Our suspicions became reality yesterday when the Islanders announced franchise goaltender Rick DiPietro will sit out the remainder of the season to take care of his twice surgically repaired bum left knee.
The news comes as the Islanders have a vice-like grip on the worst record in the league with just 29 points, 10 points worse than the nearest competition in Ottawa and Atlanta. Yann Danis and Peter Mannino will share the goalkeeping duties until Joey MacDonald comes back in about a month from his groin injury.
The season has been ugly by any measure for DiPietro and the team. The Islanders haven’t won a game in 2009 (0-7-1), have scored the fourth fewest goals (113) and allowed the third most (163). Do they play hard? Sure they do. Are they any good? Hell no.
But this is just one season and it can be forgiven if the team progresses the next few years and is actually building a winner, something GM Garth Snow seems convinced about. The major concern here shouldn’t be the 2008-09 season. In fact, a lousy record will give the Isles a better shot at bigtime prospects John Tavares and Victor Hedman in the draft.
No, the real concern is the fate of Ricky DiPietro, the face of the franchise and, more importantly, its largest investment.
DiPietro is just three years into a record-setting 15-year, $67 million contract. In the past two years, he’s had two surgeries on his left knee, and a procedure on his left hip that ended his 2007-08 season early. He has played in just five games this year.
The Islanders and their physicians say the knee should get better with rest and allow DP to make a healthy return in the 2009-10 season. They better be right. The Islanders have spent DP’s entire career trying to convince fans that DP is the building block to a championship club. He has been amazing in spurts, average in others, and now legitimately carries the label “oft-injured.”
Since joining the club in the 2000-01 season, DP has gone 117-112 with 8 ties and 21 overtime losses. He has posted a 2.79 GAA and a .905 save percentage. By comparison, Roberto Loungo, the keeper DP esssentially replaced, has a career GAA of 2.59 and a save percentage of .919. Surefire Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur has a career GAA of 2.20 and a .913 save percentage. Statistics can be tricky because so much of a keeper’s performance depends upon his teammates and the system in which he plays. Still, DP’s numbers seem like an accurate representation of his career – good but not great.
DP is 27. Are his best years ahead of him? They should be. Which means he has time to become the dominant keeper the Islanders envision. But these injuries are a major concern and are threatening to derail not just a promising career but the entire organization’s strategy.
After 45 shots and 7 powerplays, it’s a miracle the Islanders even got a point last night in Vancouver. With the exception of DP, the team did not look a whole lot better than they did the previous night during their shutout loss to Edmonton. Fortunately, DP played amazing last night and the Isles were able to get a point out of red-hot Vancouver who is 12-0-2 in their last 14 home games.
During a 19-shot first period barrage, Marcus Naslund netted one about midway through the period for the 1-0 Vancouver lead. Captain Bill Guerin tied it up in the second with a little help from video review to confirm. Shots were 31-16 in favor of Vancouver after 2 periods, thanks in part to 6 Canuck powerplays.
The teams traded gift goals in the third – Canuck goalie (and ex-Islander) Roberto Luongo mishandled the puck behind the net and Blake Comeau darted in to bang it home for the 2-1 Islanders lead. Just about a minute and a half later the Canucks tied it up though on a slot snap shot by Daniel Sedin that DP was noticeably upset at himself for letting in.
That was the end of the scoring, until the shootout, where (ex-Islander) Trevor Linden scored in the 3rd round to give Vancouver the 1-0 edge. Miroslav Satan was the Isles’ last chance and he came through with a nifty move to beat Luongo and tie things up again. I was all confused at this point because A) it was 12:30am and B) it looked like Luongo made the save at first. Defenseman Alexander Elder scored for the Canucks in round 6, followed by Luongo stopping Trent Hunter for the 3-2 Vancouver shootout win.
One thing that bothered me about the shootout was the Islanders not getting Luongo to move around too much. Everyone just came right down the middle at him, made a quick deke or fake, and then shot. Satan was the only one to get Luongo to move one way, and the scored the other way.
Coach Nolan shuffled lines all night long, looking for some offense spark. That plan backfired as there was no spark, and not a lot of defense either last night.
Nolan responded by throwing out at least five new lines in the third period to generate an offensive spark.
Coming off a 4-0 shutout loss the previous night in Edmonton in which Nolan benched Ruslan Fedotenko in the third period and played Vasicek and Miroslav Satan sparingly, changes were assured. Nolan put that trio together on a sort of “Doghouse Line” and used them as the fourth line.
Comeau jumped into Fedotenko’s spot with Mike Sillinger and Trent Hunter, and Sean Bergenheim joined Andy Hilbert and Tim Jackman as the third line. Only the top line of Richard Park, Mike Comrie and Bill Guerin remained intact.
The Isles’ roadtrip continues Friday night in Calgary, and then concludes Sunday night in Ottawa.
For the latest in our Back In The Day series, which shines a spotlight on excerpts from old news articles about significant/interesting events in the past, we decided to take a look at the 1997 draft. At the time, the draft was regarded as one of the deepest ever. Some guy named Joe Thornton went first.
For Islander fans, this draft was all about a franchise goaltender not named Rick DiPietro. For more details, see this excerpt from a Toronto Globe and Mail story written by Gare Joyce and published in June 1997. One warning, this story contains quotes from Mike Milbury. I know some Isles fans are allergic to Mad Mike so I just wanted to give you all a head’s up:
NHL’s draft production lacks dramatics Islanders closest to dealing, but in end pick promising goalie, top-rated defenceman without making a trade
GARE JOYCE
The Globe and Mail
23 June 1997
All material copyright Thomson Canada Limited or its licensors. All rights reserved.
PITTSBURGH — By all estimations, the 1997 entry draft was the deepest in the past five years and the most uneventful in recent memory. Despite rumours of teams bidding to move up, of GMs covetous of Val d’Or goaltender Roberto Luongo, none of the top 20 picks in the draft were flipped for immediate help.
The closest thing to drama was provided by New York Islanders GM Mike Milbury, who owned his team’s pick at No. 4 over all and the next selection, acquired from Toronto along with Kenny Jonsson last year for Wendel Clark and Mathieu Schneider.
In Pittsburgh, in the days leading up to the draft, the air was thick with 100-per-cent humidity and talk of Milbury’s desire to flog one or both of the top choices.
“In a perfect world,” Milbury observed, “we would come out of the draft with a centre and a left wing.”
It was far from a perfect world for Milbury. The top three picks in the draft were all centres. With the first pick by virtue of the league’s worst record and a little luck in the lottery, Boston selected Sault Ste. Marie centre Joe Thornton, the only draft-eligible player on Canada’s team at the world junior tournament last winter.
With the next pick the San Jose Sharks selected Seattle Thunderbirds centre Patrick Marleau, rated as the No. 2 skater in North America by NHL Central Scouting. Then the Los Angeles Kings called Finnish centre Olli Jokinen, whose shaven pate was a reminder to his new employers that he has obligations outstanding with Finland’s military.
The wild card was Luongo. Florida GM Bryan Murray said: “He’s the best goaltending prospect in a long time and teams are placing more value than ever on goaltenders. They’ve recognized that you can’t win with average goaltending.”
“We knew about Luongo all along, but he really put on a show at the [Canadian Hockey League] prospects game,” Milbury said. “I saw him in the Quebec [Major Junior Hockey] League playoffs against Hull. He didn’t have a lot in front of him, but he was really sensational.”
Milbury dismissed the idea that it’s harder to scout a goaltender than other positions. “It’s not that complicated,” the Islander GM said. “It comes down to whether he gets in front of the puck. [Luongo] did.”
But it also sometimes comes down to need. Though Luongo was clearly the likely name to be called in the four-spot, the Islanders did not seem to have a conspicuous need at that position. The Isles rifled Toronto for netminder Eric Fichaud, a Leaf first-round pick in ‘94, in a deal for forward Benoit Hogue. Milbury also has Swede Tommy Salo contending for the top job. Thus it figured that teams would bid on Luongo.
Milbury wasted no time in announcing the selection of Luongo, but that didn’t necessarily undo the scenario. With the rights to Luongo, Milbury was in a position to make the pad-kickers sweat out their offers.
Before making the fifth pick, Milbury had a conversation at the Tampa Bay table with GM Phil Esposito. The floor hummed with speculation, but nothing transpired. Going to need, Milbury had to have been interested in Chris Gratton or Jason Wiemer. Nothing was worked out. After taking a timeout, Milbury went to the mike and selected Prince George defenceman Eric Brewer, the top-rated blueliner in the draft.
“We had talks about one thing last night,” Esposito said. “He turned it into something else at the last minute.”
Afterward, Milbury said he had talks with one team about his picks with “a premier centre-ice man” involved. Edmonton GM Glen Sather said that he had talked with Milbury, possibly about a deal involving both the fourth and fifth picks, and thus opened speculation about Jason Arnott as bait.
“My staff talked me out of it,” Milbury said of the mystery centre.
