With Brendan Witt on the shelf for an undetermined period of time with an undisclosed knee injury, rookie Jack Hillen will be back in the lineup against Carolina tonight at the Coliseum. Andy Sutton took part in today’s optional morning skate, but he remains out while recovering from hand surgery.
This means the Isles’ defense is the highly mobile crew of Hillen, Freddy Meyer, Mark Streit, Chris Campoli, Bruno Gervais and Thomas Pock. But the undersized Meyer is the only true hitter in the bunch, although Streit has tried to step up the level of his physical play a notch and Campoli is willing to bang when he has a chance. Both teams will be going after the puck aggressively in the offensive zone, but the Hurricanes obviously have spent a lot more time in that type of system under Peter Laviolette compared to the Isles’ six games under Scott Gordon.
NEXT-GENERATION SUTTER ARRIVES: Carolina’s Brandon Sutter, who was born on Long Island when his father Brent was playing for the Islanders, is the first son of the Sutter brothers to make it to the NHL. He scored his first goal Thursday night in Pittsburgh. Brandon is the ninth member of his family drafted by the NHL, joining his father, who now coaches the Devils, uncles Brian, Darryl, Duane, Rich and Ron and cousins Shaun and Brett. Brent coached Brandon in juniors at Red Deer, Alberta before taking the Devils job last season.
STAY TUNED: I’ll be posting another blog later this afternoon, including Gordon’s reaction to Thursday’s disappointing 5-3 loss to Dallas and his view of his team’s progress in adapting to a new system of play.
Comments (2)
silver lining
isles finish with the worst record in the league and get the first overall pick and also draft 4 picks in the second round (4th second round pick from trading comrie) in a draft that is considered better than last years.
also due to the economy the nhl salary cap goes down 5 million dollars. which will allow the islanders who will have their entire defense and goaltenders signed and 8 of their top 12 forwards signed and still be 20 million dollars under a hypothetical 50 million dollar cap.
now with most of other teams in the league up against a 55 million dollar cap we will be in an extremely beneficial position. i dont know who the top free agents in the league will be next year but if 20 teams cannot even bid on them that puts us in a position of strength. imagine adding taveras through the draft and gaborik as a free agent. okposo and bailey get better. and our defense and goalie still in place.
which makes us have absolutely no interest right now of adding salary via trade a la mcabe or anyone else for that matter. better deals will come next year when teams are more desperate to get rid of higher salaries and there are better players available that will have to be moved.
Think about how many 2nd rd picks we could get for the 1st overall pick in this years draft. Screw Tavaras i want more 2nd rounders!!! Oh and an Enforcer would be nice for this SUPER weak AHL like team.