Is it hockey season yet?

College has started. Work is setting in. When is it going to be hockey season so I have something to look forward to each night? The days are finally starting to cool and I can begin to smell the ice. When October 10th rolls around it will finally be back for me again as a group of over 70 Islanders fans will make their way over to the Rock with me. Islanders fans are invading New Jersey so be ready. I cannot wait to get the loud chants of "Let's go Islanders!" started over in NJ.

Following this night, me and my buddy will be heading back to the coliseum as the Islanders have their home opener against the St. Louis Blues. I haven't missed a home opener in years, so hopefully the streak can continue. All I know is that the college life, while nice, is getting boring and I want my hockey. Here is to hopes for a great season. LETS GO ISLANDERS!

RUMOR: Vlady Nikiforov signs deal with Bridgeport

So apparently the rumor going around is that Vladimir Nikiforov has agreed to terms on a one way contract with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. I hope this news is true because this would be a great for Long Island Hockey. After watching Nikiforov at the prospects camp I was very impressed and thought he was one of the stand out players. He is a small little guy, but with the way the new NHL is I think he would be a great fit. I am excited to see what he can do with the BST as I will get to see some of their games this year. I think Nikiforov has what it takes to make it to the NHL and I am glad that he is finally going to get a shot.

The Long Island native from Hauppage, NY played for the Sarnia Sting last year while playing for the Barrie Colts the 3 years prior to that. In 15 games with the Sting he had 4 goals and 10 assists for 14 points. The year before he had 21 goals, 32 assists for 53 points in 36 games. He has proven talent and hopefully will be able to raise his game to the next level. Nikiforov is a leader who is showing the growth of hockey on Long Island. This is a great step forward for hockey on LI.

Islanders-Rangers Rivalry

So lately I have been doing a lot of reading about the rivalries in the NHL. There are a lot of good ones:

-Habs vs. Bruins
-Oilers vs. Flames
-Leafs vs. Habs
-Pens vs. Flyers

However, I would still argue that the best rivalry in the NHL has to be New York Islanders vs. New York Rangers. There are so many reasons as to why I just think this rivalry out does the rest.

This is a rivalry that never dies down. A lot of your other rivalries have down periods where the games between the two just aren't as intense as they used to be. That is never the case with this rivalry as the games between the two clubs are just as intense every game. I watch every Islanders game, but when the Rangers come into town, the Islanders always seem to raise their game and the checking is insane.

The fan interaction is what really keeps this rivalry going. Each arena you go to you will see a ton of opposing fans in your building. This creates for a unique experience, something which many other fans in the NHL might not get to experience that much. The fans, also, create one of the loudest atmospheres for these games because both team's fans are cheering throughout the entire thing.

The fan interaction leads to the players on the ice realizing what this rivalry is all about. The hatred amongst some of the fans can lead to brawls in the stands and much more. I'm not saying that is a good thing, but that just gives you an idea of how intense the rivalry is.

It is a fan driven rivalry and one that will never boil down.

It's Been Awhile...

Well summer seems to be a hard time to find time to keep this updated. So much has happened since my last post. Ted Nolan Fired. Prospects Camp ended with a scrimmage that gave me some hope for our young stars. So now I think its time for me to make my prediction of what the Islanders lineup might look like come opening night.


Tambellini -Weight - Guerin
Comeau - Comrie - Okposo
Bergenheim - Sillinger - Hunter
Sim -Park- Hilbert

Witt - Martinek
Sutton - Streit
Campoli - Meyer/Gervais

DiPietro
MacDonald/Mannino

The Meyer/Gervais battle has me very interested because I think Meyer should be the guy here unless Gervais really shows something, but I have a feeling management will put Gervais at that spot. However, I am basing my lineup off of overall play throughout the years. Meyer has gotten much better while I feel Gervais has taken a turn for the worse. However, maybe Gervais will come out feeling great and really show something. One can only hope as him and Campoli seemed to play so well together.


The goal tender issue for backup is another interesting one. All signs point to MacDonald as the backup, but after going to prospects camp and seeing Mannino play I feel he could easily step in and be the backup, but do the Islanders have enough faith to put their trust in a player like that.

Prospects Camp Day 1

Hey guys I just got back from Prospect Camp Day I and there were some players I had never heard of that really stood out to me.

Stand out players from Day 1:

Joel Rooney (F) - I have never heard of this kid in my life he played for the Trenton Devils and was 14-21-35 in 50 games. Each time he had the puck he skated fast and was able to roof it off the crossbar and in. There were very few shots he missed and pretty much all of them were very nice goals. He was by far the most impressive player to me at Camp today.

Kyle Okposo (F)- Obviously he was going to stand out. He continued his great play and I really don't need to say more.

Peter Mannino (G)- in 40 GP with Denver he had 25 wins and 14 losses with a .917 save% and a 2.26 GAA. Today he looked fantastic as he was making some incredible saves and looked very sharp. Honestly I could see this guy stepping right in. He definitely has a lot of potential from what I saw today.

David Ulstrom (W)- 43 GP 29-29-58 with HV 71 JR. Had a very nice shot and good follow.

Tyler Haskins (C)- Another kid I have never heard of. Apparently he played with Bridgeport last yeah and in 25 Games was 1-3-4. Those stats don't look that great, but he looked impressive today. Good skater with a good shot

Max Gratchev (LW) - Very fast. He made some really nice moves to slide past Weslosky. Good shot, fast skater, and banged in the trash when it was loose.

Blake Comeau (LW)- I don't need to say anything here

Vladimir Nikiforov (RW)- This was another player who really impressed me today. He has really good hands shooting wise. At times he needed to get a little better with his control with the puck, but he was netting almost every one that touched his stick.

Justin DiBenedetto(C)- This was a kid who played with Stamkos so has inflated stats of 67GP 42-61-103, but he has a lot more talent it seems than he is given credit for. Sure playing with Stamkos raised his stats a lot, but he has a very nice shot and he was knocking around some pucks out of mid air which was cool to see.

Jason Gregoire (LW)- With the Lincoln Stars he played 62 games going 40-41-81. Today he showed why he has stats like that as he looked very impressive shooting the puck.

NOTES:

Figren did not play today as there apparently was something wrong with his wrist.

Kevin Poulin injured himself early in his shift went back out on the ice, but was taking it easy and you could tell he was in pain.

Josh Bailey just looked decent. Most of his shot seemed to be right at the goalie's crest, however I wasn't paying much attention to the passing aspect today. Hopefully I will be able to make it out to some more days of camp and be able to give a further analysis.

Cap Crap

So today it was announced that the new floor for the cap would be 40.7 million. I love seeing the cap increase as I think it is great for hockey, except for one fact. The Islanders aren't even close to the cap floor with pretty much their entire roster already set. Between 17 players and Yashin our cap comes out to around 34 million. However that is without figuring in players like Bergenheim, Gervais, and Tambellini. Three players who I think we will be seeing on the Islanders roster next year. Still even if we sign those three we will still be short of the cap floor.

The Islanders have already made it clear that they aren't going after any big name players in this draft, but then how do they plan on reaching the floor? I really hope they aren't planning on signing Bergenheim to a 3 million/yr contract. The cap space we have available is something that will help us in the future so I am hoping that they don't mess around with it right now. The last thing we need is for them to grossly overpay for someone and sign him to a long term deal. I think I remember what happened last time we did that. Plus, we are in a rebuilding stage. Let the young guys develop and then unload after some big names and we will be contenders.

Lets just hope the Islanders can be smart about something for once. I'm just asking that they do not find a way to mess this up. We have a bright future ahead of us and we don't want to do something stupid that will hold us back a few more years. So what is the Islanders plan? I don't know, I wish I did. What worries me is the thought of having to trade some young guys just to reach the floor limit. Well free agency is coming up soon and I think this little piece of information might make July 1st a much more interesting day than it was supposed to be.

Dubie Dubie Doo

Well word is that Dubie is off to play in Russia. This is still a decision that I wonder about. I know there are some mixed opinions amongst fans about the decision to let Dubie go, but I still think it was a horrible move. The Islanders have put all their faith into Joey MacDonald, who wasn't even that great on an AHL team. We all know about DiPietro's injury problems, we all know Dubie can play those games if DP does get injured again. I am not saying that Joey can't, but I mean why change something when it's working so well. Dubie carried this team when we needed him most and always got the job done. He has done more than this team could have asked of him and what do we do, we throw him away because Joey MacDonald is signed to a one way contract.

I wish Dubie the best of luck in Russia because he deserves it. Dubie will always have a place in the hearts of Islanders fans and we will always be thankful for what he did. I love the Islanders, but sometimes question their motives.