On the Islanders Beat

Officially, Islanders goaltender Rick DiPietro still is day-to-day before tonight’s home opener against St. Louis. But in the absence of concrete injury information, the rule of thumb is simple: Buyer beware.

That goes for anyone buying what the Islanders are selling, whether it’s tickets or a pound of bologna. Until you see DiPietro in net, you have the right to remain skeptical.

Obviously, DiPietro did everything in his power to come back from hip surgery in March and knee surgery in June in time for the regular season. But he wasn’t cleared to practice until eight days ago and played just one exhibition game on Monday before coach Scott Gordon scrubbed him as the opening-night starter and went with backup Joey MacDonald in last night’s 2-1 loss in New Jersey.

After that game, Gordon said he wanted to see how DiPietro felt after one more day of rest, but after this morning’s optional skate, Gordon stuck to his policy, saying, “As will be the case all year, we won’t even talk about who’s the starting goaltender.”

DiPietro wasn’t talking either as he avoided a waiting reporter in the locker area. MacDonald skated briefly this morning, and DiPietro remained off the ice, which suggests MacDonald will start against the Blues. But as we learned Friday morning in New Jersey, standard hockey protocol does not apply in this situation. On that day, both goaltenders skated, and DiPietro was first off the ice, which is the usual procedure for the starter. But it turned out to be misdirection.

We won’t know who’s starting tonight until we see which netminder leads the Isles onto the Coliseum ice for the pre-game warmups. At this point, who knows if you even can trust that custom?

What we do know, according to Gordon, is that DiPietro will be the backup if he doesn’t start. As of this morning, Yann Danis had not been called up from the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, who are scheduled to play tonight in Albany.

Asked if DiPietro physically is capable of playing tonight, Gordon said, “Yep. He was capable of playing last night, too.”

By not playing DiPietro against the Devils, Gordon took the possibility of using him for the first three games in four days out of the equation. Smart move. Now, the schedule provides recovery time between games. The Islanders’ third game is a Monday matinee against Buffalo at the Coliseum, and then, they practice for two days before playing Thursday at Tampa Bay and next Saturday in Florida. Then, it’s another five days off until the next home game against Dallas on Oct. 23.

So, it’s fair to assume that Gordon is just playing it cautious and looking at DiPietro’s condition as a short-term situation, right? With the hint of a smile, Gordon said, “If we’re going to make the assumption that he can’t go tonight, yes.”

In other words, assume nothing.