Looking Around After the Islanders Sweep the Senators

Sometimes things just come to you in pieces...

...Mark Herrman suggests in Newsday that the back-to-back victories by the Islanders over Ottawa may represent the apex of the Islanders' season. And here I was having so much fun watching them the last two nights. Oh, well, I guess I could use those 3 hours several nights a week for more pressing pursuits. Seriously, though, I'm looking forward to seeing performances like those against the Sens more frequently as the season progresses.

...Ross McKeon at Puck Daddy asks, "Why exactly would the New York Islanders have Darryl Strawberry drop the ceremonial first puck, especially when the ex-bad boy had never even attended one hockey game in person beforehand?"

Because it was Autism Speaks Night at the Coliseum, part of the Islanders' "Hockey With a Heart" campaign, and Darryl Strawberry is the founder of The Darryl Strawberry Foundation for Autism. And he's a local baseball hero. And he met Bill Guerin and Doug Weight this summer when the two Islanders took in batting practice at Shea. And maybe, just maybe, his appearance attracted a few extra fans. You know, and awareness for autism.

...Also in Newsday, Jim Baumbach urges Charles Wang to play hardball with the local government in regard to the Lighthouse Project: "Fans, take off your Islanders-colored glasses and look around the Coliseum. This place stinks. And no one is coming."

There is no doubt this needs to get done and is essential for the future security of the Islanders on Long Island. But so is the on-ice product. The honeymoon period for a new arena/stadium is probably around three years. After that, you'd better have something to show or all the amenities in the world are unlikely to sustain high attendance—especially if you assume that said new arena will result in higher ticket prices.

I'm one of those who doesn't really care about the arena from a fan experience point of view. To me, it's a hockey rink. I just want them to have a place to play, and if I'm there, food and bathrooms are necessary. After that, it's all gravy. Of course, the Islanders need the gravy to thrive. I just want to be careful about assuming that the gravy will perpetually bring the gravy train. Can you tell Thanksgiving is coming up?

...Pre-game show? What pre-game show? Time Warner Cable in NYC was a little slow with the switch last night. The newly launched pre-game show did not appear on channel 51 until around 6:50. I should have anticipated a bumpy transition. Who knows if it was MSG failing to notify Time Warner, or Time Warner failing to throw the switch? Whatever it was, I'd like to see it from the beginning next time.

...Last night was my first opportunity to view the alternate uniforms on TV. Beautiful. And the shots of the current home sweaters in the stands made them look that much sillier in comparison.

...Here's a recent article on the Blog Box in Sports Media Journal.



Fantasy Report Game 17: Islanders 3, Senators 2

Fantasy Stars of the Game
1st Star: Jon Sim (1 G, 1 PPG, 1 A, +1, 2 SOG, 2 BkS, 2 PIMs)
2nd Star: Joey MacDonald (W, 2 GA, .950 SV%)
3rd Star: Mark Streit (1 A, 1 PPA, +1, 1 SOG, 3 hits)
4th Star: Tim Jackman (1 A, 1 SOG, 7 PIMs, 2 hits)
5th Star: Sean Bergenheim (1 G, +1, 2 SOG, 1 BkS, 3 hits)

Notes: Roles continue to change on the power play units. At the beginning of the game, Kyle Okposo and Josh Bailey once again found themselves on the first unit with Mark Streit, Bill Guerin, and Doug Weight. The second unit forwards were Trenty Hunter, Frans Nielsen, and Jon Sim. Later in the game, Hunter and Nielsen swapped places with Okposo and Bailey. And there was one strange configuration when the Islanders started the third period in the middle of a power play. In that case, Chris Campoli took the ice with Streit and Weight. I'm not sure who was supposed to be at the points in that scenario, but Weight was at one of them leaving Streit or Campoli to push forward. Perhaps Scott Gordon was just preparing for the combos he wanted when Dany Heatley came out of the box.

In the rare instances that Weight and Streit don't play the full two minutes at the points, Campoli is always the second unit option and Gordon has been favoring Brett Skinner as his partner (Skinner's minutes, seconds really, are very limited there...Richard Park was 12-8 on faceoffs.

The Other Side and More

More on the Times
I was happy to promote Dave Caldwell's article in The New York Times the other day, both as a way of publicizing news on the Islanders and in recognition of the paper giving the team proper coverage. Now here's the other side.

In case you didn't know, the Sports section in the Times has started a hockey blog called Slap Shot. The archive only goes back to November 20, and it appears that the people behind Slap Shot are still trying to figure out what it will be all about. So far, it's certainly not the Islanders.

Slap Shot is subtitled, "Rangers, Islanders, Devils and News From the NHL." Just next to the subtitle, you will see that the "About Slap Shot" description states, "Slap Shot, the New York Times hockey blog, reports on the Rangers, the National Hockey League and anything that glides quickly across a frozen surface anywhere on the globe...." So, maybe not so much the Islanders and Devils.

Despite entries being made on nine dates as of 12/2, only one focuses on the Isles. Naturally, it addresses attendance issues, specifically the turnout for the Dallas game on 11/26. Here is the entirety of It's Lonely at the Coliseum:

Announced attendance for the Islanders-Stars game Monday night: 8,161.

Capacity is 17,576. Do the math.

Granted, it’s the Monday after the Thanksgiving weekend, but an alarm bell must have gone off at N.H.L. headquarters.

For the most part (exception: Nashville), the sure-fire solution to flagging attendance is a winning team. It worked once on the Island.

Let's do the obvious one first. 17,576? I don't have to do any math to call that one out. With so much attention paid to attendance at the Coliseum over the last decade, you'd think that 16,234 would simply roll of the tongue (or fingertips). Maybe I've been asleep for a few years, the Lighthouse project has been approved, and the Coliseum was already renovated and expanded. No, you say? Still 2007?

Why am I not surprised that the only entry about the Islanders in Slap Shot is about the attendance? I do not deny that a crowd of 8,000+ is problematic. But it is neither new, news, nor a signal that the franchise is suddenly in trouble. In fact, based on statistics and on-ice performance, attendance is one of the least problematic issues for the Islanders this season in general and over the last two weeks. Take a quick survey of Islander blogs and you will find no shortage of hockey-specific issues that merit discussion. It would be nice to see Slap Shot sink its teeth into a few of these.

I will give Slap Shot credit for one thing. It's blogroll does not shy away from linking to blogs belonging to organizations that are competitors of the Times, including Newsday, The New York Post, and The Daily News.

Hockey Night in Canada on Blogging
By way of James Mirtle's blog, here is Hockey Night in Canada's feature on bloggers mixing with the traditional media in covering hockey:



I enjoyed the piece and thought it was fair. I do wish that coverage of this story would cease mentioning Islanders bloggers being permitted to wear jerseys. It's rarely mentioned that those who do wear jerseys are not in the actual press box and are required to remove their jerseys before entering the locker room. More attention should also be paid to the idea that, league-wide, some bloggers are intent on converting their blogs into new-media careers, and others are content to blog for the sake of blogging. The groups can, and should, co-exist, cooperate, and benefit from each other.

Scoring
Twelve consecutive games with 2 goals or fewer. We already know it's a team record. Anyone with a lot of down time or a connection at a stats service want to weigh in on the league record?

When things go wrong, there are daily calls for major changes. The truth is that Jarome Iginla is not coming here. For an infusion of offense, the Islanders will most likely have to resort to a skilled young player who just hasn't clicked yet at the NHL level. Someone like a Brandon Bochenski, not that I'm recommending him specifically or reporting anything in the works (we bloggers have to be careful these days, or risk a good mocking). I hope that the season doesn't come down to relying on such a player finally fulfilling his potential as the result of a better situation. I hope that the answer comes in the form of elevated play from guys named Guerin, Comrie, Sillinger, Hunter, and Bergenheim.