Islanders Notes

After watching tonight's abomination, I'm sort of at a loss for words. But being the trooper I am, I'll try to talk about what we've just seen.

• Tonight was supposed to be my first night in the Blog Box, but I had to work late, so I couldn't do it. Turns out I picked a good night to put in some extra time. While tonight's game was all Dallas, the Stars won tonight's game as soon as the buzzer ended last night's game. After allowing five goals to the Devils, you knew the Stars would come out and destroy the Islanders. And that's exactly what they did.
• While I couldn't make tonight's game, my brother went to his first game of this young season. His thoughts? "The game sucked, but the pretzel twists were amazing." That's exactly what I'd say if I were there.
• The NHL tries pretty hard to keep stats that account for the intangible aspects of hockey. Plus/minus, blocked shots, and hits are among these stats. But there are a few stats that, quite frankly, need to be tallied. Chief among those stats are a stat for penalties drawn. And if penalties drawn was a stat, Sean Avery would be a star. He drew two penalties tonight that led directly to two Dallas power play goals. And maybe if stats like penalties drawn were kept, people wouldn't say stupid things like, "Avery doesn't do anything out there." He does. It's just that it doesn't show up on the stat sheet. And God forbid a player be considered elite without being elite on paper.
• If I have to see that stupid f'ing Nissan Versa commercial one more damn time, I'm going to throw a brick through my TV.
• So you know how the Islanders had like five enforcers in training camp? And you know how not one of them has so much as dressed for this team yet? Well, maybe they could have used one of them tonight. The Isles stunk up the joint in the first period, went down 3-0, blew four consecutive minutes of power play time (including two minutes of a 5-on-3), ended up down 4-1 midway through the second... and nobody even tried to start anything by being physical. In front of their own home crowd, the Islanders sat there and took the beating without fighting back. It doesn't take much to get the crowd going at a hockey game. In an instance like tonight's game, you're looking for a fight, but it doesn't even have to be that drastic. But then again, it's not like the Islanders have a line of big hitters they can throw out there to get the crowd back into the game. It's funny how all these other teams have room for fighters and checkers, and yet the Islanders don't. It's worth questioning.
• I'm not sure what that C.J. Papa soapbox thing was at the end of tonight's broadcast... but I liked it. I could have done without the egregious Lighthouse propaganda like ten times in tonight's game, but Papa's trashing of Gary Bettman is always nice. See, these are the things Deb Kaufman/Placey didn't give us last year. Besides, C.J. Papa is almost as corny as Howie and Billy, and that's tough to do.
• The next time someone trashes the NHL and their TV deal for being fan-unfriendly, point them to the events of tonight. As I write this, it's 10:10 PM, and the World Series game that "started" at 8 PM is in the fifth inning. We're looking at yet another MLB post-season game that will end after midnight. The NBA does this too, starting their Finals games at 9 PM, but nobody questions it because it's ESPN. However, the NHL begins their Finals games at 8, and all you hear is, "Nobody watches hockey anymore, who cares?". That's not fair. The triple-overtime Detroit-Pittsburgh Game 5, probably one of the five most exciting games played in any sport in 2008, ended at approximately the same time all these nine-inning baseball games are ending. Explain that one, MLB.

So that's our game. We've got the Hurricanes on Saturday. Say, when a hurricane comes to town, you're pretty scared. Now, imagine twenty of them! It's Hurricanes-Islanders, on MSG Plus! (Or C-Span 2, or wherever they decide to stick the Islanders. Because, you know, Islanders hockey can't possibly compete with re-runs of "The Game 365 With Fran Healy".)