The Final Score

3:15 p.m.

ISLANDERS TRADE!

Islanders sent troubled tough guy Chris Simon to Minnesota Wild for a sixth round pick.

Reaction from the bloggers:

"They wanted him out at all costs, and it explains why he was rushed back to the ice once the suspension was done," B.D. Gallof of the The Bouncing Puck says. "There was still a big fan outcry over his actions."

"This does not surprise me, especially when we're finding out the Islanders had contract offers on the table for all of their free agents except Chris Simon," Tom Liodice of The Tiger Track says. "Hopefully we'll see a little more youth on the Islanders now that Simon is gone."

"I feel it's a positive they moved the distraction from the team, and I feel they can now in turn and flip the pick in another move," Mike Schuerlein of IslesBlogger says.

"I'm getting over the initial surprise, but I suppose the writing was on the wall," Ken Dick of Okposo Net says.

3:08 p.m.

I love Wikipedia.

Someone already has updated Marian Hossa's page to say he plays for the Penguins.

When did that trade break, about 10 minutes ago????

The Penguins gave up Erik Christensen, Colby Armstrong and prospect Angelo Esposito. We're not sure if any of those guys were the Penguin players who asked us bloggers earlier for an update on trades.

The Penguins also acquired Pascal Dupuis in the deal, and they also acquired Hal Gill from Toronto for a second and fifth round pick.

3:05 p.m.

So far no word on what the Islanders did (or did not do) as the deadline officially passed five minutes ago.

Tom Liodice of The Tiger Track is a 24-year-old teacher's assistant in Rockville Centre who has done freelance writing for minor-league hockey publications. His blog covers the Sound Tigers and the Islanders, and he estimates he's been to all but six or seven of the Islanders home games and maybe 15 home games for the Sound Tigers. Lots of driving...

2:59 p.m.

* In what will probably be the catch of the day, Pittsburgh acquired forward Marian Hossa from Atlanta.

2:58 p.m.

* Rangers acquired D Christian Backman from St. Louis for a fourth-round pick. Big whoop.

2:53 p.m.

Seven minutes to go, and I'm going to use this time to fill you on the backgrounds of the bloggers I'm with. I already posted B.D.'s background.

Mike Schuerlein of IslesBlogger is a 27-year-old air conditioning and heating mechanic who works for a family business. Has season tickets and has been to all but four home games. Usually sits in the crowd - section 309 - until the final five minutes when he comes down to the blog box. "But today I may sit here all game because I've been here all day," he said. He's also been a published writer and photographer, which has helped him in his blogging venture. (We also already know he prefers Home Depot to Lowe's).

2:40 p.m.

Twenty minutes to go, and the bloggers here are discussing the possibility that the Canadiens are interested in Satan or Fedotenko from the Islanders and perhaps would give up Long Islanders Mike Komisarek (West Islip) and Chris Higgins (Smithtown)...

Now that would be a story, huh?

2:25 p.m.

Thirty five minutes left...

2:17 p.m.

Nothing doin' here. Chris Botta came up to chat. He says something may still happen, because last year the Ryan Smyth deal happened minutes before the deadline.

So we'll see.

1:55 p.m.

Okay, now we're getting to the good stuff.

Mike Schuerlein of IslesBlogger just identified Miroslav Satan as his favorite player. Tom Liodice of The Tiger Track said it's because Mike bumped into Satan at Home Depot.

"We were buying light bulbs together," Mike said.

Mike denies that's the reason Satan is his favorite player.

That's okay. I'm just interested in the Home Depot story.

Here's Mike's blog post after the chance meeting: http://www.islesblogger.com/2007/11/26/so-i-ran-into-satan.

(This is the Home Depot on Old Country Road in Westbury, Mike said.)

While we're on the topic, Tom says about a week later he bumped into Andy Hilbert at Dick's in Roosevelt Field. "He just happened to park next to me," he said. "We both got out of cars at the same time."

1:53 p.m.

B.D. just told me there is a blog making fun of me for mistaking Jordan Staal as Eric Staal.

My bad.

Good thing they didn't click on my blog when I had the wrong Staal playing for the wrong team - I had him on the Islanders, and Mike corrected me about 20 minutes later.

Just don't tell anyone, ok?

1:50 p.m.

This dark, empty, creepy, cold Nassau Coliseum has the feel of bomb shelter, as Mike Schuerlein of IslesBlogger aptly pointed out about an hour ago. And we may have a fight brewing, too. Mike just said he thinks his readers are leaving to go to B.D.'s blog. Those are fighting words.

1:49 p.m.

* Washington acquired forward Matt Cooke from Vancouver for forward Matt Pettinger.

1:43 p.m.

One hour, 17 minutes left...

1:36 p.m.

* Washington acquired Sergei Fedorov from Columbus prospect defenseman Theo Ruth. (Ken Dick of Okposo Net says, "if this was 1994, that would be an impact deal, but I don't really see much of an upside for Federov anymore."

1:29 p.m.

ISLANDERS TRADE! ISLANDERS TRADE! ISLANDERS TRADE! ISLANDERS TRADE!

The moment we've all been waiting for!

Chris Botta just walked on the ice and yelled to us that the Islanders have acquired defenseman Rob Davison from San Jose for a seventh round pick.

None of the bloggers here know Davison.

B.D. Gallof of the The Bouncing Puck says, "I may have heard of the name..."

Ken Dick of Okposo Net found his profile on the Web first and said, "I'm not loving his numbers."

Obviously, it's a depth deal, more than anything else.

Hopefully this isn't it for the day.

1:22 p.m.

Sparked by our conversation about tracking viewers on our blogs, Mike Schuerlein of IslesBlogger reported a little while back that someone from Russia is viewing his blog. He wondered whether it's Alexei Yashin.

BTW, in other Yashin news, Carol Alt is still alive in the Celebrity Apprentice.

1:20 p.m.

Ken Dick of Okposo Net is sitting at the other end of the table and is rather quiet.

1:19 p.m.

Two Penguin players who are running the rafters at Nassau Coliseum stopped by the blog box to ask us for updates on trades. We told them to read our blogs.

Actually, we told them what's happened so far. They seemed intrigued by the Foote deal.

I asked them if they had any info for us. But they just ran away without responding.

1:14 p.m.

* Colorado gets defenseman Adam Foote for a first-round pick from Columbus first-round pick. (B.D. Gallof of the The Bouncing Puck doesn't like the idea of trading a first-rounder in this upcoming deep draft, but he likes the idea of Foote returning to Colorado where he once was a captain. Colorado is definitely upgrading its defense today.)

Lunch was good. Thanks for asking.

12:57 p.m.

I was just going to write about how someone whom we believe is Penguins player Jordan Staal is currently running up and down the steps to the rafters here.

(B.D. Gallof of the The Bouncing Puck tried to tell me that's the initiation process to the blog box, but I'm not falling for it.)

I was going to search the Web to try to confirm that's Staal. But Corey Witt, Islanders media relations guru, just told us lunch is being served in room 7. It's Italian. So I'm off to find room 7.

No one steal my laptop, please.

12:50 p.m.

Someone from France is reading Tom Liodice's The Tiger Track blog. I asked how he knows that. "You'd be surprised where I have cameras," he explained. Hmmmmmm. (Then he said, "I shouldn't have said that.)

For the record, he was joking. I assume you know that.

(Actually, he has a blog tracker that tells him the location of IP addresses viewing his Web page. He just said he has 12 hits from Denmark today.)

12:47 p.m.

Ken Dick of Okposo Net just arrived. He's the fourth blogger to join the party, not counting myself. And he may be a bit pompous. The first thing he said, "Can someone give me some power?" Turns out he was talking about his laptop. But the guys still got on his case.

Oh, and he's already ripped his credential. "Can't take you anywhere," Mike Schuerlein of IslesBlogger said. "You're going to need that for 12 hours!"

12:41 p.m.

Three deals just came in. Not very exciting, so we're going to pass on analyzing them.

* Ottawa acquired forward Martin Lapointe from Chicago for a 2008 sixth-round pick.

* Colorado acquired Ruslan Salei from Florida for defenseman Karlis Skarstins and a 2008 third-round pick.

* Carolina traded for forward Tuomo Ruutu from Chicago for forward Andrew Ladd.

12:37 p.m.

It's getting a little slow here. The Penguins left the ice, most of the lights inside the Coliseum went off and it's all quiet in here except for us talking. Kind of creepy. And Mike Schuerlein of IslesBlogger just admitted he's a "closet Dane Cook fan."

Not anymore...

12:23 p.m.

I'll use this break to introduce you to one of our three bloggers, B.D. Gallof.

He's the one who gave me the idea of spending the day in the blog box. Back a few months ago when I wrote that Al Arbour's return to the bench shouldn't officially count in the record books, B.D. invited me to spend a game in the blog box. (I did my best to push it off as long as possible ... in fear for my safety, of course...)

Anyway, here we are today. B.D. is 37 years old, newly married and works in the city as a art production and design manager for a large business to business publisher. He estimates that he's been to only half of the Islanders home games, mostly because it's such a long day for him. He took off from work to be here today.

You can see his blog at The Bouncing Puck.

12:20 p.m.

Okay, we finally have a break in the action from the trades here.

As far as I can tell, there are 13 people inside the Nassau Coliseum. Nine of them are Penguin players practicing on the ice. Three of them are Islanders bloggers sitting in the last row of section 201. And the last one is me, of course.

Two hours and 40 minutes until the deadline...

12:05 p.m.

A flurry of trades are coming in, keeping us bloggers here in the blog box busy. I haven't even had the chance to give you the life stories of these three bloggers I'm sitting with in a cold Nassau Coliseum. Anyway, here's the latest deal:

* Dallas gets forward Brad Richards and goalie Johan Holmqvist from Tampa Bay for goalie Mike Smith, forward Jussi Jokinen and forward Jeff Halpern. (B.D. Gallof of The Bouncing Puck said Tampa needed to move money, aka making Richards expendable, and in return got a talented goalie in Smith and a couple of young players.)

* Washington acquired goalie Christobal Huet from Montreal for a second-round pick. (Mike Schuerlein of IslesBlogger says Washington helped their goaltender situation and is surprised it only took a second-round pick to get Huet. It appears Montreal is gearing up for a big move, he says.)

12:01 p.m.

* San Jose acquires defenseman Brian Campbell in exchange from Buffalo for forward Steve Bernier and a 2008 first round pick. (Tom Liodice of The Tiger Track says from the Islanders perspective it seems reminiscient of the Ryan Smyth deal from last season; Buffalo and Campbell couldn't come to the terms so the easy thing to do was to ship him out.)

11:55 a.m.

Just shot a video of the three Islanders bloggers talking about the Mike Comrie deal. Sending it in now. Will touch on the Brad Richards deal in a few.

11:36 a.m.

Tom Liodice of The Tiger Track just showed up. He says hello.

11:27 a.m.

The two trades that have taken place so far, according to my new Islanders blogger friends, are as follows:

* The Florida Panthers have acquired defenseman Wade Belak from Toronto for a 2008 fifth round pick. (B.D. Gallof of The Bouncing Puck says this is strictly a depth move for Florida and Toronto needs to free up cap space.)

* The Devils acquired defenseman Bryce Salvador from St. Louis for forward Cam Janssen. (Mike Schuerlein of IslesBlogger says New Jersey strengthened their defense, which was one of their top concerns, and the Blues got a little stronger because Janssen is a tough player.)

11:25 a.m.

The Penguins just took the ice for their morning skate. For whatever that's worth.

11:23 a.m.

There are three hours and 37 minutes remaining until the NHL trade deadline, and I'm watching the zamboni drive around the ice here at a cold Nassau Coliseum. This place is so cold when it's empty, it feels like Dave Letterman's studio.

Hopefully the Islanders do something big. In the meantime, I'll make sure to tell you all about the lives of the two Islander bloggers who took off from their real jobs so they can be here today. I'll also link to their blogs in a few. So stick around, please.

11:19 a.m.

Just scuried back upstairs from the locker room, where the two bloggers, myself and about 12 other print and television reporters huddled around Mike Comrie.

The Islanders center, speaking after today's optional skate, said everything you'd expect him to say after signing a one-year extension. He's happy, likes it here, thinks the Islanders can win, etc.

10:56 a.m.

Just got settled here in the blog box, which is a table at the top of section 201.

There are two Islanders bloggers here, and both of them have already asked me about the Al Arbour column. I'll explain more about that later, because I have to run.

The bloggers are now about to talk to Mike Comrie, who this morning signed a one-year extension with the Islanders.