On the Islanders Beat

The Islanders’ new No. 1 center made his first appearance in a training camp scrimmage today, and he couldn’t have been more impressive. Mike Comrie showed off his quick hands by scoring a hat trick to lead Team Gillies to a 4-2 victory over Team Bossy in regulation time before a shootout narrowed the final margin to 4-3.

Team Bossy took an early 2-0 lead when defenseman Andy Sutton and left wing Jonathan Sim scored against goaltender Rick DiPietro following plays on which he roamed well out of his net and was left scrambling. But Comrie came from behind the net to tuck a quick backhand past Maxime Ouellet at the left post before Tomas Marcinko scored on a rebound to tie the game at 2 after the first half of 45 minutes running time.

In the second half, Comrie netted a rebound in front of goaltender Joey McDonald and completed the hat trick with a nice move on a breakaway to beat McDonald on the short side from just left of the slot.

There was a smile on coach Ted Nolan’s face, and his tongue was planted firmly in his cheek after the scrimmage when he said, “Oh, I don’t know if you noticed that Comrie kid out there, but I said, ‘Boys, we’ve got ourselves a player.’

“The one thing I’m really impressed with is his leadership. Even in practice [on Friday when Comrie’s team didn’t scrimmage], he was taking control, asking questions and skating. He doesn’t go through the motions and wait until the season starts. We talked about it before coming here, and he wanted to be the go-to guy. He wanted to be the man. Early indications are that he’s demonstrating it with his actions.”

When Comrie wasn’t scoring, he was generating opportunities for linemates, Bill Guerin and Ruslan Fedotenko, whose physical play in the corners and in front of the net helped give the diminutive Comrie room to operate. Not that he needs a lot of space to thread a pass or make a move that puts a defenseman on his heels.

“He’s a good passer, but you also have to have players who know how to jump in holes,” Nolan said. “Guerin knows how and Fedotenko knows how. Whoever has the chance to play with Comrie has to have that hockey sense like he does. Like [Miro] Satan has great hockey sense, but he also has to have people playing with him who can get him the puck. Whoever plays with Comrie, there won’t be a lack of getting in the holes, I’m sure.”

CAMP NOTES AND QUOTES: Judging by the first couple of scrimmages, forward Andy Hilbert is in danger of being displaced by free agent Sim as left wing on a line with center Mike Sillinger and right wing Trent Hunter. Sim is strong, plays a physical game and has an underrated scoring touch. It looks to Nolan like a good fit. “I like the way Sim is playing the last couple of days,” Nolan said. “The thing that really impressed me about him is his feistiness. He’s got the skill, and he loves to compete. That was one of the things Garth [GM Snow] and I talked about. Sim plays all aspects of the game. You look at Fedotenko and Guerin, these guys can play both ends of the rink. They’re not just one-dimensional.”

The 6-6, 245-pound Sutton was the Isles’ major free-agent signing on defense. He and partner Radek Martinek did a good job controlling play in their end today. “I thought Sutton was OK yesterday, and he was much better today,” Nolan said. “Those big guys take a little while to get that big engine warmed up. He’s going to get better and better, and he has a little meanness to him. We like what we see for sure. He skates well. I wouldn’t want to be a forward going into the corner with him too often.”

In Friday’s scrimmage, Team Trottier was a 4-0 winner in regulation over Team Bossy. The goals came from free-agent center Josef Vasicek, who also had an assist, and forwards Jeff Tambellini, Blake Comeau and Justin Bourne, son of Islanders great Bob Bourne, who is attending camp along with former Isle Gerry Hart, whose son, Jordan, is playing defense for Team Trottier. Vasicek was impressive working with Tambellini and Satan.

ADVISORY TO READERS POSTING COMMENTS: As my Newsday colleague Steve Zipay recently noted on his Rangers blog, editors and writers at Newsday.com share the concerns of readers about the level of vulgarity and profanity that has appeared in the comment sections of our blogs. Most of it is a result of a small number of posters determined to ruin the enjoyment of the majority who are interested in a lively hockey discussion in which a variety of opinions not only are tolerated but welcomed so long as the debate doesn’t degenerate to name-calling.

Policing the boards is a time-consuming task for writers with several other responsibilities. In the case of the Islanders Beat blog, I had no time to edit comments while away on vacation in August and while I was occupied with matters related to a death in my family. Although many readers have submitted comments to the first blog from Islanders training camp, a temporary hold invoked by Newsday.com has prevented them from being published. I’m not certain when the comment section will resume, but now that I have returned to work, I can assure you that I will be monitoring the comments whenever time permits.

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