Blogging about the New York Islanders, the NHL and everything else hockey
In the middle of a dreary Islanders season, we wanted to share some good Isles vibes on a hockeyless Monday. Doesn’t get much better than this moment from Dave Volek in 1993! Thanks to pens91 for this post on YouTube.
According to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Sidney Crosby returns to action for the Penguins tonight.
A few shifts. Maybe not even that.
In Sidney Crosby’s mind, he and right winger Marian Hossa won’t have any trouble clicking as linemates now that they will finally get a chance to try.
“I don’t see it being too much time at all,” Crosby said yesterday after announcing that he will return to the lineup tonight when the Penguins play the New York Islanders at Mellon Arena.
He has missed the past seven games and 28 of the past 31 because of a high ankle sprain.
As the Islanders try to play spoiler vs the first place Penguins, without Mike Comrie who will miss at least one game.
From what I gathered, Mike Comrie does have an injury to the hip and will indeed miss the game tomorrow – what happens after that depends on how fast whatever the injury is heals.
Hey all, NO time whatsoever today to do a proper write up of the latest Isles’ loss but I wanted to share with you the video of Mike Comrie dropping the gloves last night with Maxime Talbot plus the game highlights. I was out apartment hunting and missed the game, Isles apparently got screwed by a quick whistle and the game tying goal was waived off with just 0.4 seconds to play. Awful. What else can go wrong for this team?
TONIGHT! (tonight..tonight..) LIVE! (live..live..) It’s a battle to the DEATH! (death..death..)
OK, not really. But “cage match” certainly sounds a lot cooler than “internet radio show”, especially when it’s said in a “monster truck announcer” voice.
One of my favorite hockey websites (don’t call it a blog) out there is LCS Hockey. LCS started as a just an online newsletter back in 1994 that I stumbled across during some of my earliest trips on the information superhighway. The newsletter ended in 1999 but the site re-launched in 2002 with a more traditional website format. The LCS Empire has now expanded to their own radio show, and Michael Dell has invited me to be on the show tonight.
Look at the pretty banner they made just for little ol’ me! You can catch the show LIVE tonight at 9:30pm or click the same link to catch a replay of the show after it airs.
Michael Dell and co-host Jim Iovino are Pittsburgh Penguins fans, so expect some discussion about Sid the Kid’s injury before I ask them if they’d like to sign Ty Conklin to a 15-year $67 million dollar contract.
And if you’re not familiar with LCS Hockey, take a look at their classic newsletters or something more recent like their take on All-Star Snubs, or this follow up post where they throw all the NHL players out of the All-Star game and replace them with sitcom characters. I can’t believe Dell resisted the temptation to throw Alf on the squad, he’s a sucker for furry, cat-eating aliens.
Great fight last night between Jarkko Ruutu of Pittsburgh and our least favorite Maple Leaf, Darcy Tucker. Tucker gets pummeled repeatedly. Awesome with a capital “A”.
Gonna keep it brief this morning, headed to good ol’ Roosevelt Field this afternoon to fight the hordes finish my shopping and then headed to the Coliseum for tonight’s game.
Basically, there are two ways the Caps can head into the Christmas break – on a high note and no more than seven points out of eighth place in the Eastern Conference or… well… “other.” Tonight’s game on Long Island, of course, will go a long way towards determining how merry the Caps’ collective Christmas is, and while it’s never easy to win on the road in the NHL, the Caps have a lot going for them tonight.
Now you have a sense of what fathers feel like when their sons play for the first time in the National Hockey League. Fathers are very proud, and I’m no different. My wife [Sandra] and younger son will be flying down to Tampa to watch him play tomorrow night, and we’ll all get together for a Christmas celebration.
That’s all I got this morning – check the recommended links to the right for some more reading materials. See you late tonight or tomorrow morning for the Isles/Cap recap as the Isles head into the short holiday break (Jason Blake and Toronto come into town the day after Christmas).
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.
Just posted on NewYorkIslanders.com. More on Simon later tonight when I get home.
This afternoon, the New York Islanders released the following pair of statements from owner Charles Wang and veteran forward Chris Simon. As the statements indicate, Simon has been granted some time away from the team.
From Charles Wang:
“The actions of Chris Simon on Saturday do not reflect what the New York Islanders stand for. They were reckless, potentially dangerous and against our team concept of grit, character and heart.
“We know Chris as a respected teammate and as a gracious man away from the playing surface and believe strongly that he has earned our continued support. The Islanders are going to provide some time for Chris away from the team and give him the counseling he needs and the compassion he deserves. When Chris is completely ready, he will be a member of our team again.”
From Chris Simon:
“I want to start off by making clear that there is no excuse for my actions on Saturday night and I apologize to everyone involved.
“The Islanders and I agree that the right thing to do is for me to take some time away from the team. I have enjoyed a long career achieving my dream of being a player in the National Hockey League and I’m proud of my accomplishments. But I acknowledge that time and assistance is needed before I return to the game.
“I want to thank the Islanders for providing the environment for me to become a better player and person, and our fans for their support along the way.”
Isles dropped their second game in a row last night vs. the Penguins. Even up they played pretty solid, but 6 Penguins powerplays kept the Isles on their heels, and the Isles couldn’t generate enough opportunities with the 2 powerplay chances they had. Their second powerplay of the game came with less than four minutes left in the game and was a pathetic 2 minutes of hockey generating no good scoring chances.
The Penguins are 4th in the league with 99 powerplays, the Islanders 2nd to last with just 65. Same as last year – Pens near the top, Isles near the bottom, and when these two teams play it’s so blindingly obvious how Team Crosby gets all the calls. The zebras are in cahoots with the Penguins, ignoring those (2) too many men penalties that should have been called.
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