Tag Archive for '2008-09'
The Islanders announced that Mike Sillinger will miss the rest of the season after having surgery on his hip for the second time in the last year. The veteran center and assistant captain played in just seven games this season after playing in just 52 last season.
I’m pretty sure this is the final year of Sillinger’s contract. If that’s the case, we’ve probably seen the last of the 37-year-old in an Islanders uniform. He’s been a nice player for the Isles since signing as a free agent before the 2006-07 season, scoring 42 goals and 87 points in 141 games.
What new in Islanders Country? Plenty, but none of it good. First off DP’s getting ANOTHER doctor’s opinion on his knee. The $67 Million Dollar Man has started just 5 games for us this season.
Next, one of the few bright spots this season – the emergence of Joey MacDonald as a solid netminder, hit a snag as Joey Mac was hurt just 6 minutes into last night’s game with the Rangers. There are rumors of the Isles talking to Doobie (who’s playing in Russia) about bringing him back.
And finally, another loss. To the Rangers, no less. After leading 1-0 after one period, two quick Ranger goals in the second doomed the Isles. Officially the NHL’s worst team, the Isles have just two wins since November 29th. Tavares or bust.
Oh Blakey, don’t say we didn’t warn you about taking the money and running to Toronto. I mean, yeah the guy’s got 4 million dollar bills lying around the house to dry his tears, but it starting to sound like 3 million and change, and you know…actually playing and not being booed isn’t so bad either. At $4 million, it’ll will be virtually impossible for Toronto to move him in the Salary Cap Era of the NHL.
Moments after hearing the news that he was to be benched for the second-time this season, Jason Blake erupted into a sequence of profanities, reports the National Post.
Blake sat out of last night’s game, a 4-3 loss to the Calgary Flames.
“I don’t know what’s going on … we’ll try to figure it out sometime today,” Blake told the paper.
Ex-Isle Mark Parrish was signed to Bridgeport a couple of weeks ago on a 25-game tryout basis. Being an AHL-only contract, he was free to sign with any NHL team and was picked up by the Dallas Stars earlier this week. Last night he made his Dallas debut netting a hat-trick in the Stars 5-2 win.
Mark Parrish had his sixth career hat trick in his Dallas debut and the Stars beat the Anaheim Ducks 5-2 on Friday night.
Parrish, who signed a one-year deal with Dallas on Wednesday, had two power-play goals and a breakaway tally in the first 26 minutes of play.
In their own building no less. Nice work boys. Thrashers tonight.
NICE! Now that’s a 3rd Jersey you can be proud to wear. Guerin’s “C” is a little big, but I can deal with it. At least they didn’t put everyone’s numbers on the front like the regular jerseys. It looks good…I’d say real good – but it looks a tiny bit odd because of the Reebok slim cut. I prefer the loose CCM cut over any Reebok jersey anyday. It’ll be interesting to see it in motion – Saturday night vs Montreal.
The geniuses at the NHL Marketing Department were at it again this weekend, with the debut of “Super Saturday” – all 30 teams playing on one night. Great concept, poor execution. Please tell me why they picked an October Saturday with College Football in full swing, the World Series going on, and no games on Versus? As a bonus, there were absolutely no games last night.
Had a family thing Saturday night, so all I saw were the late night highlights on the NHL network. There were quite a few from the Isles/Hurricanes matchup – 57 Islander shots, 54 saves by Cam Ward, a potential game-tying penalty shot with less than 1 second left in regulation, and this…BOOM!
Doug Weight absolutely crushed the ‘Canes rookie Brandon Sutter at center ice with a legal hit. Sutter was knocked unconscious, and spent a couple of nights in the hospital for observation. He’s been released. The hit started a lot of debating about the legality of the hit and what the NHL can do to protect players from hits like these. It certainly doesn’t help the NHL’s image when players are knocked out and taken off the ice like this, but I don’t know how you legislate this out of hockey. Making it some kind of referee’s judgment call on “intent” or “blow to the head” is just going to make it worse. One odd thing about this hit is that Sutter (6′3″) has 4 inches on Weight (5′11″), I expected the opposite when I looked this up.
Around the rink…
- Islanders 3rd jersey unveiling tonight at 5pm before the NYI/NYR game.
- DP out for tonight. He’s being checked out by team doctors today, and then the Isles will come back and tell us nothing. Unless they have to do something drastic like amputate a limb, he will be listed as day to day.
- And finally, speaking of new jerseys check out these sweet new sweaters for this year’s Winter Classic. Funny thing is, Chelios wore the same jersey in his rookie year back in 1926.
Hockey Blogosphere Celebrity James Mirtle has a new home, over at From The Rink where he will be the Manager of NHL blogs. New home, same Mirtle, same great content.
Mirtle put up the average age of all 30 NHL teams. For all the talk about the Isles’ youth movement, when you factor in the veterans like Guerin and Weight, the Isles’ are actually just about average, coming in at #14 at 28.18 years old.
1 DET 30.40
2 ANA 30.31
3 NJD 29.65
4 COL 29.64
5 OTT 29.39
14 NYI 28.18
26 NYR 27.08
27 LAK 26.24
28 CBJ 26.08
29 PHX 25.79
30 CHI 25.65
Busy at work. Here are the highlights from “Mike Riberio Night” at the Coliseum as the Stars’ winger put up 5 points last night with a goal and 4 helpers.
As always, check the Islanders Army recommended links to the right for the best of the hockey blogosphere today. You gotta see the Bruins’ Milan Lucic glass breaking hit.
Not a bad game from the Orange and Blue last night. Solid first and second periods leading to a 2-0 lead, Tampa comes storming back in the third to tie and Hunter responds with a rebound goal off a Tambellini shot. Unfortunately, the boys give that goal right back to the Lightning letting them earn a point for the night’s work. In OT, the Isles catch a break on a sloppy play by Kolzig and Nielsen and Hunter make them pay for it with the OT winna. Even better because I have Hunter in my Fanatsy Hockey league.
