On the Islanders Beat

Someone, and nobody was admitting anything, found a team photo of the 1996 Islanders Pee Wee travel team and posted it in the Canadiens dressing room during the morning skate today. Just to make sure no viewer missed the point, whoever put it up also drew an arrow toward the youngster standing first on the back row, towering over all his teammates, and aligned next to coach Gerry Hart.

"I don't know where they got that," said an amused Mike Komisarek, the standout Montreal defenseman from Islip Terrace who was, yes, the "stud" that the anonymous picture poster identified as the former junior Islander.

Komisarek recalled how the team didn't do all that great in a Pee Wee tournament in Quebec that year, but did so good naturedly. He knows how good those times were, and how productive. Every trip home brings out another good memory for Komisarek and another Canadien, a potential NHL star, winger Christopher Higgins of Smithtown.

Higgins joked in the Montreal papers yesterday that a game at the Coliseum, such as the one he has tonight, means he's playing for free because he has to spend so much on tickets. This time, though, Higgins said it wasn't so bad because his mom helped out quite a bit with tickets. He also recalled playing for the Junior Islanders, noting that he knows and likes the Coliseum rink just fine.

Each got to spend some rare in-season time at home this week, what with the Canadiens having been off since their loss at the Garden Saturday. "I get calls from people I haven't seen in years," Komisarek said with a big smile that suggested it is not a burden at all.

Both players have shown an ability to make a Canadiens-Islanders game all business. The fact that they are in the NHL and they are so good is a tribute to the Islanders legacy as a franchise. There is a chance that Long Islanders might have made it to the NHL if the NHL never had come to Long Island, but, come on, was it really likely? Who knows what the future holds for the Islanders, given the uncertainty over their arena, but the careers of Komisarek, Higgins and Syosset's Rob Scuderi (Penguins) and Eric Nystrom (Flames) certainly weren't hurt by having the NHL in their backyard.

There was only one nagging flaw in the photo, as far as Komisarek was concerned: Back then, the Pee Wee Islanders, like the regular Islanders had to wear those fishermen jerseys. "They were terrible," the Canadiens defenseman said.
--Mark Herrmann in Uniondale