The Wonderful World of Press Releases

One of the perks of being a Blog Box member is that I get press releases in my inbox every so often. It's nice. This means I'm not stuck scouring the dregs of the Internet for Islanders information. Seriously, TSN is good and all, but the Islanders are a small-market team that happens to be in the league's basement. We don't even need to get into ESPN and their apathy toward The Coolest Game On Earth; earlier this week, Deadspin informed us that ESPN hadn't updated its NHL Power Rankings in three weeks.

So that leaves us with the Islanders and their press releases. I got two today, which is quite a bit. Usually I might get one a week. So here we go...

 - Thomas Pock Suspended Five Games. Last night, the Jets played the Patriots, as the entire world knows. I watched the game at Miller Ale House in Levittown, got extremely drunk for very little money, and watched the Jets pull out a memorable win. The only downfall of the night was that, of all of the like 90 TVs at Miller Ale House, only one was showing the Islander game. 88 were showing the Jets game, and one was showing the Bruins-Canadiens game. I'm still trying to figure that one out. Long story short, I missed just about all of the game.

Apparently, Thomas Pock elbowed one of the Senators and was handed a major penalty and game misconduct. Today, Colin "I Suck At My Job" Campbell gave Pock a five-game suspension. Now, I knew about the major, but I still haven't seen the hit. That said, I'm convinced it's no worse than the Gary Roberts hit on Kenny Jonsson in 2002, after which Campbell essentially blamed Jonsson for Roberts charging in from the opposite side of the rink to cream him.

Pock's not exactly essential, but he's played all but one game this season and has averaged over 15 minutes per game. There's no word on who's going to replace Pock, so I'll nominate Jack Hillen for the job. Since being sent down to Bridgeport, he's put up five points in seven games. Are there any better options? I don't think so. And even if there are, let's face it - Hillen needs seasoning on the big club, and it's not like the Islanders are a Cup contender or anything. Let's see what he can do.

 - Islanders Pre-Game Shows To Begin Tomorrow. Finally, proof that the powers that be listen to the fans. In a move that totally shocked me, the Islanders announced that MSG Plus will be airing an Islanders pre-game show before every game for the rest of the season. Now, I know why they didn't do a pre-game show in the past, and that would be because nobody watches pre-game shows. Am I going to watch the Islanders' pre-game most nights? Absolutely not. But it's nice to see them care enough to put this together for the fans. Truth be told, it's a good thing for MSG Plus as well. I'm pretty sure an Islanders pre-game show can beat out the other crap they've been showing before Islander games this year.

Remember how MSG Plus swore up and down that they were going to beef up Islanders coverage this year? Well, it took a while, but they're finally starting to come through. We're starting to see little things that make the Islanders look a little less second-rate, like post-game interviews in a studio instead of grabbing some guy on his way to the locker room. We've also been treated to the comedy goldmine that is the duo of Stan Fischler and C.J. Papa at home games. I don't think Fischler attended a single Islanders game last season. The pre-game show serves to move the Islanders up another notch in the perception of neutral fans. It's not much, but it's something that proves the Islanders are worth investing in. Quite frankly, that might be as good as it gets this year.

I'm actually going to tomorrow night's game, so I won't get to watch the inaugural pre-game show. Damn. I once said I'd never go to another Islanders-Senators game. That changed once a friend offered me a free ticket. We'll do our best to cheer the team on. But I fear the highlight of the game might be a delicious pretzel twist. We shall see.

Gary Roberts

Now that the Finals are over with, we can start discussing New York hockey again. There's just one thing I wanted to get off my chest.

We all saw Gary Roberts take a cheap shot at Johan Franzen's head in Game 2. I have to admit, I cringed when I saw this. Concussions are no joke. I suffered a concussion last year in a car accident and it affected me for days. Even now, I have to be really careful, because you're that much more susceptible to another concussion once you've had the first one.

We're seeing the danger of concussions - namely, that the dangers we don't know are far scarier than those we do know - with Ryan Church of the New York Mets now. For those who don't follow baseball, Church suffered a concussion a few weeks back trying to break up a double play. The Mets, in all their infinite wisdom, kept trotting him out there to pinch-hit. Now, he's totally disoriented and can't play. Oh, and Church has been their best player all year. So, in their rush to get the team going, they might have dug themselves an even deeper grave.

How many great athletes have lost their abilities due to concussions? Eric Lindros, Bret Hart, and Wayne Chrebet come to mind. How many others never got the chance to succeed because of concussions? Say what you want about Brett Lindros, but he was a top-ten draft pick and could have been a solid player if head trauma didn't end his career before it even began.

Another player who lost something after a concussion was Kenny Jonsson. With that in mind, let's bring Gary Roberts back into the picture.

No Islander fan will ever forget April 26, 2002. That night, the Islanders didn't just get blown out by the Toronto Maple Leafs, but the wind was taken from their sails in a big way. It could be argued that the franchise is still trying to recover from this night. In the first period, Roberts skated the length of the ice to drill Jonsson into the boards so hard that his helmet cracked. One period later, in the more famous of the two hits, Darcy Tucker took out Michael Peca's legs and put him out of action for seven months.

Peca's injury still bothers me to this day (less so since he tried to do the same thing to Zdeno Chara after returning), but the more important one is Roberts' hit on Jonsson. People look up to Gary Roberts for returning from his own injuries, and he's played an important role on quite a few good teams now. But he now has two strikes against him. However, what has the NHL given him for his transgressions? Five minutes in the penalty box.

Five minutes. For essentially killing one man's NHL career (Jonsson was never the same) and endangering another's. And yet, Chris Simon gets 55 total games for his attacks on Ryan Hollweg and Jarko Ruutu. Now, I'm not going to compare who did worse things to who; that's irrelevant. All I'm saying is that Roberts has gotten off extremely easy. What if Roberts' punch to Franzen's head triggered something in his brain that caused him serious brain damage? It's not out of the realm of possibility; after all, Franzen did have blood seep between his brain and his skull.

There's "old-time hockey", which we all associate with grizzled veterans and playoff beards and guys playing hurt and players policing themselves, all that good stuff. That's fine. But there's a very fine line between "old-time hockey" and the thuggery that many associate with the league thanks to people like Todd Bertuzzi and Chris Simon. Gary Roberts, somehow, is still considered a "good guy". I'm sure he's a wonderful person off the ice; however, I really don't care. He not only put Johan Franzen's career in jeopardy, he could have killed the sport completely. After all, with a record audience tuning in, how would it have looked had Roberts done some serious damage to Franzen? Imagine the field day the hockey-hating media would have had with that one.