Tag Archive for 'brendan-witt'
Ahh, Kid’s Opening Day at the Coliseum. A beautiful afternoon. School is out. Free Guerin jerseys. A dozen or more fuzzy mascots acting silly. A perfect way to make some new young Islander fans.
Five game misconducts. Brendan Witt’s head bleeding on the ice. The Isles leaving Joey Mac in there to get shellacked 7-1 while DP keeps the water bottles full. Were the Isles trying to make fans for life, or just scar the kids for life?
No game highlights worth showing. Just video of yesterday’s shennanigans via HockeyFights.com.
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.
When it rains, it pours. More bad injury news from Islanders Country.
If nine NHL-caliber defenseman seemed like a crowd when the Islanders broke training camp, it’s turned out to be just enough now. Defenseman Brendan Witt has been ruled out for the next two to four weeks with the sprained medial collateral knee ligament he suffered Tuesday night against Philadelphia.
Wild game last night. Before I could even sit down and turn the TV on, it was 3-1 Atlanta and DP was on the bench. Smart move by Nolan yanking DP to wake the team up. If this was last year’s squad, I would have just changed to channel to watch Nanny 911. To their credit, the Isles stayed focused and got themselves back into the game.
Miroslav Satan had a huge shorthanded goal in the early 2nd to get the team rolling. Later in the second, Jason Blake (who else?!) scored to tie the game up.
Atlanta’s leading scorer, Marian Hossa left the game in the second with an apparent knee injury as he slammed into the boards after a Freddy Meyer tripping penalty. It looked bad as Hossa rolled around on the ice for a few minutes. Apparently it wasn’t that bad, as Hossa returned for the third and quickly (:19) scored to give the Thrashers the lead again.
The Isles fought back again though, as Campoli deflected a Meyer shot during a 4-on-4 for his first goal of the season. The puck went in off Campoli’s skate, so there was a video review but no kicking motion, so the goal stood.
In OT, Kovalchuk scored his second of the game on a nasty wrister/snap shot. I’m not surprised. I had a bad feeling about OT. Atlanta is fast and the 4-on-4 OT plays to their strength.
Coach Nolan was upbeat about the loss.
Reflecting on the comeback, Nolan couldn’t help but smile as he said: “It’s a first-place team and you’re down 3-0 in their rink with a packed house. A point is like a win on the road.”
Better than no points, that’s for sure. Other game notes:
- Brendan Witt left the game early in the first with an injury and did not return. He’s listed as day to day with an upper body injury.
- It’s so good to have Radek Martinek back. He looked solid and had a big hit on Kovalchuk in the third.
- DP is expected to be back in net tonight as the Islanders host Buffalo. It’s 1972 Retro Night as the Isles will rock old-school 1972 jerseys and Eddie Westfall will drop the ceremonial face-off.
- Holy Iron Batman! Trent Hunter 2 posts, and I think the Isles hit about 5 overall. All night long you heard “TINK!”
Video highlights from NHL.com
Be sure to catch Witt thumping Sid the Kid at around the :45 second mark.
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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to Islanders Army readers. My brother got me tickets to tonight’s game, so I’ll be at the barn as the Isles and Rangers faceoff for Round 3. Which Islander is scoring a hat trick tonight?
First let’s recap last weekend…Isles come out F-L-A-T against the defending champion Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night and lose 5-1. Powerplays were the difference in Carolina, as the Isles were 0/5 and Carolina 4/9. Highlights (not many NYI highlights here…)
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Brendan Witt fought twice in that game. Thanks to HockeyFights.com, here’s the Witt/Scott Walker tango. HockeyFights.com visitors have voted Walker the winner (79%).
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The next night back home, the Isles rebounded again (I think they are 5 for 5 on the second night of back to back games) as DiPietro posted his third shutout of the season, 4-0 over the Blue Jackets. The powerplays were again the story of the game as the Isles were 1/5 and killed off all 10 Columbus powerplays. Waaaay too many chances given up by the Orange and Blue, but at least they showed up defensively.
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Islanders are currently 18-13-3 39 points, 7th in the Conference. They trail the Rangers by 1 point (3 games in hand), and the first place Devils by 2 points (1 game in hand). Rangers come into tonight’s game losers of 5 straight games, let’s make it 6.
NewYorkIslanders.com NYI/NYR preview
NY Post NYI/NYR Preview
Happy Thanksgiving everyone, hope you had a great holiday. The boys in blue and orange certainly did, winning all three games of the holiday homestand. The holidays and/or the wins also brought out an improvement in attendance for all three games, including a season high of 15,625 Friday afternoon vs. the Penguins.
Unfortunately, the third win vs. Washington ended on a sour note when Isles’ leading scorer Alexei Yashin was injured in the third period after a knee on knee collision with the Capitals’ Matt Bradley. Yash had an MRI on Monday, and will be out for 2-4 weeks. Yashin has been a quick healer in the past, so hopefully the diagnosis is correct and he won’t miss much more time than that.
Back to the games, last Wednesday night the Islanders came out incredibly strong against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes. The Isles outshot Carolina 20-1 in the first period, with Carolina’s only shot coming with less than 2 minutes in the period on net a harmless dump in that Ricky played into the corner. Shawn Bates scored to give the Isles a 1-0 lead after one. The Isles peppered Hurricanes’ goalie John Grahame with 17 more shots in the 2nd, but could not increase their lead. If this was last year’s team, you could have seen the third period collapse coming. But this is the 2006-07 Isles and Blake scored his team leading 12th goal of the year 59 seconds into the third to give the Isles some breathing room at 2-0. Yash scored a wraparound to make it 3-0, and the Isles won 4-2 as they outshot Carolina 48-15. I can’t find it anywhere, but I think the announced attendance was 13,000+.
Isles/Canes highlights
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Friday afternoon the Islanders played a matinée vs. the Pittsburgh Penguins. Pens’ superstar/Olympic diver/serial whiner Sydney Crosby missed his 2nd straight game with a groin pull. Fans looking forward to seeing Sid the Kid should not fret, as the Islanders and Penguins will face each other four times in the next three weeks thanks to the NHL’s wonderful unbalanced schedule. Richard Park and Rick DiPietro were the first period heroes, helping to kill another 5-on-3 power play against the Islanders. Park broke his stick early in the shift and then proceeded to block two Penguins shots from the point with his body. The Penguins were 0-9 on the powerplay as the Islanders defense, especially shorthanded, is playing very well. Yashin netted the game’s first goal early in the second and then Satan and Hill scored in the third to give the Isles a 3-0 lead. Good to see Satan scoring again – he had a couple of empty netters last week, but it’s been a while since he scored on an actual goalie. The Pens’ other wonder-kid, Evgeni Malkin broke up DP’s shutout with about 8 minutes left to play. Brendan Witt drilled Malkin later in the game with a solid, clean hit that sent Malkin right to the dressing room. Word from the Pens was that Malkin had his bell rung, and his previously injured shoulder was just fine. ‘Atta boy Witter! As mentioned, the Isles had a season high attendance of 15,625 for the 3-1 win.
Isles/Pens highlights
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Finally, the Islanders wrapped up the homestand on Saturday night as Bob Bourne was inducted into the Islanders Hall of Fame (photos). In addition to the pre-game ceremonies, the team sported “BB” patches on their jerseys. Jason Blake continued his scoring assault, notching the game’s first two goals – one in the first, and one in the second. Richard Park scored late in the second giving the Isles a 3-0 lead. Washington’s own wonder-kid, Alexander Ovechkin scored a PP goal early in the third to cut the lead to 3-1, but that’s as close as they would come. Trent Hunter iced the game with a shorthanded goal late in the third for the 4-1 final. Another strong job by the Isles PK as the Capitals were 1/8 with the man advantage. Announced attendance was 13,000+.
Isles/Caps highlights
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The Isles play the Penguins (10-8-4) (again) tonight in Pittsburgh, their first game without Yashin. Eric Boguniecki was called up from Bridgeport to replace Yashin. Boguniecki had 3 goals and 5 assists in 12 games for the Sound Tigers. I think it’s a slightly interesting move considering the future of the Islanders, Jeff Tambellini and Robert Nilsson are leading the Sound Tigers in scoring. It’s apparent that Coach Nolan or someone at Bridgeport feels these two aren’t quite ready to contribute consistently at the NHL level. Personally, I’d like to see their speed out there over Boguniecki’s veteran experience.
Good. It would have been real tough to make excuses for losing to the Flyers (3-11-1) after a players only meeting, and Coach Nolan shaking up the lines. The Islanders came out and controlled the game, led by Yashin, Blake and their new linemate Chris Simon. Yash had 2 goals, Blake 2 assists, and Simon 1 assist. Richard Park on the 4th line scored his 2nd goal of the season. DP played solid with 32 saves and was just 3 minutes away from a shutout when Gagne scored for the Flyers.
Shortly after the Gagne goal, DP made a HUGE save to keep it 3-1. He made the initial save but the puck got behind him. It just sat there for 2-3 seconds. A Flyer behind the net saw the puck and was trying to get at it, but DP finally figured out where it was, reached behind himself, and covered up. Scary moment. It would have been 3-2 and the Isles would be on the verge of a monumental collapse.
There was some “Old Time Hockey” out there – Asham scrapped with Mike Richards in the first. It was Asham’s 2nd fight of the season. Then at the end of the 2nd period there was some fisticuffs with Witt and Ben Eager dropping the gloves, while Hilbert and Mike Richards picked up roughing minors.
I couldn’t find the exact attendance, but this report from Philly.com says there were a lot of no-shows, a lot of people booing the Flyers, and a lot of people leaving after the Isles were up 3-0 after two periods.
Video highlights from NHL.com
This is getting ridiculous, Ted Nolan needs to sit the team down and make them watch the opening scene of Slapshot.
What is high-sticking?
High-sticking happen when the guy take the stick, you know, and he go like that. You don’t do that. Oh, no. Never, never.
Why not?
Against the rules.
For the third straight game the Islanders could not stay out of the penalty box and were shorthanded throughout the game, including another 5 on 3 penalty kill. As a result they were outshot 40-25 and allowed two powerplay goals in a 4-2 loss to the Kings last night. Despite the twelve penalties, the Islanders were still competitive in this game and came within inches of tying this game with just two minutes to play. Jason Blake had a partial breakaway, beat Kings’ goalie Dan Cloutier, but rang the shot off the crossbar and the right side post. The goal judge thought it went in, but the referee waved it off and video review showed that it hit both posts and came out. The Islanders 0-3 start is the worst in franchise history.
Adding insult to injury, former Islander Brent Sopel scored the game winner late in the second period beating DiPietro high to the glove side on the powerplay. Sopel’s goal was his second of the season, matching his entire output for the Islanders in 68 games last season. Sopel had an assist too.
Richard Park scored his first goal as an Islander 1:16 into the game on a sharp angle shot from Cloutier’s right that found it’s way into the back of the net. The Kings tied it up when a Michael Cammalleri snapshot from the top of the circle beat Ricky on the glove side. The Islanders defense was out of position on the goal, but Ricky should have stopped that shot, he had plenty of time to square up and get into position. A rebound goal gave the Kings a 2-1 lead, and then with 38 seconds left in the period Alexi Yashin scored his first goal of the season to tie the game at two after one period. Yash’s goal was a slapper that trickled through Cloutier’s five-hole.
The second was mostly uneventful, save for Sean Avery spearing Brendan Witt (and getting called for just a slash) who retaliated and took the extra penalty about five minutes in. Then with just 6 seconds left in the period and the Kings on the powerplay, DiPietro made a save, the Kings gathered the rebound and found an open Sopel at the top of the circles for a one-timer and a 3-2 lead after two periods. Another goal that Ricky probably should have stopped – he was visibly upset as they headed into the locker room.
In the third, five more penalties including an incredibly pointless one by Yashin with less than two minutes to play. That left the Islanders shorthanded and pushing hard for the tie at the same time, which led to a bad clearing pass and a 2 on 0 for the Kings as Frolov and Brown found themselves all alone on DiPietro’s doorstep for the insurance goal.
Also of note was Trent Hunter missing a mostly open net on a 2 on 1 with Park – in the second or third period, I forget which. The Islanders had seven powerplay chances of their own but came up empty.
The Islanders lead the league in penalties with 29 after four games. Not helping things is their own powerplay, 1 for 19. Things don’t get any easier tonight, as the Isles play the Anaheim Ducks (3-0), picked by many experts to win their division and advance deep into the playoffs. Selanne (1G, 4A) has re-found his scoring touch in Anaheim, they’ve added Pronger to their blue line, and Giguere has been playing like it’s 2003 again. The Isles will definitely need to stay out of the box tonight to avoid coming home 0-4. Quick, send one of the rookies to Blockbuster to go rent Slapshot.
[Tom's Comments] California sucks. The weather is fantastic, the tacos are aplenty, and the Islanders got hit by a bus. A 4-2 loss to the Kings dropped the Nassau Coliseum Heroes to 0-3, the first time in a rollercoaster history the squad has lost its first three games. Mighty Jason Blake ripped the would-be tying goal off the crossbar AND the post in the third period. Onto Anaheim. If the Isles go 0 for 4 on this trip, we’ll have to say they pulled an October A-Rod.
Video Highlights from NHL.com
