All I can say is WOW!

That is the same thing that Shawn Horcoff of the Oilers said after he found out that the leader of the Oilers, Ryan Smyth had been deal to Long Island.

With the circling rumors of Jason Blake being dealt, the Smyth deal was a shock to say the least.  No one expected it.  So in a few minutes time, the fans were told on TSN that Blake was not dealt, and then to hear that Captain Canada was leaving the Great White North to come of the Isle, I think the entire nation of Canada when into mourning (well, except Canadian Islander fans, of course).

I know that a lot of people do not like the trade; we gave too much away for a ‘rent-a-player’, yada yada, yada.  I think not, and here is my reasoning.

1. His presence gives this team instant offensive credibility with three strong lines (insert a healthy captain there too).
2. Robert Nilsson was an enigma.  He should have been called up with his ability, but I believe that he just did not want it enough here.  This type of player should have worked extra hard to make the decision of calling us better for him.  The fact that he was in the ‘Port all season makes me believe that he had no future here.  No loss in my opinion
3. Although I think Ryan O’Marra will be a good NHL player, you have to lose something to gain something.  I wish him well.  I hope that he has no more issues with his ankle.  That type of injury can be lingering.
4. Kyle Okposo was going NO WHERE, and NO ONE would take him away from us.
5. Losing a first round is no big deal.  This draft looks incredibly WEAK this season.

Yes, there will be mucho decisions in June/July; but you know what?  Forget about it.  Let’s worry about NOW.  We have to make a playoff push.  This move shows the league that Garth Snow is not only NO PUSHOVER, but believes we can do some damage, and will get the players necessary to assist that plan.  Well done Garth.  That’s an A in my book.  And it is making the village idiots, oh sorry, I mean media eat their words about Garth.

Now - to the game.

If we were excited for the game to start, we were even more thrilled after the end of Period 1.

I guess Blakey was real happy to stay.  He collected his fifth career hat trick (a natural one in one period too…), who now has 32 on the season.  The look and expression as he talked to Deb K was noticeable from 200 feet away.

Zednik had a non-influencing start to his Islander career.  No points, a couple of shots, plahying with fellow countryman Miro Satan and Viktor Kozlov.

Then - the high of the past few hours went crashing down.  Philly climbed from a 5-2 hole early in the second stanza, getting two goals in about 80 seconds in the third to tie it at 5.  RJ Umberger is an Islander killer, and notched another two against us.

With the game looking like a shootout was inevitable, Marc-Andre Bergeron made a great move, to get around the d - and get to Nittymaki - drawing a penalty.  With another one coming to us, Trent Hunter scooped a rebound past the Philly netminder, to seal the deal.  A lot of fans were ticked that we gave Philly a point, but unless every team is reduced to 20 versions of Larry the Cable Guy (get’er done!), Philly is not going to the post season, so no big deal.  We got the two points, and leave the building happy.

THREE STARS

1. Jason Blake - glad to see you still here
2. Trent Hunter - GWG in OT - two goals
3. Marc-Andre Bergeron - great move in OT to draw the penalty - good job on D

GOLD STAR

1. Islanders Game Night staff - good to see them get the data/pictures, etc to give the fans a little more excitement of the upcoming Mr. Smyth

TIN TWIT

1. Once again - Fans saying Flyers SUCK in the third period when the score is tied.  Dont you dopes know that when it is a tie game, you should be supporting and getting the HOME team going.  Will these ding-dong’s ever learn!

Tomorrow is the debut of Mr. Smyth.  Looking forward to that one.  BTW - we went 9-2-2 for the month of February.  20 out of 26 points.  Nothing to sneeze over….

BTW - If you are reading this, please submit a comment and let me know.  Thanks for the support.  This site got over 10,000 hits this month, thanks to all of you!

THE ESOTERIC - compliments of Roger Farina

According to Newsday.

O’Marra and Nilsson have been moved to Edmonton for Ryan Smith.

Nice deal.  Gave a lot, but if we can him signed - this will be a great push!

We will see….

G

Blake should stay.  I am glad.  He has struggled of late, but I am happy….

 This IS the team that I want to go to war with….

See ya tonight,

G

He is off to San Jose on a 3 way deal - more info to come….

1. Marty Biron to Philly (will we see him tonight)
2. Ty Conklin to Buffalo
3. Georges Laracque to Pitt (got a lot stronger now with Roberts and Big George)
4. Bill Guerin did not go to morning skate, hmmmmm?

Even though I am at work, I am tuned into the trade shows in Canada.  If I can find out anything, I will pass anything along.

Will Blake play for us tonight?  Will we get a key scorer from the West?

Time will tell….

Less than 6 hours from the deadline - hang in there folks.

G

PS - if you need to find out a good outlet to check trade coverage, and are on the net, check out www.fan590.com.   

We got Zednik (an certified Islander killer when he played for both Montreal and Washington) for a 2nd round pick.

Another great move by Snow.  I think he is looking at smaller pieces??? Hmmmm…

Will we see #55 tomorrow?  We have about 22 hours to find out….

Welcome Richard!

Richard’s stats: (compliments of www.hockeydb.com)

Thanks Roger!

Check out the new Goalie feature - Countdown to 33.

Congrats for tonight’s milestones.

Neilsen’s First Goal, Assist and Point.  More on that in the Esoteric.
Blake setting a career high goal amount.
Witt with a PIM milestone.  More in the PIM Esoteric Section

Congrats to Jeff Tambellini for scoring the 9,000th Goal in New York Islander History. 
ESOTERIC

TAMBELLINI’s 3rd Goal with the Islanders, his second of the season, lands him at #190 on the all-time Goal scorers list tied with 13 others.  He is the 203rd Islander to score 3 goals.  His 11th Point is #197 on the Point list tying him with 5 others.  He has played in 34 Games and is #248th on the all-time game played list tied with Erskine, Orszagh, Stapleton.

NIELSEN Scored his first Goal, Assist and Points today.  The Goal lands him at the #230 position tied with 42 others.  He is the 273rd Islander to ever score a Goal.  The Assist is #288 all-time and ties him with 34 others including Dunham and Colliton.  He is the 322nd player to score and Assist with the Islanders.  His 2 Points is good for the #284th spot tying him with 17 others and is the 329th player to score a Point.  He has Played in 14 Games and is #296 tied with 6 others including Dunham.

BLAKE scored his career 29th Goal.  It is his 116th Goal for the Islanders and he is at #19 tied with Ferraro on the all-time Goal scoring list.  He is the Active Goal scoring leader, 2 Goals ahead of Yashin.  He is 2 Goals behind Parrish and Thomas.  His 241st Point is #23 8 Points behind David Volek.  He has now played in 406th Game with the Isles and is at #32 on the all-time Games Played list 5 Games behind Wayne Merrick.

PARK scored 2 Assists, his 11th and 12th Assist with the Islanders.  He is tied with Witt, Hallin, Bob Beers, Billy Smith, Baumbartner and Luckowich leaping him from #175 to #161 all time.  His 2 Points tie him with 7 others with 17 Points at #163 on the all-time Point list.  He has played in 62 Games and is #186th on the Games Played roster tied with 6 others.

KOZLOV scored his 21st Assist with the Isles and is #125 all-time tued with Poti and Hill.  It is his 42nd Point which lands him 1 Point behind the #118 spot held by 4 others including Campoli (111 GP).  Kozlov has played in only 62 Games and is tied with 5 others, like, Park at the #186th spot.

BERGERON is the 404th Islander to play a Regulation Game.  He has played in 3 Games total and is tied with 12 others at the #364th spot.  His Assist, also his 3rd with the Isles, ties him with 18 others at the #251st spot on the all-time Assist list.  3 Assists and no Goals equals 3 Points.  It ties him with 11 others including Freddy Myers at the #271st spot all time.

PENALTIES

WITT gets 4 PIMs and has 111PIMs.  He breaks into the all-time top 100 Penalty leaders at #99.  He has played in 61 Games and jumps over Smolinski who played in 227 Games.

HILL gets 2 PIMs and has 82PIMs in 62GP for the #120 apot tied with Jamie Rivers on the all-time PIM list.

SIMON gets 2 PIMs tying him with 52 PIMs with Brewer, Hextall and Colley at #157 all-time.
GOALIE.

DIPIETRO has played in 194 Games.  He is #86 on the all-time player roster 5 games behind Ralph Stewart.  He is #4 on the all-time games played for goalies 47 games behind Hrudey.  His 11,083 minutes are also #4 and is 2,534 Minutes behind Hrudey.  That’s about 43 games.  He has give up 515 Goals and is #5 on the all-time GA list, 49 Goals Against behind Healey who did it in 176 Games.  He has 85 Wins, 21 Wins behind Hrudey for the #4 spot on the all-time Wins list.  Hrudey had 106 Wins in 241 Games played.  Hrudey had 90 Losses, 10 Losses ahead of Ricky who has 80 Losses and the #4th spot all-time in Losses.

COUNTDOWN TO 33
Single Season Victory Leaders.  33 Wins will set the new record.  Ricky is 6 Wins away.  That would be a minimum of 38 Wins for the Islanders.

1)  2001-2002   OSGOOD     32-25-6
2)  1981-1982   SMITH          32-9-4
3)  1977-1978   RESCH        28-9-7
4)  1993-1994   HEXTALL     27-26-6
5)  2006-2007   DIPIETRO    27-18
6)  1978-1979   RESCH       26-7-10
7)  1976-1977   RESCH       26-13-6
8)  1978-1979   SMITH        25-8-4

6 Wins will give Ricky the single season victory record with 33 Wins. 6 Wins will also give us 37 Wins which will give us one more victory than all of last season. Last Season we ended with 78 Points.  After today’s Win versus the Habs we have 70 Points. Our Magic Number in Points to finish ahead of team (9 Teams) Tor = 39 (19-0-1) Atl = 38 (19-0-0) Car = 38 (19-0-0) Mtl = 37 (18-0-1) Bos = 37 (18-0-1) NYR = 35 (17-0-1) Fla = 30 (15-0-0) Was = 29 (14-0-1) Phi = 12 (6-0-0) Teams with Magic numbers over us (5 Total) Buf = 24 NJD = 29 TB = 37 Ott = 35 Pitt = 36 **As always please let me know if you see any errors.

Way to go Franz!

To finally get the number of points in your NHL career off of zero, and make the first two something really special, well that is a great job!

Assisting on Jeff Tambellini’s goal (the 9,000th in Islanders history), got Franz on the point list on Roger’s esoteric (which will be on a later post).  But then later in the game, with the score even, Franz gets goal number one of I hope many, many more. (God — don’t I sound like Captain Lessard in the Police academy movies?)

Anyway - another big test, and a big response from the Isles.  Although they let Montreal get a goal back in this game, they stood their ground, and did not let the Habs bounce back.  Ricky did a nice job - not world class, but a simple job.  It is good that he is not necessarily needed to bring the A+ game every time.

It was also a great thing that the Isles did not have to rely on their top lines every game.  In this one, the fourth line guys (Nielsen, Tambellini and Richard Park - otherwise known in section 317 as Kenny Wu (from Mighty Ducks 2 fame)

However, I will save my play of the game for now.  For a defensemen who was considered to be a defensive liability (as all the media in Edmonton said), Marc-Andre Bergeron is actually credited for the save of the day!  As you can see in the picture to the right - be got behind Ricky as stopped the puck from going over the line, and moving it out of harms way!  He can be on this team’s blueline anytime!

What a effort.

Now to rumors.  Yesterday, we were supposed to be a sure lock for Guerin.  Now we are not.  Yesterday, Tkachuk was on our horizon.  Today, he is now an Atlanta Thrasher.  The rumor mill is amazing.  And now with the dealine under 48 hours away from completed, the dancing of players careers hangs in the balance.  According to GM Snow, we are going to be buyers and not sellers.  And now people are asking me, “Do we buy?”

Tough question.  I, for one, am a big proponent of the ‘chemistry’ factor.  I like this team.  Remember, you get Bates and Yashin returning in the not too distant future.  Will those two spoil what has been going on lately?  Hard to tell.  That is why this trade deadline time is one that Rolaids makes a great profit from.

This week - two ‘easy’ games, and the start of a lot of road games.  I will be in DC this weekend, so I will write from the road. However, you can NOT take Philly and St. Louis lightly, even after many of their players may be changing hands.

THREE STARS OF THE GAME

1. Franz Nielsen - First 2 points
2. Marc-Andre Bergeron - without his save, Montreal may have got a point or even two
3. Richard Park - “Kenny Wu” has another great game

GOLD STAR

• Montreal fans - they came out in bunches - and support their Habs (with the exception of the Rick DiPietro Sucks sign highlighting the first letters - which is the French Sports Cable Channel in Quebec)

TIN TWIT

• See above

It has been so amazing that when this team is down, that they are definitely not OUT!

Another late game comeback, along with a shootout, places the Isles over Toronto and in sole possession of 9th place in the conference, in striking distance of Carolina and Montreal.

Thank God for Trent Hunter.  What a game he had!  Hitting like a mad man, being at the right place at the right time.  He has been one of the guys that has definitely stood up for himself and showed what he can do.

I thought at the end, that when Silly and Hilbert came down the wings that the favor would have been reversed; specifically that Hilbert would get the pass from Sillinger and score the game winning goal.

Maybe we should check with Elias to see what is the record on how many dekes have been made on a shooutout attempt.  Thank goodness Robitaille made the last one.

And did you notice that the Islanders gained another point on the Rangers last night, thanks to the Devils!  Keep moving the Rangers further and further back in the standings.  A beautiful thing!!!

Now - onto the Habs.  Halak, taking over for Huet, has not missed a beat.  With Kovalev, Rivet out, the team is still winning.  A few weeks ago - the Isles beat the Habs 4-2 at the Bell Centre, and send Montreal into a downswing.  Tomorrow - with the mascots in attendance, it will be needed to be done again.  The confidence level of the Islanders is extremely high. Keep it going, and we can start to get in the playoff picture. 

After tomorrow - we may see players for the last time.  I hear a lot of rumors that Blake is on the block.  Vancouver and Edmonton are places that he may go.  Now why would the team, in the middle of a playoff push, want to trade their leading scorer?  That is the OLD Islander philosophy.  I can not see Garth Snow doing that.  The same people that say we are letting go of Mike Sillinger.  Have another Vodka, Eklund!

Well - should be fun tomorrow…