if you’ve played organized hockey, you’ve seen a guy like this who loses his temper a bit too often. Simon’s been lucky that no one has been seriously hurt from his actions, he’s going to run out of luck…or second chances, very soon.
The Ottawa Senators have beaten the Islanders in 8 straight games and are loaded with talent - Spezza, Alfredsson, Heatley…and Andrej Meszaros? Meszaros scored two fluky goals last night, one on an awful angle and one from the point that deflected off an Islander player to tie the game with less than two minutes to play. That led to a wild OT with 4-on-3 powerplays for both teams, and even a little 3-on-3 action too (kinky!). Ottawa had a fantastic chance after DP came out of the net to poke the puck away, and the Isles had a Park/Satan 2-on-1 broken up by an Ottawa defender. Sillinger had this to say about DP after the game.
“Oh man, I hate that,” Sillinger said. “He did give us a scare. I was thinking, ‘What the hell is he doing?”‘
Thank you Silly. You’ve just spoken for hundreds of Islanders fans everywhere.
Back to the game, DP and Emery kept the puck out of the net in OT and for the first time this season, the Isles were headed to a shootout. Alfredsson beat DP in the first round while Emery stopped Satan and Vasicek, which left the game on the shoulders of Captain Bill Guerin who came up with the big shootout goal to tie things up. Finally in round 6, Mike Sillinger scored and DP stopped Dean McAmmond for the Islanders 3-2 OT shootout win last night. Big win for the Orange and Blue who historically struggle vs speedy Ottawa.
The boys head to the city tonight to try and continue their dominance of the Rangers this season, looking for their 4th straight win vs the Blueshirts. Good thing there’s no such thing as a “Senators-hangover”…I hope. If you’re in the city, don’t forget about The Boss at the NHL Store today from 4-6pm before the game. I’ll be out watching the game and Thursday Night Football with the boys, so no live blog tonight unless Tommy can update.
