Friday night, the Yanks don’t play until 10p, so how about the Islanders Army “Bag of Pucks” link dump makes an appearance this summer?
Too. Good. To be true.
The NHL filed court papers Wednesday that included a draft letter from commissioner Gary Bettman proposing discipline against Madison Square Garden, L.P., that could lead to suspension or termination of its ownership of the Rangers.
In its court filing, the NHL asked a judge to agree Madison Square Garden breached its contract by challenging league rules.
This may be the best move Gary Bettman has made in his entire tenure as commish.
Speaking of polls, the HockeyFights.com 2007-08 Awards are now open for voting as well. Where else can you vote for “Fight of the Year“, “TKO/KO of the Year“, “Best Team Feud“, or “Best Punching Power“? All those official NHL Awards are for sissies!
The Isles are not very well represented here, in fact they’ve been nominated for “Least Enforcing Team“. But you will find the NYI/NYR Pre-season brawl, and Simon stomping on Rutuu in the “Most Old-School Moment” category. You can browse the categories and videos, but you’ll need a HockeyFights.com forum username and password to vote.
Last home game tonight for the Islanders as they start a home and home with the Rangers. After tomorrow night’s game, it’s off to the golf course early Saturday morning. Hopefully the Rags will get bounced in the first round and join us on the links the following weekend. Disappointing end to a season that started off pretty good. This home and home series was supposed to have major playoff implications (like keeping the Rags OUT of the playoffs).
Hey Garth, what do you think of the Rangers?
Amen brother, amen. They can make the playoffs but we all know they still suck.
We haven’t covered the possible Yankee Stadium NHL outdoor game very much here this season, despite talks about the game coming closer and closer to reality. That’s because every article about the game has the Rangers scheduled for the game in permanent marker, while the list of possible opponents is written in pencil, with the Islanders at the bottom of that list. The NHL (and NBC) suits feel a NYI/NYR outdoor game is too NYC-centric and won’t draw any interested outside of the metro area. It’s really not looking good for the Isles to take part in this game if it happens. However, the Isles now have one notable supporter in their corner - ESPN’s “Bucci” - John Buccigross makes a case to include the Islanders in his latest blog column. We’ll take all the support we can get, even if half of Bucci’s support is based on pity for our fallen franchise.
The Rangers-Islanders rivalry would light up a rink, burst through the television screen and earn very good ratings. It is one of those regular-season games that truly feels like a playoff game. Thats what makes any outdoor game better. A hard-hitting, meaningful battle is the cherry on top of all the Yankee Stadium marketing the game will receive.
You might find two other U.S.-based teams with a rivalry close to Islanders-Rangers, but you wont find a better one. And having the game in New York makes the most sense if its Islanders-Rangers, as much sense as a Blackhawks-Red Wings game in Wrigley Field or a Penguins-Flyers game at Penn State.
It is good sense and would help a franchise in need of a little help, a franchise that has a passionate owner who had a passionate-GM-turned-good-television-analyst make very bad trades. Sports are meant to be played, watched and experienced with passion, but administered with cold, calculating thought. The Islanders learned that the hard way.
Cmon, NHL, give the Islanders a break. Give them a reason to believe, some faith, some hope. Everybody will win. Even Oleg Kvasha.
DP is back after dealing with the passing of a family member, but according to Newsday’s Greg Logan he’ll be riding the pine tonight as Coach Nolan rolls the dice with Wade Dubielewicz versus the Rangers.
Islanders coach Ted Nolan made the boldest decision of his two-season tenure this morning when he announced backup Wade Dubielewicz will be in net against the Rangers tonight at Nassau Coliseum with franchise player Rick DiPietro fresh and ready to go on the bench.
Now that’s more like it. As has been the case many times over the years, the Islanders rose to the challenge and beat the Rangers on the road last night, ending the Rangers’ four-game winning streak and possibly putting an end to their own slump.
Jeff Tambellini, the young forward who has bounced between Bridgeport and Long Island the last two seasons, sealed the victory for the Islanders when he beat Henrik Lundqvist in a shoot-out. The Isles also got goas from Bergenheim, Hunter, and Comeau.
Wade Doobie was one of the big stories of the game, stepping in for an absent Rick DiPietro and beating the Rangers for the second time in two career starts. He shut out the Rangers in the last week of the season when DP was hurt last year. Doobie may be in net again tomorrow night when the Isles face the Rangers at the Coliseum as DP may still me on leave to be with his family.
The win, coupled with a Flyers loss, moves the Isles within three points of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with 14 games to go.
On the heels of the NY Knicks sexual discrimination lawsuit, the NY Rangers have settled their own lawsuit out of court on the down low.
Madison Square Garden settled Wednesday with a former New York Rangers cheerleader who sued for sexual discrimination, avoiding the potential of another embarrassing trial.
Courtney Prince was fired in January 2004. She later claimed MSG failed to properly protect the dozen skating cheerleaders from being touched inappropriately when they went into the crowd at games and required them to be glamorous and to wear padded bras, fake eyelashes and hairpieces.
The “Rangers City Dancers” were a knock-off of the Islanders’ Ice Girls. Unfortunately for the Rangers, the dirty old executives at MSG couldn’t control themselves around the lovely lasses - buying the underage girls drinks, and propositioning others for threesomes. With two sexual harassment suits at MSG being settled in the last month, I’m about to go apply for a job over there in drag and then GET PAID!!
We’ll get to recapping last night’s Isles/Sabres tilt later, but after another loss I figured Isles fans could use a little pick me up this morning. This classic Rangers video from 1979 is sure to put a smile on any Islanders fan’s face…and quickly end up tormenting the inboxes of all your Ranger fan friends. While the Isles were busy starting their dynasty in 1979-80, the Rangers were busy, ummm….shakin’ their money maker in Sasson Jean commercials. Nice moves boys. Oooh-la-la indeed!
Of course it seems the spirit of 1979 is still strong with the current day Rangers - with last year’s Shanny Dances With The Trannies incident and Jagr dressing in drag, it’s only a matter of time until Avery and Lundqvist are caught at the Blue Oyster Bar.
Well it had to happen sooner or later, you didn’t really expect the Isles to sweep all 8 games from the Rangers this season - did you? An outplayed and outhustled Islanders team fell 4-2 to the Rangers last night at the Garden. The Isles lack of offense continues to be an issue with two or fewer goals in 11 straight games now. One of last night’s Islanders goals was actually put in the net by a Ranger player for us, thanks!
The Isles powerplay which had gotten off to a fast start has disappeared - 0/4 in the first period and 1/5 in the game. While the Rangers were 2/5 with the man advantage and outshot the Isles 31-24. The Ranger$ $tar$ decided to showed up for this game with goals from Drury, Gomez, and Jagr.
With Sean “The Pest” Avery out, Ryan Hollweg took up the role of Rangers A-Hole last night threatening to rip the stitches out of Radek Martinek’s face.
Martinek, a non-threatening defenseman, received 15 stitches Wednesday night after being cut by a skate blade during the Islanders’ 3-2 shootout win over Ottawa.
“Give Martinek credit, playing after an injury like that,” Islanders coach Ted Nolan said. “In this game, you have to have some respect. When a guy like Hollweg tries to scratch an open cut on someone’s face, that’s not professional. It’s not a classy thing to do.”
“He said he is going to take my stitches out. I think that was stupid,” said Martinek, a 5-foot-11, 200-pound defenseman.
Martinek added that no damage was done, but said he had never seen a player act in such a way.
“No, no. Never, never,” he said. “I think he could show a little bit of respect, but he didn’t. I cannot respect him.”
Stay classy NYR, stay classy. After 4 games in the first two months of the season, these teams won’t see each other again until March.
Isles head down to Atlanta Saturday night. I’ll be in VT snowboarding, hopefully Tommy can hook you guys up with a recap Sunday morning. Let it snow!!
