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NHL Preview - New York Islanders
While it might still be a long way off, the opening of the football season, and the formality of the cricket has brought my attention back to that most noble of winter time pursuits, staying up late into the night watching NHL on the tele.
Each week from now until the pucks start dropping I will preview each division one by one focusing on a team from each, telling you the story of the summer and how the team looks going into the winter.
We’re going to start in the Eastern Conference with the Atlantic division and take as our team, the New York Islanders.
In many respect the Islanders are the ‘other’ team in New York. The Rangers were part of the Original Six, play in Manhattan, and have won the Stanley Cup more recently (although that was back in 1994) than their out of town neighbors.
The Isles for their part have a long running dispute over their arena as they look for a more modern, larger, better revenue generate building to help push the team forward.
This looked likely to happen earlier this summer but the plans fell through leaving the management searching for a Plan B, it looks like there will be an NHL team in Nassau County for while.
Back on the ice there are reasons to be cheerful. I mentioned the Rangers Stanley Cup victory, they actually have the same number of wins as the Islanders, 4 each. All four Islander victories came back to back, retaining the Stanley Cup from 1980 through to 1983.
However they haven’t won a playoff series since 1993. 2007 was the last time they appeared post season.
Since then they have been on the rebuilding track. In 2009 they selected John Taveres as the No1 overall pick in the draft and a few seasons down the line he looks ready to kick on and put some serious points on the board, if he can get some help from his teammates.
The line up should be boosted by former No5 pick Nino Niederreiter who after a few games last year is expected to make the line up full time this season. Mark Streit and Kyle Okposo will both return after missing all of last season through injuries.
But the biggest question this year remains in net. Rick DiPietro. Back in 2006 he was signed to a 15 year $67 million contract. Since then he appears to be perpetually injured. In 2008-9 he played 5 games, the season after that 8 games, last years he played 26 games giving up 88 goals. If the Islanders want big things from this year they need big things from him.
Having said that they could possibly have Evgeni Nabokov. Signed off of waivers last year it appears he refused to report for training with the team, they suspended him for the rest of the season. Now, having apparently calmed down this summer he has said he intends to play for the Islanders. Heaven knows what will happen between now and opening night, but an additional goaltender of undoubted quality could definitely help this team as they look for move forward.
Overall I think the playoff will be just out of the teams reach this year. There are too many good goaltenders in the division given the other teams the advantage over the whole season. But a serious push is very much on the cards. And who knows, a good season may help to grease those wheels that bring in a new rink. It’s not quite the start of something big, but there are glimmers at the end of the tunnel.
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-3 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-5 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-4 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-4 |
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| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
2-4 |
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| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
|---|
5-8 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-2 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
3-7 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
|---|
- Adam Walker
- Alex Birch
- Andy Pierce
- Chris Gent
- Christopher Beal
- Craig Simpson
- Dave Simms
- Elliott Stanley
- Gareth Chalmers
- James Broughton
- James Gordon
- Katy Madgwick
- Luke Catterson
- Mark Briggs
- Mark Duell
- Mat Young
- Patrick Smyth
- Promotion
- Russ Morrell
- Seanna Murdock
- Stephen Dowson
- Stewart Roberts
- Tom Forster
- Vicki Smart
- William Lyon
