On the Islanders Beat

Latest word is that former Gophers wing Kyle Okposo, after being scouted at the world junior hockey championships in the Czech Republic, probably will begin his pro career at Bridgeport (Conn.) in the American Hockey League in two weeks at a pro-rated salary of $62,500

This past week showed us why the Islanders need Dubie. When was the last time there was an Islanders goaltender with a .500 percentage or a winning record in a single season? Yes it is Garth Snow, but he did it in the 2001-2002 season. Snow's record at the end of that season was 10-7-2. So why is this so important? Let's remember a bit here. 2006, the backup was still Snow, but his record was 4-13-1. He was replaced the following year in 2007 by Mike Dunham, who did not make that much of a difference posting a 4-10-3 record. What's my point? The Islanders finally have a goaltender that can backup a team when their superstar goalie goes down. Dubielewicz career is short, but has a winning record at 11-7-1. Not bad, but you know that the players will be behind him if he is to be called upon once more.

If the US loses to Canada in the 10am game tomorrow, there is the possibility that Kyle can play for the Isles Saturday night in Colorado. Might make me want to side with Ted and root for Canada.

Mad Mike,
As much as it pains me to say it, unless the U.S. team has their own plane flying back to the States, the chances of Okposo getting to Denver from Prague in time for the game are nil.

With regard to 3 point games. Look at Toronto, they are having a subpar season to say the least yet they are right in the mix of the playoff race because they lead the league with 8 points in OT losses. Without that luxury there seson would be a lost cause. There are a few other teams as well such as Montreal & Calgary. In comparison the Islanders have only benefited twice by getting a point via the loss. Who would have thought that a few more losses would actually have helped (ha ha).

I am looking forward to a little revenge against the Panthers tonight. I was at the game in Florida and it was by far the Islanders worst performance all year.

Would it make sense to have Okposo play in Bridgeport until we return from this road trip? That's if the Isles plan to have him join the team.

Kyle will not be joining the team before a stint in Bridgeport. Unless I am way off base, I would bet anything he is in Bridgeport for the rest of the year. That's the Isles way!

Welcome back DP !!! Now we need Martinek!!!!

Not a bad idea coral...also, once he comes up he should stay up!!

Not for anything, but this turn around in the team's play coincides very nicely with the announcement on December 19 that KO was turning pro after the WJC. In their last 6 games since then, they are 5-1.

Did the idea of this kid coming up and taking someone's roster spot get them going? Did Ted and Garth tell the rest of the team that a 20-year old could step in and make this team better? Did that hurt the player's egos? Does that mean his impact once he is here could be even greater? I say let's find out!

by the way, where did LDK get that info?

505 - looks like we won't be able to boo Ryan Smyth on Saturday...he's out 8 weeks with a fractured ankle! I have to be honest, I am really glad we did not end up getting this guy signed to a long-term deal. He's getting older, and his production was only going to slip given how he plays.

505 .... I'm with you ... there is no way Kyle is going to be able to get from Prague to Denver in 24 hours in order to make at least a morning skate in Denver ... it would be useless to throw him out on the ice without at least being briefed and participating in the morning skate in Denver.

#1 .. My experience with flying between Europe and the US ... is that they only have flights in the morning and early afternoon. After 3pm you can forget about getting to USA via Europe.

Since the Canada / USA game doesn't start till 8pm local time (Isles site says 6pm .. but IIHF site says 8pm local time)... there is no way he is out of Czech on Friday night..

Figure at best after a good night's sleep he makes the 60mile drive to Prague on Saturday morning 7am local time / 11pm ET / 9pm MT (1 hour drive then 2 hours from arrival to take off for 3 hours at best) , then in all likely hood he has to grab a "Buddy Holly" plane to a city that flys to USA .... (Very rare there are direct Prague to USA flights availalbe) ... then figure it will be most likely Munich or Berlin (Guessing 1 hour short flight). Figure at best the connection wait will be another 2 hours because of customs and security, then from there it is about a 10 hour flight to a NY metro airport depending on air traffic into the region.

So from the time K.O. has left his hotel .. again .. figuring at 7am local time to the time he lands in NYC area ... he'd of been traveling for 16 hours ... that is without layovers ... that is best case scenario ... and highly unlikely. At this time at the earliest ET it is about 3pm / 1pm MT .. he goes through customs ... most of you know that coming into customs in a NY area airport during peak time takes about 30 minutes to an hour at best (3:30 or 4pm ET now) ... then he has to get his luggage ... from what I remember .. there is no auto luggage transfer from international to domestic. ... figure he just killed about 2 hours in the NYC area airport and met with a rep of the NYI (6pm ET) and on the move for 18 hours.

Assuming he gets a flight to Denver (about 1 hour wait before flight and then 3 1/2 hours in flight) it will be about 8:30 local time in Denver by the time he lands ... then getting his luggage ... another 30 minutes at best ... then a limo ride to the arena .. 30 minutes at best .... he just has enough time to welcome the Isles into the locker room after their victory of the Smythless Avs .... yesssss ... that disappoints the crap out of me ... I wanted to see how he played against his old mates. Oh well ... no Smyth ... no K.O.

I know I went to far with this ... but I just wanted to paint a picture ... and that is all best case scenario ... but even if I painted a rosier picture and he did get to the arena ontime for the first face off ... is that a player that you want on the ice to make his debut after playing in a hugely emotional game against Canada and then having that traveling ordeal?

505 ... regarding my post on the previous thread about improving NHL ... I'll get to that .... last night this thread wasn't working ... and just got back from work. ... I'll take care of it after Panther's / Isles game.

Coral Springs ... ^5 on the 3 point games ... it's BS ... it's the way that the NHL rewards teams for not losing in regulation.... here ... have a point for the effort. No wonder our society is growing soft.

D-Money .. I'm with you on the Ryan Smith deal ... as much as I was upset about him not signing ... I was more upset that it cost us 2 prospects and a 1st rounder to borrow him for 19 regular season games and 5 playoff games ... if he'd of accepted the deal .. we'd of been all over him like we were Yashin for the production he is putting out.... and he's playing with some really gifted offensive players ... so his projected #'s on the Island would probably have to be adjusted lower. He's getting older and more brittle as you mentioned. Very rare a player starts getting better #'s after 32 ... unless he's playing with much better players in a rare case.

See ya guys later .... Go Isles!!!

D-money,
I wasn't gonna "boo" Ryan Smyth, simply talk to him (a little bit).
But that's okay, Colorado has 40 other rabbit ears plus coaches.

I am reviewing their roster: names, birthplace, history in the league, career lowlights, etc all week long.

19 Isle
It would be foolhardy and irresponsible for a coach to fly a kid 16 hours or so after a "World Championship Match" and dress him for a game.
That is simply an injury waiting to happen.
Unless, of course, Gene Roddenberry and Scotty are on the payroll.

I shall defer on my chance at "Islander bragging rights" and wish KO a safe trip home, a good rest and look forward to watching him on the tubal source of life.

Guys Kyle is not coming to the Isles unitl next year. Why are you waidting your time talking about it?

I kinda wanted to see wade get shelled in one start, just so we could enjoy the "DUBIE SMOKED" headlines.

The four points is cool, too.

I think it's time to trade Campoli. By playing him with the Mad Bomber on regular shifts, we've in essence deflated him with this sentence. Who on earth would want to play with that puck hog???I'm with Steady on his MAB view; he is not an overall benefit to this team. Even tonight, as he contributes by default offensively you can see the indifferent look on his team mates faces. The goals against Atlanta all have an * beside them as Grahame is brutal and has now been banished to the minors. Let's get Campy out of town as he is a desired commodity. Let's parcel him up with Miro and Sillly for a proven scorer.

They better not lose this game. That would be absolutely CRUSHING! Panthers have a nice first line and that is it! They are tired, playing a back up goalie, and are an all around poor team.

Seven minutes too make a come back. Then on to the west coast of Canada for a brutal 4 games.........DO NOT LOSE THIS GAME!

What a shame. Waste of a good effort tonight. Hopefully it's just rust for DP, and not a lingering injury issue - at least two of those goals tonight were really bad, I thought - from far out with no screen and it didn't look like he really even saw them; both over the same shoulder as well.

Credit Anderson with some big saves, too in the third period - those weren't the usual Islander flutter perimeter shots. They had guys in front, and MAB was peppering some good hard shots on net.

As for MAB, as a long-time critic, I have to say that he's been a completely different player since getting back into the lineup. He doesn't just stand there anymore. He actually moves to open ice so that his shot doesn't bounce off the guy directly in front of him. You can tell that not only have the coaches been working with him, but he has stopped feeling sorry for himself and has begun to listen. His D play still looks a little shaky, but even that is noticably better. Can he keep it up, or does he revert back to laziness? We'll see, but when he's moving around into the lanes instead of standing still, the PP is definitely better.

From the cup is half full department 2 time zones away.

Well, I was hoping to get one point from Carolina and two from Florida.
Kinda worked out. But not getting that extra point tonight is painful.
DP was definitely rusty (I did post yesterday to stay one more game with Dubie -hot goalie theory-and start the road trip with DP, but hindsight is always 20/20- I wouldn't have said a word about the post if DP pitched a shutout).
At times it looked like our boys were wondering if they had enough underwear packed for the road trip.

Can we please layoff MAB?
Christ, he's playing the best hockey of his Islander career and now HE'S AFFECTING CAMPOLI'S PLAY?.
Give me a break. If the team bus gets a flat tire, it's gotta be Bergeron's fault.
All I saw was a ton of offense out of him tonight and a pretty steady D-game. Especially with 3-4 minutes to go in regulation.

If there is any player on the Isles I'd be worried about right now, it's Trent Hunter. Another minus night, on the ice for the losing goal, and it seems like he cannot find the right place to be occupying in the offensive zone. Leads the world in hits, but.......the guy is a mess right now.

I am NOT going to rant and yammer about trading him and anyone else who might have made a mistake tonight.

MOVE ON TO COLORADO.

I'll do my part.

It is losses like these that make the Isles a playoff bubble team. Too many times we say "nice effort" or "we had our chances" or "we played hard" blah blah blah..........THEY LOST !!!

The team came out sharp and skated hard the first 10 minutes. After that they looked flat and stopped hitting. Yes we had chances, but that was on the PP. At even strength Florida had the better of the chances. DP was rusty. HE saved the hard ones and let in some so so ones.

On to the Avs.....Time to earn their pay! Let's see what they got!

Tough loss. DP had his moments, but was not sharp, and it was not the first time this year he looked "off" after not playing a bit.

Tonight was also the most moribound crowd of the year--even though it looked like all of the announced 11,000 actually attended. There really was no energy in the building.

Regarding Florida, they came out slow, but played with a lot of jump in the 2nd period. Also, Zednik was all over the ice tonight--including the third period. The failure of the Isles to get an early jump on Florida seems to be a pattern at home this year--whereby other teams start slow, we control play, but get nothing--or the other team scores on their first or second shot. I really don't recall many time this season where I thought, "Gee, we were lucky to get out of that first period tied or only down a goal."

As for MAB, I have to say that from my vantage point, while not perfect, he played an excellent game tonight and was well-positioned throughout on both sides of the ice and didn't make any truly bad decisions. Will he revert as Steady contends? Perhaps. But his play tonight continues to be encouraging.

Looking forward, 5 points on this trip would be a success and 4 would be tolerable--anything above that is gravy.

So the NHL made DP change his pads... Questionable equipment reminds me of Garth Snow...oh wait he's DP's mentor. Why would he wear non-approved equipment???

Went to the game tonight and I have to disagree with those who said "good effort." It was not a good effort -- the Islanders looked flat the whole night, with the exception of the top line, Silly and Satan, who may be a streaky scorer but whose effort is very consistent. Bergeron had a good game (including some aggressive and effective play in the defensive zone at key moments), but Campoli definitely did not. In fact, the whole defense was off tonight, especially compared to the very responsible (and often swarming) team defense we played in the last 2 games against MUCH better opponents. We need Marty back ASAP! DP also was not sharp at all... two soft goals, worst game I've seen from him in quite a while. I left the Collie pissed off that a team capable of not merely winning, but kicking the arses of the Devils and Canes, threw away a point against a craptacular Fla team. The friend who came with me tonight is a big Mets fan (as am I) and we both felt it was like watching one of the Mets dispiriting losses to inferior competition last season. (The difference is the Isles so far have consistently played well in "big" games, so I am not suggesting that they have the Mets' deeper attitude issues...) By the way, did 2 Live Jewz (aka Howie and Billy)* rip the guys on the TV broadcast for their lackadaisical play?

I also give low marks to the fans, who were almost comatose. I've been lucky enough to attend a number of stirring comeback wins this year, all in front of large and intense crowds (10/20 vs. NJD, Arbour game vs. Pit, 11/6 vs. NYR, 12/26 vs. Tor). Since it struck me that there seems to be a strong correlation between the size and quality of the crowd and the Isles' play at home, I did a little number-crunching. The Isles home record when the size of the crowd is 14,000 or more is 10-3-0. Their home record when the crowd is smaller than 14,000 is 3-4-2. (By the way, the highest attendance number under 14,000 so far is 13,153. In other words, there's a big gap -- I did not pick an arbitrary cutoff to prove my point. The 3-4-2 record was actually compiled in games attended by 13,153 or fewer fans, all the way down to the season low of 8,161 at the Dallas game on 11/26. The 10-3 record was in front of crowds of 14,092 or greater, up to and including our five sellouts.) Simply put, playing in front of a big home crowd has a *big* effect.

On one level, it's gratifying to know we have such a huge impact on the team and can pump them up and enable them to play better by making ourselves heard. But this also points to a problem with concentration. A team with the requisite professionalism and competitiveness can get up for a game even if the home crowd is small. The Isles, apparently, often cannot.

This brings me to Rick DiPietro, who I started to seriously wonder about for the first time tonight. I love his athleticism, his attitude, the way he's embraced the community, etc. etc., and I actually don't question his competitiveness. But his poor performance tonight was the last straw in convincing me that he has not yet achieved the consistent level of focus that the great goalies have (e.g., Brodeur). Ricky has won some huge games for us this year, and last. But what he has not yet done is shown he can maintain that high level of play, night in, night out, even in a boring game against the Panthers in front of a small, lame crowd on getaway night before a road trip. Luongo and Brodeur can do it. I don't think Lundqvist is what the Ranger fans' fondest wishes make him out to be, and he's not as consistent as the two I just mentioned, but he is at this point -- and it pains me to say it -- more consistent than Ricky. I think whether DP takes that next step to bring his 'A' game night after night will be a big factor in whether we make the playoffs in a strong position or just squeak in...

Sorry, the "Anonymous" post just above was from me.

And in case anyone is considering taking offense at my reference to Howie and Billy as "Two Live Jewz," I am a Member of the Tribe myself.

"Bill Guerin, whose 14th goal of the season in the third period tied the game for the third time: "I think we all would have liked to play better tonight, it's our last home game for a while, but we came from behind and got a point. It's just disappointing when you lose in overtime."

i like guerin, and it's hard to find fault with his play lately. but after losing to that team i want the captain to say "i don't care about the point. we should have taken charge and won the game."

KH-

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

I really don't think the Islanders were flat all night--and a good deal of the energy they displayed was simply sucked up by the comatose crowd. Big hits and energy are often met by a strong fan response, which gives a greater sense of energy. But except after the Isles tied in the 3rd, you could have had the Ice Girls/Christie Brinkley/Hillary Duff do a XXX show for Howard Stern--and this crowd probably would have slept through it.

according to twincities.com, former Gophers wing Kyle Okposo, after being scouted at the world junior hockey championships in the Czech Republic, probably will begin his pro career at Bridgeport (Conn.) in the American Hockey League in two weeks at a pro-rated salary of $62,500

Posted by Anonymous |
Ricky has won some huge games for us this year, and last. But what he has not yet done is shown he can maintain that high level of play, night in, night out, even in a boring game against the Panthers in front of a small, lame crowd on getaway night before a road trip. Luongo and Brodeur can do it. I don't think Lundqvist is what the Ranger fans' fondest wishes make him out to be, and he's not as consistent as the two I just mentioned, but he is at this point -- and it pains me to say it -- more consistent than Ricky.

i think this is right. what separates dipietro and brodeur's level is maintaining his best play over 12, 15+ games in a row. he clearly is closer than he was last year, but he's not there yet. but even if he never quite gets there, he is good enough to win. the question is whether the rest of the team will catch up to him. if they do, he'll get even better, just as brodeur did as the devils developed.

You do not need the twincitiees.com website....You have me :)...I will say it for the 400th time......NO WAY HE COMES STRAIGHT TO THE BIG LEAGUES !!!!!

***If we won last night we would of been tied with the rags with two games in hand! I have a bad feeling this point is going to haunt us in the spring....Hope I am wrong! ******

Now that DiPietro is back and looks healthy.... maybe it's time to trade him now that his stock is high again... because obviously we aren't going to win a stanley cup THIS year... so we can send him, and Sillinger and maybe Bates to a team that needs a speedy veteran center with one eye and one hip for their best young unproven scorer in the minors.

DOC

Also how about the Penguins? My pick to win the division. Here they come!!!!!!

Merrick: What was up with the crowd? Still hung over :) ??? Sorry I missed the Devils game, unfortunately had to attend a funeral. MY next game is in late February :( !

Witty response from an old blog DOC.

Hilbert got 30 goals yet ? I tell you what I will give you THREE SEASONS for him to reach that mark. THREE !!!!

If you simply cannot understand that MAB has a track record of playing poorly than I cannot help you. Keep drinking the cool-aide. His recent play is a big boost. Yet if you knew the game, you would see that the Isles changed their PP. Teams will now refocus on MAB and take him out of the play. He will again get frustrated and do something stupid. A tiger DOES NOT CHANGE HIS STRIPES !!!

Last night he played well again....YET, did you see some of his passes? Just a matter of time before they go the other way! The guy BLOWS and is cancer in the locker room. Don't believe me???? You will see and read about it soon enough. He makes Blake look like Mother Teresa.

Steady,

I agree with your assessments overall. MAB has looked much better, but he's still shaky in the defensive zone. I've also noticed that his teammates don't look overly enthused when he scores goals. It might be time to sell high on him, but he has contributed more offense than the other d-men combined. We need to make that up in some other way.

As for the comments about the lockerroom, do you have any information on that, or is it your assumption based on what you've seen? Obviously if he's affecting chemistry he needs to go.

Nick~ I have heard from a third source and could be completely wrong. I think you will see for yourself sooner than later. My source is very much a part of the NHL. For all I know he could be way off though.

But, as you said. The eyes do not lie!

**Played hookey today to watch the IIHF World Junior Championship and play some pond hockey with the kid....Best part about living in NE is that they take care of all the ponds so they freeze properly for hockey. *****

KH, very good post, imo.

I do think the effort was there through most of the first and third periods...probably not the second. The third, though, they put some really good shots on Anderson and had multiple people willing to take punishment in front of the other team's net...including Comrie! I was very surprised at Anderson's ability to grab the puck and hold it through traffic in the third, considering how bad he was at it through the first two.

I agree wholeheartedly with you on DP. I think his raw talent is absolutely unquestionable, but a few times this year, it just seems like he doesn't see the puck quite as well as he does when he's on. I think you can tell when he's off by how quickly he drops down and closes up his arms before the shot is even taken. As I said once before, when he struggles, he seems to try to guess the shot instead of reacting to it, which is really unnecessary for him considering how quick his reflexes are. I think with him, like a pitcher in baseball, sometimes it's a matter of him just needing to trust his stuff. Or maybe he just needs to narrow his focus to shot-to-shot instead of trying to carry the team on his shoulders. Who knows? In any case, I don't really trust Mike Dunham to help him figure it all out...hopefully Garth is still talking to him a lot, as he seemed to have a positive influence on DP.

Anyway, January's a very tough month for the Isles...check out the schedule - ouch!

I'm jealous - I'm stuck at my office in Lower Manhattan for the day. Thankfully most of my firm is still recovering from the holidays, so I expect to be able to watch/listen on TSN Broadband.

I know I've beaten this horse until it's beyond dead, but do you think it's all MAB's personality? Before Hilbert became less First Base-y and Simon picked the wrong place to do the stomp, MAB was only a part of the team's problems, yet he received the lion's share of the blame. Could his issues result as much from his perception that he was being singled out, or is this a real personality issue that would necessitate his exile from the team? The person you spoke to might know more about it than I do, but could this be influencing his bad behavior? Let's face it, he seems to be trying to become more defensively-responsible since he went back in the lineup, and I even liked in the Carolina game that he sought out Gerard Gallant. Did the message get through, or is this a temporary situation that will soon lead to a relapse? These don't seem like cut-and-dry issues to me, and I hope we don't find out the hard way.

I also agree with KH's point (I don't think that's ever happened before...the Apocalypse is imminent). DP, talent-wise, is top-tier in this league, but it's a sign of maturity to be able to get as motivated for games like yesterday's as for Ranger and Devil games. We might be too hard on him since it was his first game back from a knee injury, but he should have had 2 of those goals. He needs to continue to play within himself and have confidence in the team around him, because his capabilities are limitless if he can do this on a consistent basis.

Miggsey – you have a good point about playing Campoli with MAB. It definitely removes Campy from the offense, which is stupid. But I think you’re over-reacting a bit. Just change the pairings and reap the benefits of MAB’s renewed game – for now.

The effort lat night – It was there initially. But when no goals were scored in the 1st 10 minutes it seemed to disappear. What was NOT there last night was the same team cohesiveness that existed in Carolina. No quick passes. No good TEAM play. No real THIRST for the net. And, as was said earlier, no swarming defense. The defense was extremely passive – slow even.

Hunter – I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think he needs some time in the press box. Something that will put a fire back in his belly. The guy just needs to get a little pissed off, ya know? How about a Vulcan mind-meld with Avery. Hunter is just a waste of ice time right now.

And let me just say that I'm extremely suspicious about this goalie-pad thing. Sure, maybe last year’s concussion-gate has turned me into a conspiracy theorist. But the guy sits out almost 4 games with a knee sprain and in his 1st game back he decides to use a new set of pads rather than the ones he's used all year and played great with? That makes no sense - except if for some reason those new pads somehow remove some of the strain from the knees. They sure looked thick and bouncy, didn't they? I saw pictures from practices and those were the ones he wore from the first time he took the ice after the injury. I tell ya, something doesn't smell right. No sir it doesn't.

If DP has to be suspended for 2 games let's do it now (and not drag it out) while Dubie is still somewhat fresh. One good thing is Satan is off the point on the PP and we are back to scoring goals on the PP instead of giving them up.

Cincy - I won't lie, I wondered about that too. When I saw the new pads I immediately thought they had some kind of extra knee support (like when I had those knee savers playing baseball). However, pads usually take a week or 2 to fully break in - you always see goaltenders wearing their old equipment for a few weeks after a trade to ensure proper functioning of the new pads. It doesn't smell right, to be sure, but he likely decided to test these pads before the injury. Regardless of everything else I think that DP and the Islanders' equipment staff were negligent in not making sure the pads had the full blessing of the league before wearing them in a game situation.

I think we have to cut DP some slack and chalk it up to rust as well as having the whole pad issue as well. I think when butterfly goalies are off they have a tendency to go down early because they are not seeing the puck well. So cover the low ice as best you can and hope the puck hits you. As an opposing team you need to shoot high when you see the goalie dropping early and I think the Panthers did a pretty good job of that last night. One thing I will say about DP is that he has shown the ability to bounce back quickly after a sub par performance.

Hunter really needed to the lift the puck on the rebound of MAB's shot. He had the goalie down and hung out to dry and he shanked the shot and it dribbled along the ice right into the goalie.

The crowd was lame last night; it reminded me of Panther's home game. They are a pretty boring team to watch and it was pretty clear there was not much interest from our fans either. Maybe it is a good thing that we play teams in our division 8 times a year. I was kind of swaying the other way earlier in the year but when you see a game like last night's it makes you grateful for those 32 division games.

MAB was great last night. I hope he can keep it up. He is playing with confidence and that is what it boils down to. If he loses his confidence then he probably will go back to his old ways. But right now he has to be feeling good about his game. I thought the rest of the D-men were more passive then they were in the previous 3 games.

I thought Kyle Okposo might jump right into the Islanders lineup so they could see how he plays at the NHL level but I think I am changing my mind a little on that after watching some of the WJC play. The level of play at the WJC is not on par with the NHL, the speed of the game is slower and there is more room to move on the ice, as it is not as tightly checked. Probably would be a good move to give him some time at Bridgeport so he can make the adjustment. If he starts to play well at Bridgeport then by all means call him up. It sends a message to the team that you better play hard or we got a guy who can replace you. Now mind you I am writing this comment without having seen him play at all so what the Fu*! do I know.

The 9:00 starts will be nice for a change of pace. Tough stretch, I hope the team is prepared. Not much margin for a 1-4 trip. DP will need to be solid and will probably have to steal a game or two for it to be a good trip.

Why does DP have to rush himself back into the line up before he's really eady to play. Nolan should have gone with the hotter goalie-Dubie. Should have been a 2 point game for us last night. Hopefully the NHL will sit down DP for at least two games. Hopefully Nolan has the sense not to play him again until he is 100%. Based on past history, DP is very mediocre while playing with injuries, as shown again last night.

so much for the pad conspiracy. anyone see umbrella man at the coliseum lately?

"The guy BLOWS and is cancer in the locker room. Don't believe me???? You will see and read about it soon enough."
"Nick~ I have heard from a third source and could be completely wrong."

isn't this just a little inconsistent and irresponsble?