A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

The Shadow from Above
I hadn't seen any mention of it anywhere, so I was all set to discuss Tuesday night's appearance at the Coliseum by Chris Simon. The Versus production crew caught Simon on camera having an involved conversation with Charles Wang high above the Coliseum ice. However, with Dee Karl now having published a sparkling essay on this latest development, I will defer to the impressions of my esteemed Blog Box colleague. Dee has elegantly captured all of the complexities surrounding the status of Simon and, quite appropriately I think, refrained from passing judgment.

What's best for the players? What's best for Wang and the organization? What's best for the NHL? What's best for Chris Simon? What's best for the fans? It is not easy to render a final verdict on Simon with all of these questions playing a significant role in creating the solution. Ultimately, as Dee's post posits, it is not our problem to solve. But understanding the difficulty of the situation is certainly something we can take on. One thing is certain: Simon's presence with the owner the other night is clearly suggests that the team was completely sincere in expressing its loyalty to Chris Simon the person. Of this, I had no doubt.

A Picture Is Worth More Than Two Points
It's amazing how easy it is for us, as Islanders fans, to take the smallest action by the media as a sign of disrespect. For example: The lead picture in today's Daily News article on last night's impressive 3-1 win over the Devils shows Rick DiPietro reaching back in vain to keep Travis Zajac's third-period shot from crossing the goal line. Yes, it is an exciting, telling action shot taken from the camera mounted inside in the net. But why, in a game in which the Islanders went to 5-0 on the season against the Devils and DiPietro was lauded universally for his outstanding play, does the lead photograph show him flopped on his back in his only low moment? The article does feature a smaller picture that shows the Islanders celebrating their victory. Shouldn't the lead photo be representative of the game? Where is the shot of DiPietro making one of a dozen outstanding saves? Maybe his reflexes are too quick to be captured on film. Anyway, these things just make me wonder sometimes.

Radio Tease
Here's another slight head-scratcher, but there are reasonable explanations for it. It was reported today that Long Island radio station WLIR is switching to an all sports-talk format. My immediate reaction was to think, "Hey, there's an opportunity to get some serious Islanders talk on the radio." Imagine the Islanders being the hometown team on a smaller version of WFAN. Of course, that thought lasted all of five seconds. It turns out that WLIR will simply be carrying the signal from 1050 ESPN Radio, which, by the way, is the radio broadcast home of the Rangers. So that accomplishes basically nothing for Islanders fans unless 1050 comes to the unlikely conclusion that its stronger presence in Suffolk calls for increased coverage of the Isles. Don't bet on it.

Overall, I'm not down on 1050 the way a lot of people are (despite some hosts that I can't listen to for more than two minutes). I like it as an alternative to WFAN, and I think the competition, as lopsided as it continues to be, is a favorable development for the listener. On the surface, the agreement between 1050 and WLIR makes good business sense for both parties, and may even benefit listeners who struggle to get a clear signal from 1050. So, I'm not going to kill them for trying this. It just seems like a missed opportunity.

Defense
Whereas I once thought it created some weird dynamics on the team, I now couldn't be more relieved that Garth Snow increased the defensive depth chart to nine.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Coliseum

Hey, first multiple-post day. Something HUGE must have happened. Well, no. But funny story! By the way, if you're planning on playing fantasy hockey through ESPN Fantasy Games this year, you might want to look into alternatives.

So, I had my fantasy hockey draft tonight. I can't say that I went into it all that enthusiastically. It has been years since ESPN made any improvements, or even changes, to its fantasy hockey system. My friends and I just haven't been able to break the habit. The baseball and football systems have received fancy new front ends and injections of back-end customizable feature performance enhancers. And those games are now free. Fantasy Hockey did get a front-end makeover this year so that it looks like the others, but under the hood it's exactly the same. And costs $29.95.

The first sign that we might be in for some trouble came in ESPN's "Your live draft is in 24 hours!" e-mail. Near the bottom, inconspicuous in its placement, was a note stating that the Java version of ESPN's live drafting system would not be available for hockey this year. Mind you, they have been using this technology for at least 8 years. But, no, we would have to use the straight HTML version of the live draft, which is a really great way to do it if you're drafting in 1997 (grab Palffy!). At this point, it's obvious that hockey is no longer just on the back burner. It's the carbonized crumb behind the stove that was flicked off the back burner.

Normally, you are allowed to enter an ESPN fantasy draft "war room" 30 minutes before the scheduled time. During those 30 minutes, there was no evidence that a draft would take place. Finally, at the appointed time, the draft went live. Only there was no discernible method of selecting players. I watched Sidney Crosby go #1 overall and wondered what I would do when my pick came up at #5. Thornton went #2. And then Crosby went again at #3.

By now it was obvious that the wonky system was making Auto Pilot picks for everyone. Fleury went #4. I got Heatley at #5. Heatley went again at #7 (I'm trying to work out a deal where I get him Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays). Then Fleury went again at 8, 9, 10, and 11. This was going to be some league!

After the first round, the system stopped repeating picks but continued to make our selections for us. We had no way to intervene, which led to some interesting rosters. One team has 9 defensemen, all of them good. Toskala is my #1 goalie. I have no idea if this draft is going to be preserved. If it stands, I'll have a lot of work to do. I doubt we will get our money back, and receiving a free team under current conditions is hardly just compensation.

But the funny part? Amidst all the chaos, guess who the system gave me as my 21st and final selection?

Jeff Tambellini.