Isles Execute Perfect Dive at the Deadline

That is to say, no splash. Greg Louganis would be impressed. I can't say that I'm too disappointed at the way in which the day unfolded, especially considering my recent call for stability and continuity. My only concern is whether Garth Snow will be able to add a top-tier talent or two over the summer to boost this club out of the middle of the pack. That would have been a concern regardless of what happened today, barring an aberrant inflation in the value of Fedotenko, Vasicek, or Satan. I certainly wasn't expecting anything splashy.

It's good to see that Jeff Tambellini will continue to get a look, and I hope that when the season is over there's no doubt that it was a fair look. When Tambellini was sent down recently to accommodate Chris Simon's return, it didn't bother me that much simply because it was obvious that Tambellini wouldn't be receiving worthwhile minutes. He was better off back at Bridgeport getting first-line minutes than playing 6-8 minutes a night on the Island.

Here are some quick thoughts on the deals that were made...

Rob Davison from San Jose for a 7th-round pick. Here, Garth Snow simply filled a need. In his fifth season in the NHL, Davison has yet to establish himself as a no-brainer for a spot in the lineup every night, partially due to being injured frequently. However, his reputation as a tough customer and a tough, reliable defender should make him a welcome addition to the Islanders' depleted defensive corps. For now, Davison slots nicely into the role vacated by Andy Sutton. Brendan Witt's pending return will create job competition between Davison and Aaron Johnson for the last spot on the blue line--unless Ted Nolan becomes dissatisfied with Bryan Berard.

Marc-Andre Bergeron to Anaheim for a 3rd-round pick. This one is puzzling mostly because you have to wonder what Anaheim wants with Bergeron. He's not going to take power-play time away from Pronger, Niedermayer, or Schneider. Perhaps Brian Burke is sending a message to Francois Beauchemin, whose play has slipped this year. I have to think that Bergeron will be spending most of the next 20 games in the press box (Burke knows how to get tickets there). From an Islander perspective, it's not as though Bergeron's relative success on the power play was raising the level of the team's overall man-advantage play. The Islanders entered tonight's game succeeding with the extra man at a rate of only 16.2%, ranked 24th in the league. Given the choice, I might have kept Bergeron over Berard. There's little chance that choice was available because I doubt Berard had much trade value, let alone a third-rounder. Call this one moving on now, rather than sooner or later.

Chris Simon to the Wild for a 6th-round pick. I understood Ted Nolan's reasoning for wanting a player like Simon in the lineup. You don't necessarily need a guy who's going to beat the stuffing out of someone every game. But it helps when the other team knows that there's a guy around who can do that. That being said, my biggest concern about the trade of Simon is not the loss of his protection services but how it affects the relationship between Nolan and the front office. Mike Schuerlein of IslesBlogger.com reported today that Nolan was "clearly unhappy" that Simon was sent packing. I don't think Nolan will punish Tambellini because he's taking Simon's spot in the lineup. I hope the coach doesn't take the deal as a personal slight, and I have no reason to believe that he will. The bottom line is that Simon would have had a diminished role with the Islanders and his roster spot is better spent on a player who is up and coming. I'd like to put a smiley face on the trade by telling you that moving on and getting a fresh start is the best thing for Simon, and that Nolan endorsed the idea for that reason. Of course, I don't know if that's really the case. I imagine that, like Brian Campbell, Colby Armstrong, and others, he would have been happier to stay where he was.

With only a few hours of perspective, I feel that the net result is that it became harder for the Islanders to make the playoffs today. The team obviously didn't improve its talent level and I have this fear that the power play is going to go 0-for-80 the rest of the way (0-for-7 so far tonight). The unusual thing is that if they do miss the playoffs, I'm already excited about next year. The Kid Line is looking more and more comfortable, and the biggest kid isn't even here yet. The GM has a plan, and so far he's sticking to it.

Some may think that the best thing now is to fade into a lottery pick. That just goes against all of my instincts. Maybe I still haven't recovered from seven straight years of being on the outside looking in (and 22-win seasons). With only 18 more games left after tonight, I still want the Islanders to be in the thick of things come April.

Two-Minute Minors

In an effort to get the writing juices flowing again, here are a few things that have been bouncing around in my head without compelling me to dedicate entire posts to them:

Ted Nolan committed to a full-time pairing of Bryan Berard and Marc-Andre Bergeron to start last night's game against Philadelphia. He had previewed this twinning of offensive-minded defensemen for a shift or two at a time in a couple of games over the past few weeks, so I wasn't entirely surprised to see it resurface. Still, it was impossible not to question the sanity of the move even considering the absences of Chris Campoli and Bruno Gervais. But maybe there was method to the madness. Maybe Berard and Bergeron, fully recognizing the perception (and reality) of them as a pair, are working that much harder to tighten up their game for each other. Against the Flyers, they each finished +2. Is Nolan on to something? Well, it's a theory. But it's only been one game. Now that Witt is down, we may have a chance to witness study carried out to its conclusion.

The buzz surrounding the return of Chris Simon is in full crescendo. The official Web site is full of pictures of Simon smiling. I've said all I care to about the issue for now, and thanks to Islander Frontier for recapping the generous amount of blogger coverage. Instead, the pictures of Simon provoked a funny thought in my head. What if Simon returns a changed man? I mean totally changed. What if he returns to the lineup with that smile fixed permanently on his face offering only pleasantries to opponents before politely skating around them? He could be like the hockey version of Pedro Cerrano in Major League II.

We often gripe about the lack of media coverage the Islanders receive. So I feel it is responsible to recognize when that trend is pushed back, even if only briefly. The New York Times recently featured a Dave Caldwell piece on the AHL rivalry in Connecticut between the Sound Tigers and Wolfpack, as well as a Tal Pinchevsky profile of Mike Sillinger. I read the latter in an actual print copy of the Times, and you can imagine my shock when I turned the page and saw Mike Sillinger's name in a headline. Anyway, good work Times. Keep it up.

Of course, not all of the Times's recent coverage was flattering to the Isles. But I never imagined that Lynn Zinser's Slap Shot post on the Pat LaFontaine/Brian Burke incident would give these guys another chance to take a swipe at the Blog Box. I had a long post on the subject of LaFontaine prepared, but various circumstances have conspired to confine it to my inner blog.

Just a Matter of Time

It's just a matter of time. Not until the Islanders break out of this funk and win a game. Not until they manage to score a goal. It's just a matter of time is how I feel while watching them play any game lately. They can play any opponent close through the first period. They can kill off a bunch of penalties and be in position to force a change in momentum. But it's just a matter of time. It's just a matter of time before Scott Niedermayer threads one through on the power play. Just a matter of time before Todd Marchant and Doug Weight find enough room to put the game out of reach. Just a matter of time before the weaknesses in the structure are exposed and the inner wall is breached. It's not a fun way to watch a hockey game.

If you snap your head around very quickly, I swear you can still see the headline stating that the Islanders are going for six games over .500. It was that recent. Now, that team sits right at that delicate balancing point between unlikely and a lot of we-told-you-so's. And that's only if you discount the NHL's consolation-prize standings (just for appearing on our show today, you've won this valuable 1-point jar of Turtle Wax). Otherwise, they're really 24-30. But even at 24-24-6, they're looking at having to play at a clip they haven't achieved all season in order to qualify for the playoffs. This, at a time when winning with any kind of consistency seems unlikely. Right now, it feels like disaster. It feels like this team could struggle to win 30 games. And that's the doom and gloom report for February 6, 2008.

Let's look at the situation from a more practical perspective. There was a time when the lack of goal scoring was an annoyance, a mere impediment to the eventual playoff appearance that this team seemed likely to make. Now, it is the fatal flaw. How envious are you of Anaheim's lineup, despite their own recent slump? That lineup is stacked in comparison. Getzlaf, Perry, Kunitz, Selanne, Bertuzzi, Weight. I'm jealous of Ducks fans for just those six, and two of them are nowhere near what they once were. Weight is a complementary player on the Ducks at this point, but I see that he has nine goals and wonder, why can't we have a Doug Weight? I guess the algae is always greener on the other side of the pond.

The Islanders displayed an utter lack of discipline in this game. In what has become a trend, they took three more minors in the first period, which prevented them from getting their forward lines any kind of consistent flow. With new faces in the lineup and new combinations, this was especially damaging. Jeff Tambellini hopped over the boards for his first shift, but then had to circle right back to the bench because the Islanders had been whistled for another too-many-men bench minor. Fortunately for the Isles, through twenty minutes the Ducks were as off kilter as the Isles were undisciplined.

The management of the lineup is surely open to debate. I wanted to see Frans Nielsen center the third line in place of Andy Hilbert instead of starting on the fourth line. Hilbert hasn't done anything to distinguish himself as deserving of those minutes. He'll still get plenty of minutes on the penalty kill (seriously, plenty) where he really has distinguished himself and plays a key role. Why not give Nielsen, who has been every bit the impact setup man at Bridgeport, the opportunity to make something happen?

Then there is Tambellini. Early on, Howie Rose (along with Islanders fans everywhere) basically implored Ted Nolan to give Tambellini at least 15 minutes of ice time on one of the top two lines. It didn't happen. The AHL's leading goal scorer finished with 17 shifts covering 13:56. Nielsen was sent out 13 times for 9:01. Sean Bergenheim, who started on the fourth line with Nielsen, was entrusted with 7 shifts and 4:56 of ice time for his night's work. So much for the injection of youth. I don't want to ignore the fact that the Islanders were shorthanded six times, which obviously cuts into the ice time available to young players who do not have PK duties. But there was no concerted effort to see what these kids could do.

Finally, I'm not sure that the power play is being done any favors by scratching Bergeron AND Berard. You could argue that the power play hasn't been any good with them. I don't want to see both of them out there. However, the power play isn't going anywhere with Witt, Martinek, and Meyer as point men. Having one of Bergeron or Berard out there at least gives the opposing PK something to worry about. Perhaps we've reached the point where neither player is in the team's plans for next year, and so it's time to see what Aaron Johnson can do. If that's the case, the same could be said for some forwards who aren't pulling their weight. Did you catch the graphic on FSN before the game that detailed the scoring drought player by player? I'll have to see if I can reproduce it. It's truly sad to see how many players have scored 0, 1, or 2 goals over stretches ranging from two weeks to two months.

Tenacious O

And the D was nothing to sneeze at either.

First, let’s get this out of the way. I don’t care so much about Ottawa having played Detroit the night before. Back-to-back games are part of the schedule, and when there’s a game to be played, you come to play. I’ll line up the Isles’ 6,467 miles of travel against the Senators’ two games in two nights and call it somewhere near let’s-just-drop-the-puck-and-stop-worrying-about-this even. I won’t, however, discount the Senators playing without Dany Heatley and mostly without Jason Spezza. With the TV broadcast affirming that the Senators have lacked secondary scoring lately, you can’t lose that kind of firepower and expect to carry on as though nothing has changed. But the injuries to Heatley and Spezza made up only one of several storylines that competed for the headline of last night’s 3-1 win by the Islanders over the Senators.

So before anyone accuses me of raining on the parade, here's the bottom line: another game in Ottawa is off the schedule and two more points are on the board. And it was hard-nosed play from Freddy Meyer that left the Sens with only 2.67 slices in their pizza.

My biggest concern during this game was that the story would be how the Islanders frittered away a generous and potentially game-changing serving of power play opportunities. As the chances piled up and they only capitalized on one of the first seven, I figured it was only a matter of time before the disparate totals for the two teams began to even up in the 1-1 game. Marc-Andre Bergeron then showed that his long game is every bit as good as his short game by blasting home his second power-play marker of the game for the lead on the Isles' eighth opportunity with the man advantage.

They finished 2-for-9, which translates to a healthy 22% rate of success. It was remarkable to see the Islanders get the long end of the stick on power play chances against a team like Ottawa. The Islanders received only 11 chances in the first four games of the trip (one of those lasted only 18 seconds). As pointed out by Billy Jaffe on the first Bergeron goal, the Isles finally started taking advantage of actually outnumbering the penalty killers. And it was the players' tenacity on the puck and on the check that created those opportunities. As Ted Nolan told reporters after the game, "Give them full marks."

Miscellany
Mike Comrie: Creating the quality and quantity of scoring chances that the team needs from its #1 center.
Rick DiPietro: Will get that elusive empty-net goal.
Scheduling oddity: The Islanders play only four more Saturday home games this season, and three of them are against the Flyers. Five games remain with Philly, three of them on Saturdays in March.
Versus: Tomorrow's game against Montreal is on Versus at the usual 7 PM start time.

Catching Up on a Busy Day

The Simon Suspension
I suppose thirty games is just about right. It had to be more than the previous, record-setting 25 games that Simon received last year. That punishment obviously did not serve its purpose, which should have been for Simon to examine his actions and take responsibility for his self-control. In reality, it's not the 30-game suspension that will do that either. It will take an honest effort at getting to the source of the loss of emotional control. Still, Colin Campbell had to raise the stakes. I wouldn't have been surprised or bothered if he had suspended Simon for the balance of the season.

I'm not thrilled to hear that Simon is appealing the decision. And at face value, I don't agree with Ted Nolan's assessment of the penalty as excessive. However, I think it's only fair to view things from other people's perspectives. So let's look at it like this: By NHL standards, Simon is not making a mint this year. NHLSCAP.com lists his 2007-2008 compensation at $800,000. I know, nothing to sneeze at, and Simon has cashed in many a sizable paycheck over his career. But although these guys make way more than most of us, often their expenses are in proportion to their income. So imagine what it would be like if someone took away 37% of your salary. You'd fight to get as much back as you could. Anyway, I'm just trying to see the other side of it, and this is one line of reasoning I came up with. Who knows? The motivation for the appeal may not be financial at all.

Okposo Leaves Minnesota to Turn Pro After WJC
Despite hearing rumblings about this yesterday, I was really surprised to see it come to fruition so quickly. I didn't expect to see Okposo playing for the Islanders this year (still not a given he'll be with the big club), but I could have envisioned a jump to Bridgeport after Minnesota's season ended. The move certainly puts a damper on the theory that playing another year at the NCAA level was good for Okposo's development. But things change. Maybe Okposo, the Islanders, or both determined that the situation in Minnesota was no longer his best option for making progress as a player.

I'm still very uncomfortable with the idea of Okposo coming to the Isles as a savior. But with Buffalo having just gone ahead 2-1 with a little over 2 minutes left, it's time to add a skill player by any means possible. What remains to be seen is whether he can elevate the skills he's demonstrated up to this point for competition at the highest level. It's long past time for an Islanders forward prospect to do so.

New Twist on Defense
Tonight, Berard and Bergeron both sat and Freddy Meyer entered the lineup for only the second time since rejoining the team. Why not? I had this notion that Ted Nolan might go back to Bergeron even after his poor performance against Pittsburgh. You know, a reverse shakeup. Silly me. Throw Freddy in there, see what he can do. Apparently it didn't make much of a difference tonight as the power play was blanked in five chances. If Nolan continues to bench Berard and Bergeron, what I'd really like to see is Chris Campoli take ownership of the power play.

Whither Tambellini?

It's a good thing Steve Tambellini didn't name his son Duncan. By now he might have a Chris Berman-caliber nickname like Duncan "Yo-Yo" Tambellini.

Ted Nolan said all the right things about the most recent demotion of the Islanders' not-so-next star forward:

“Jeff didn’t do anything wrong, but he needs to be on a top line to be effective. And with Ruslan coming back, we felt it would be best for Jeff to get those consistent minutes in Bridgeport for his development.” --newyorkislanders.com

The return of Fedotenko made it very convenient for Nolan to evaluate the situation this way. But doesn't a not-so-small part of you get the feeling that the coach has seen enough? More and more it seems like Nolan doesn't believe that Tambellini has what it takes to blossom in the NHL, or at the very least, under a Ted Nolan regime. And if he can't find the minutes to give Tambellini an extended look, then he obviously doesn't deserve the minutes. For what it's worth, I don't consider this recent five-game stretch an extended look.

If we are to assume that Nolan is going to be around for a while (seems like a safe assumption), and that Tambellini is unlikely to fit into Nolan's system, then it makes sense to convert Tambellini into another asset before he gets labeled as a marginal prospect. You can definitely get away with being 23 years old and in the AHL without losing your luster. But as each year passes and you haven't established yourself as a regular NHLer, words like fringe player start to surface.

I'd still love to see Tambellini develop into an exciting player for the Islanders. I hope I'm wrong and he really does need more consistent minutes at Bridgeport until the time is right to step into the Islanders lineup on a regular basis again. I just don't know how many more times we can watch him go up and down.

A couple of thoughts on last night's game...I spent the first 30 minutes of the game wondering why the Islanders never look dangerous or the least bit creative in the offensive zone. It seemed like no one was capable of making a move that created open space, a passing lane, or a path to the goal. I swear I see players on other teams to do this. They use their creativity and skill to create chances and make themselves difficult to contain. Even against a weak Coyotes team, albeit with improved goaltending, the Islanders once again seemed incapable of dazzling, or even amusing, anyone.

Fortunately, Bill Guerin went to the net and got some clean-up goals (garbage goals sounds too negative), and Marc-Andre Bergeron found the far side with a cannon shot on the power play. Billy Jaffe enthusiastically pointed out how, in that instance, Bergeron did use his feet to create the open space necessary to make a play. Still, I'm in the corner with those who say a win is a win, but this was not a great win. I'll let the team take the positives out of it. I'm looking for something more convincing against the Penguins on Saturday night.



Update: The Ducks have traded Andy McDonald to the Blues for Doug Weight, Michal Birner, and a 7th rounder in 2008. It looks like the Ducks have cleared the necessary cap space for Scott Niedermayer to return without giving up Mathieu Schneider, Francois Beauchemin, or Corey Perry. That's not to say that McDonald wasn't a major contributor to the Ducks' Cup team, but any of those guys could have helped the Isles in a trade. Perhaps another one of them will become available if Teemu Selanne decides that he's not done yet either.

Opening Night II?

We had Opening Night and Kids' Opening Day. After a week with no hockey, tonight's tilt with Carolina almost feels like a second beginning to the season. You have to wonder how the team will respond to seeing game action for the first time since last Saturday's win over the Devils. My hope is that the week off won't be nearly as big a deal as we've all been making it out to be (hey, we needed something to talk about). Certainly, I'd expect to see the team come out flying and then skating hard for a full sixty minutes. With four full days off before the next game on Thursday, there's no reason to be conserving energy. Tonight will see Marc-Andre Bergeron back on the blue line and replacing the injured Bryan Berard at the helm of the power play. We may also see the return of Shawn Bates to the lineup. All in all, it feels like we're rebooting the season. And doing so with a 5-3 record means that the reboot feels like it was necessitated by a software upgrade rather than a fatal error. Let's hope the updated version runs as smoothly as its predecessor.

I finally had a chance to read Michael Farber's profile of Chris Simon on SI.com. It was interesting to digest it having already read Chris Botta's strong reaction to the piece. From an outsider's perspective, I thought it was a reasonably balanced piece. Yes, there were some cheap shots taken:

But Simon's apparent haze sounded like a hockey variation of the Twinkie Defense; instead of sugar, a concussion had made him behave aberrantly. Judging by his record, however, the concussion just made him more like himself.

Farber did, however, show that Simon is multifaceted and highly respected by many in the NHL brotherhood. You cannot tell his story without revisiting his previous transgressions, just as you can't tell it without quoting multiple players on how there's no better teammate with whom to go to battle. Of course, I don't work with Chris Simon and I don't know him, let alone consider him a friend. I completely understand how, in his position, Botta feels like he got burned after providing generous access for the story. I also understand how Botta and Nolan want to be protective of a guy who has made such strides in turning his life in the right direction.

But when Simon admits that he's a different person when he plays than he is in everyday life, you have to set limits for what is acceptable conduct by that on-ice persona. Simon has operated outside those boundaries on more than one occasion. His handling of the consequences of this incident has been right on target. He has been appropriately contrite, paid his penance, and is moving on with his career. We know that Simon can be a tough, effective NHL player and a great teammate without over-the-top acts of aggression. The future of his career depends on him continuing to do that.

By the way, I also think that the insertion of Simon into the lineup for the preseason game against the Rangers served to diffuse the bad blood more quickly. That's not to say that the two teams won't scrap again during the regular season. But at least the enmity between the teams hasn't been simmering all this time. Letting off some steam out of the glare of the regular season may have been the best of circumstances in this situation.

For those of you who are prospect watchers, note that Ryan O'Marra has been sent to Stockton of the ECHL. Thanks to bjoelson on the HF Boards for first bringing this to my attention. Read about the move here and here. O'Marra scored two power play goals in his first game for Stockton.