On the Islanders Beat

For those who lament the passing of old-time hockey toughness, just watch Brendan Witt and appreciate all the things he does from game to game to help the Islanders win and to set a standard of effort for his teammates. One night he’s roughing up Jaromir Jagr in the Isles’ shutout win over the Rangers, and the next night, he’s down on the ice blocking three Ottawa shots with his body during a five-on-three power play.

“It’s just one of those things you’ve got to do, sacrifice your body, block shots, especially five-on-three,” Witt said the other day. “At least, try to get a piece of the puck because you know they’re just going to tee it up for one-timers. It’s part of the dirty work. The puck’s like a magnet to me when I’m defending. It’s okay. That’s part of my job is to block shots.”

Sometimes, Witt’s style is reminiscent of the way the great football player Jim Brown would pick himself up slowly after a tackle, looking as if he were exhausted on the way back to the huddle and then just run over guys as soon as the ball was snapped. Of course, with the new rules, Witt has been forced to rein in some of his aggressive instincts in terms of fighting and taking penalties. When he baited both Brendan Shanahan and Colton Orr into dropping the gloves while he took their punches in the Dec. 19 win over the Rangers at the Garden to create power plays, that was the epitome of taking one for the team.

The bruising from Shanahan’s punch, which opened a cut that required stitches has almost faded, and the 31-year-old Witt said he actually feels pretty good for this point in the season. He sometimes skips the morning skates to save himself for the games, but I saw him sneaking out of the trainer’s room Wednesday morning in Ottawa after receiving treatment. So, it’s not like he’s 100 percent.

Witt’s toughness has been a positive influence on all the Islanders, but his defensive partner, Radek Martinek, might have taken it to heart as much as anyone. Martinek won Witt’s respect the night after Christmas when he took a stick above the right eye from the Rangers’ Michael Nylander that opened a gusher of blood near the end of the second period, but he returned to play in the third period after it was stitched up.

“He’s been a warrior,” Witt said of Martinek. “He’s played hard. Even though he could barely see out of his eye the other night, he came back, and even [the next night in Ottawa], it was still a bit of a problem. But I give him a lot of credit for battling back. That’s what we get paid to do is battle through injuries and play injured. It’s unfortunate, a high-stick, but he understands it’s part of the game and just go back to work.”

I asked Witt how dangerous it is to play with fresh stitches on such a grizzly wound as Martinek did when he played without even a visor for protection in Ottawa. “It [stinks],” Witt said, or a word to that effect. “I’ve had it. It’s swollen. As much Vaseline as they put on it, it still gets bumped and it’s still sore and you still feel it. You take a couple of Advil and try to deal with it as best as possible. It’s always going to be a nagging bump. I wasn’t sure if he was going to wear a visor or not. I asked him how he was, and he said, ‘I’m fine.’ So, I said, ‘That’s great.’ It was gritty.”

Unfortunately for Martinek, he was diagnosed with a broken foot suffered in the Rangers game and was placed on injured reserve yesterday for up to four weeks while it heals. So, that means he played the entire game against Ottawa on a broken foot. Allan Rourke has been called up from Bridgeport to take Martinek's place.

Without knowing how Martinek's injury will affect the defensive pairings, Witt will continue to line up against the other team’s top line in most games, and sometimes, Sean Hill, another old-school tough guy, is going to get a piece of that action. The Islanders may not have the swiftest corps of defensemen, but Witt said they can pound on the other team’s stars like a boxer going to the body and wear them down. If the Islanders get to the playoffs, that’s exactly the kind of thing that can help them slow down more skilled teams.

It was coach Ted Nolan who really pushed for the Isles to sign Witt last summer at a time when some talent experts throughout the NHL and even in the Isles’ organization questioned what he could bring to the table at this stage of his career. Nolan couldn’t be happier with the result.

“I think the way Brendan plays sets a tone for all of us to follow,” Nolan said. “He plays with his heart on his sleeve and he gives everything. It doesn’t matter the score, it doesn’t matter the opposition, it doesn’t matter what game. It starts to rub off on people. Jason Blake does the same thing. There’s a number of people that do the same thing. But as much as the coach wants to say this and say that, when your teammates are doing that on a regular basis, it’s kind of like, ‘I should do it, too.’”

NOLAN’S APOLOGY: The day after the Isles’ 2-0 loss to Ottawa, Nolan apologized to the team for taking an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that was tacked on to the end of the two-minute five-on-three they received from referee Eric Furlatt. The Senators scored the clinching second goal with one second left in the bench minor. “When a guy asks you three times and puts his hand up to his ear, obviously, he wants to hear what you said, so, I told him,” Nolan said of his exchange with Furlatt. “But I apologized to the team for losing a little bit of control once in a while. Those things happen. We live and move on and, hopefully, it doesn’t happen again.”

LONG ISLAND HOCKEY: Center Mike Sillinger and assistant coach Dan Lacroix remained behind for an extra day in Ottawa to watch their sons play in an international junior hockey tournament with more than 500 teams. Two top teams from the Island, the Gulls and the Royals, were among those competing.

Sillinger’s 9-year-old son plays for the Gulls in AAA Atoms. Sillinger said he thought his son’s team was going to face a Russian team with 10-year-old goaltender Maxim Tretiak, grandson of the great Vladislav Tretiak. I know because I stopped in at my hotel bar in Ottawa for a postgame beer and sat at the opposite end from a loud group of parents who obviously were enjoying themselves.

One of them walked over and tapped me on the shoulder. It was Sillinger. I hadn’t noticed him, but he came over to say hello and tell me what was going on. He said this is the fifth hockey tournament his son has played in with the Gulls this season. Sillinger also was able to attend the first one in Boston, and he said he loves the enthusiasm of the other parents and appreciates the opportunity for his son on Long Island.

The Islanders are Sillinger’s NHL-record 12th team. Of all the places he’s been, Sillinger said, only St. Louis has a top junior program comparable to what he has found on Long Island. High praise indeed.