Brent Thompson Named Assistant/Notables

 Islanders website: announced today that Brent Thompson has officially been named an assistant coach.

 “Brent did a great job in Bridgeport last year molding our young prospects into a division-winning team,” said Islanders General Manager Garth Snow. “With his coaching experience and defensive expertise, we’re excited for him to join our coaching staff.” 

Thompson did an ITV interview.

 Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio reports Bridgeport is also losing Matt Bertani to the Islanders, he will be the team’s new video coach, and that Eric Boguniecki is expected back. 

NYIFC Comments:
You can go in ten different directions with this because many organizations keep assistant coaches through several coaching changes, while others do not.

Is this another potential successor for Jack Capuano if the club does not start well, should he have had the right to pick his own head coaches as many NHL organizations do permit, even thought his experience since 2005 has only been with this organization?

Capuano was sent down to Bridgeport after Steve Stirling’s dismissal.  

Bottom line does a rookie AHL coach in 29th place at the end of the calendar year 2011, that takes a team to fifteen games over five hundered/first place deserve a promotion or do you want him teaching prospects in what will largely be a different Bridgeport team?

Is this coach who was a successful ECHL hire a year ago ready to be an NHL assistant? 

Despite what happens with the NHL CBA, Bridgeport will need a head coach at some future point.

Unless something changes the Islanders bench will carry one less assistant, but three assistants in many cases were one extra.

On a related note, former assistant, Dean Chynoweth has been named head coach of the Lake Erie Monsters an affiliate of the Colorado Avalanche AHL.com

NYIFC Comments:  
Thrilled for Dean Chynoweth, now let’s see if Scott Allen can land a head coaching job. 
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Griffin Reinhart did his first interview since draft night.

NYIFC Comments:
Outside of the ITV interview draft night beyond Tsn entertainment interview, we never got to see him get a formal interview on stage during the draft.
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Tsn.ca: Report Blake Comeau (not qualified) was resigned by the Flames which was no surprise given management’s comments they wanted him back.

New York Islander Fan Central

Okposo & Bailey vs Coaching/Development/Winning

For those who recall, Kyle Okposo, did not play a game under Scott Gordon a year ago.

He did play briefly under Jack Capuano in Bridgeport here  and no doubt worked under Capuano in summer or training camps.

The point is Capuano and Okposo were familiar with one another when he returned from his shoulder injury in January 2011.

Kyle Okposo is a young player, he’s had success and shown he has first line potential. 

Jack Capuano is in a tough spot here. He’s benched Okposo, put him on the top line where a pick of his potential should thrive with Tavares, however now again is off that line for Parenteau.

Okposo’s been used with Nielsen most of the time since his return in 2011, that produced five goals, but did not get a lot of notice because of Grabner’s success on that line combined with his injury. 

Seems the only thing that brought immediate improvement for a short-time was Okposo’s benching this season, and not just the two quick goals against the Flyers, but his dive to the net returned.

Of course the numbers are important, however he’s simply not generating chances, skating well, and visible in games for all the wrong reasons.

There are no easy answer here, this is not the same player before his injury.

The Milbury plan and a trade should not even be a thought.

The only acceptable plan is the staff does everything possible to get Okposo back to the player he used to be.

That’s part of what the staff is paid to do, that’s why the player got a five year contract extension. 
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As for Josh Bailey, many have read our 8/25/11 entry about him being mismanaged by the club.

Bailey dismissed returning to play his third forward position (RW) against Washington.

Despite scoring this blog feels players who teams use first round picks to draft, must play their natural position.

Bailey’s been different than Okposo, he’s had very visible games with a lot of unproductive wingers.

The answer is not to make Bailey a full time wing again. 
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Coaching:
The facts are the players here all praise this organization, that’s a reflection of the head coach.

Blake Comeau went both ways first crediting his work with Capuano in Bridgeport, then praising Scott Gordon, who picked Nate Thompson over him and played the communication with Capuano card.

Rolston also had some comments that seemed odd considering the minutes and role he was given on the club’s powerplay. 

One reason Jack Capuano was given a contract to return in 2011-12 was familiarity with the Isles prospects.

Garth Snow made clear recently he’s very happy with his head coach.

Should he be satisfied getting nothing statistically from most of the veterans, or little aside from the natural progression Tavares has made with Parenteau?

The kind of natural progress you expect from Okposo and Bailey at this point, even without the statistics? 

Or is the reality no coach was going to make some of these veterans more productive, and this collectively hurt the ability of many forwards to do better?

Reasoner/Rolston second half numbers a year ago would suggest one thing.

Parenteau, Moulson progress/improvement says that works both ways.

Washington Loss:
Little to add from twitter comments.

Steve Staios does his absolute best in a role he should never have been entrusted with.

This team came out and should have been down four goals in the first period, even if they won 2-0 it was a terrible response to Sunday’s game.

How they won the previous game in Washington is how they needed to play Monday, the scoreboard never reflected the disparity in skating most of that game. 

Upcoming Games:
Flyers come limping home after having a very tough trip to the west coast where they should be tired, it will make no difference if the Isles continue to struggle in games.

Will we see the Islander team that went into Philadelphia and earned a 5-2 win with excellent skating or the game where they looked shorthanded for sixty five minutes and Nabokov stole a shootout?

What’s also is clear very soon, someone’s going to have to start a game besides Nabokov.

Our new twitter box has it’s first update on that front. 

New York Islander Fan Central

10/14 Mangano’s Latest Coliseum Plan Announced/NY Notables

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Ed Mangano announced his latest plan for the Nassau Coliseum site on 10/14, it could mean a new Coliseum on the Northern part of the Hub constructed, or a renovation of the current facility.

The study, which needs state funding/private investment, was from something called Accelerate-Nassau-Now which had images in rough sketches.

NYIFC Comments:
Page eight, nine, ten, fourteen are the sections on the Coliseum. Twenty, twenty one relied on some Lighthouse background information.

Means nothing unless Charles Wang agrees to a lease extension.

New York Notables:
It’s obvious DiPietro’s concussion will leave him on the sidelines for an undetermined time, as long as, it’s not of the Crosby/Vaske variety, with lingering ramifications, it’s not of consequence.

The key for DiPietro are his knee issues, and game rust.
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Jack Capuano sounded like Scott Gordon at 4-1-2 last October in his post-game, he knows something’s not right with his roster even after a 5-1 win. Staios made a great play on Stamkos, the lack of speed on this defense cannot be hidden for many nights.
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I did not have clear picture against Tampa, it seemed Comeau was back on right wing, loved what I saw from Hamonic, Bailey, and Martin.
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The prospect blog has the updated status for Kabanov.
The long version of what’s happened?
Lewiston folds.
Montreal Junior draft his rights in QMJHL dispersal draft.
Montreal Junior change their name to Blainville-Boisbriand Armada.
Islanders send Kabanov to Blainville-Boisbriand Armada after camp.
Blainville-Boisbriand Armada have no apparent roster spot for Kabanov.
Kabanov signs an eight game tryout contract with Farjestd BK SEL on 10/13.
Blainville-Boisbriand Armada trade his QMJHL rights to Shawinigan Cataractes on 10/14.

NYIFC Comments:
The Kirill Kabanov saga leaves him with either an eight game tryout contract with Farjestd in the SEL, or he reports to Shawinigan. Only questions are does the tryout contract obligate him to play in the SEL before going to Shawinigan?

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New York Notables: Assistant Captains/Comeau Moving To RW

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ITV: Released interviews with Head Coach, Jack Capuano, and several of the players. The big news of the day is once again, Blake Comeau, changes postion to open the season as a right wing, despite the fact changing his position in the past has hurt his progression.

NYIFC Comments:
I saw Comeau in the video feed from Bridgeport playing right wing.

That likely means Rolston slides to left wing where he had his forty points in his final forty games a year ago vs a twenty four goal player, who’s production has been very streaky at best over six months. History says, this hurts Comeau, who has struggled with this exact move made by several past coaches.

NYIFC twitter feed has notable moves on Thursday, which include assistant captains named, plus Jeremy Colliton being named Sound Tigers captain, with another menu of goal songs.

NHL.com: Has a recap of many of the ITV interviews Thursday.

Ct Post/Greenwich Times: Has Colliton’s comments along with several players named as assistant captains.

Fort Erie Times: Includes a footnote that Jordan Bailey (brother of Josh Bailey) is the teams early leading scorer.

Here’s NYIFC Official Vote for the permanent goal song—NOTHING BUT THE CLASSIC SIREN:

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Blake Comeau Resigns With New York/Notables

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If Charles Wang issued a press release here.

Islanders website: Announced today that Blake Comeau has agreed to terms on a one-year deal.

NYIFC Comments:
Our fans could use some positive news, and a hockey signing of a player avoiding arbitration is just that.

Twenty four goal players are not easy to find on the open market, and this organizations left wing prospect depth took a hit this summer with the loss of Jason Gregiore, along with the Bridgeport losses.

Notables:
Color make shocked the Devils took Trent Hunter in a trade, then bought him out given he passed his physical. The entire NHL passing on Hunter in waivers says a lot about how far his stock has fallen because of his injuries. I keep seeing Mark Parrish when his full-time NHL days were winding down.

These notions the Islanders are operating at a floor contradict the past before a salary floor when they were spending forty million, and last season when somehow this franchise supposedly scraping the floor traded 4.5m in salary last December?

The club easily could have kept Hunter and his cap hit instead of trading it if there was this scramble to reach a floor, especially if another injury would have insurance cover his salary.

This blog was no fan of Rolston last December, even at half that price on re-entry waivers, however he had an outstanding second half, plays all three positions, and is reportedly good for a lockeroom.

So far this summer Garth Snow replaced two players with three goals/eleven points with twenty seven goals/sixty six points.

All the one goal games, that cannot hurt.

Evgeny Nabokov, says last year, he was going through a rough time physically and mentally? Ok, fair enough.

Come to camp, quietly work hard and be the player he was two years ago.

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New York’s Game Plan Moving Forward In Free Agency:

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The deadline for players filing arbitration is 7/5 at 5pm EST. Blake Comeau will be the player to watch here, we could find out here if Haley/others accept their qualifying offers.

Updated:
Comeau has filed for salary arbitration.

Updated 7/5:
Islanders website: announced today they have agreed to terms with center Trevor Frischmon on a one-year, two-way (NHL/AHL) contract.

Colorado Springs Gazette: June 30th had his comments about playing in the NHL and why he was considering moving on from Columbus.
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The best move so far by the New York Islanders is the one they have not made.

Still, Garth Snow has spots to be filled/key players to be signed/re-signed.

Forwards:
Given the forward prospects that have left Bridgeport, the current open roster spots, with the possible chance of Blake Comeau in a year going UFA, Snow should be working hard to sign left wing Jason Gregoire.

Grand Forks Herald: who broke Gregoire’s leaving school reported he was at the draft, and interviewed with nine teams.

Gregoire is not Blake Wheeler, even if he used his clause to explore UFA, but he is a talented prospect with scoring ability.

If Gregiore signed here and did well in camp, it could open the roster for a possible Comeau trade (if he cannot be signed) without some of the contracts comparable left wingers were given on 7/1.

Unless Snow and his staff have targeted another Matt Moulson or P.A Parenteau for Bridgeport, this is the best move to supplement his AHL prospect base after losing Figren, Joensuu…..likely Tomas Marcinko, unless he makes the NHL per his new contract.

Another thing to consider is before Matt Martin uses up his NHL waiver eligibility (160 games) it would be only prudent to seriously consider him returning to Bridgeport and rediscovering his offensive game on the top lines, while Marcinko receives a full look here, who has been signed.

Martin was not as visible as he was offensively the previous year (granted a five game sample) on a regular basis, perhaps it being on the fourth line/perhaps not?

Bottom line here, the Islanders second/third round picks in 2006 are gone, one of the fourth rounders from that draft is signed to play only in the NHL or Europe.

Martin needs to play more, Gregiore would be a good player to have in your system, Marcinko should get an NHL chance before departing likely for good.

Backline:
This team has Eaton, Mottau, Jurcina signed for next season, they CANNOT afford another middle of the road veteran blue-liner like McCabe, Kaberle ect taking a spot in this lineup. Their limited offensive/defensive ability, with declining skills makes that a non-starter at this point in their careers.

The players in Bridgeport are better potential options, especially Calvin deHaan, perhaps Wishart and Katic right now.

Katic’s speed/skill flat out impressed me…..a lot.

If Snow wants to trade Eaton, Mottau or Jurcina, then sign McCabe or Kaberle that’s acceptable, not before.

There are twenty eight other teams interested in trading for Keith Yandle, it’s not happening unless he’s signed long-term in advance and Garth Snow includes a top prospect, or a top draft choice.

You cannot trade for Yandle as a rental, Phoenix needs to win immediately so someone will purchase the club and keep it in Arizona. Don Maloney is likely not going to be retained if the franchise is moved, so his personal best short-term bet is Yandle.

Goaltender:
No one is trading a top defender for Nabokov, who’s 500k right now looks expensive compared to what Vokoun got, but a steal compared to what so many others received.

What’s Next:
For the moment getting contracts done with Josh Bailey, Blake Comeau, perhaps Frans Nielsen beyond one year, along with the move stated above, should be the priority.

If something cannot get done with Nielsen or Comeau, you can include both in a trade for a quality defender. Nielsen’s trade value may never be higher, if he has another year struggling on offense it will decline.

No law Tavares-Strome-Bailey cannot be your three centers by fall 2012.

The Dany Heatley NHL tour has now stopped in Minnesota for Martin Havlat here in a late Sunday trade.

From The Hypocrisy/Double Standard Or Selective Amnesia Department:
NY Daily News: decided on an unnamed editorial blasting the Coliseum project 7/4 that is so pathetic, it ignores the same NY Daily News article Yankee Stadium and Citi Field are the Houses That You Built from January of 2009.

NYIFC Comments:
Would not shock me at all if Cablevision picked up the phone and asked for a negative editorial as the LIBN did on June 30th displaying some very selective amnesia regarding other local teams.

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UPDATED: Next Up For New York 6/26 Qualifying Offers/Notables

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New York Islander Fan Central Prospect Blog: Has more updates/articles on 2011 draft class.

Working on newspaper/website comments from all the new players selected, and a perfect image of that great looking 40th Anniversary logo.

The NHL Draft is concluded, but business is ongoing.

The deadline to make qualifying offers to the teams restricted free agents is Monday at 5pm.

If Garth Snow was asked about who he qualified (as many professional beat-writers have asked respective general managers around the NHL), it did not make the local paper that controls New York Islander coverage as of this time. The beat-writer covering our team, keeps writing Ryan Jankowski, was dismissed two months after the Canadians hired him per their website?

In short: Josh Bailey, Blake Comeau, Michael Haley, Jack Hillen, Dylan Reese,
Ty Wishart, Dustin Kohn, Tomas Marcinko must receive qualifying offers Monday for the team to retain their rights.

Updated:
Josh Bailey, Blake Comeau, Micheal Haley, Jesse Joensuu, Dylan Reese and Ty Wishart were qualified. Jack Hillen was not as of this time, but subject to change before deadline.

Michael Fornabaio tweeted: Dustin Kohn not on that list of qualified as of Sunday. Tomas Marcinko only other unsigned RFA, not likely to get qualified, this is also subject to change before deadline.

Ct Post: Mr Fornabaio has a bit more, but nothing new on qualifying offers to the Bridgeport centric-players.

Bruno Gervais, must now be qualified by Tampa on Monday.

Rob Hisey, Robin Figren are restricted, however both signed in Europe. It is possible Snow could qualify them, as he did with Jeremy Colliton.

Some quality players are already salary-cap casualties, who will not be qualified and on the market as unrestricted free agents on Friday.

NYIFC 6/12/11: Entry went into more depth on qualifying offers process and what is next in that process.
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It was quite an interesting few days on the trade market with so many clubs scrambling to add/subtract cap space, or those which made outright huge trades, especially Minnesota-San Jose. Dale Tallon, who signed Brian Campbell to his contract with Chicago, traded for it once again in Florida.

As I wrote the other day, the CBA needs some changes, but it’s working.

Hopefully Nikita Filatov becomes a star in Ottawa, same as I hoped he did with Columbus. Only issue here is the Columbus Dispatch beat-writers constant digs at the New York Islanders, but not the team they cover, for what was a player clearly mismanaged by the Bluejackets.

Fliatov also bears responsibility.

A lot of that going around this league in the media, knock other markets, not the one where paper needs local team advertising money.
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All I ever read is the Islanders are scrambling to reach the cap floor. Really?

The Islanders seemed to subtract Wisniewski/Roloson and still were over any cap floor last December? Hamonic’s NHL contract was added early last season, Wishart’s first-round contract was called up 2/5/11. Koskinen was called up with his contract, same with Poulin?

Don’t believe everything you read in newspapers guessing, or fans sites doing cap numbers, that are not official NHL affiliate outlets. I understand in the absence of official league information folks will accept anything, however that does not make it correct.

How do you think Forbes decided to become NHL experts with only estimates?
Our professional media also uses these kinds of sites now also, very sloppy.
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No issue here with Ryan Smyth doing whatever he is allowed to do within the framework of his contract. The Kings can always refuse his request. This is another advantage of front-loading, because Colorado paid the bulk of his money early, Los Angeles paid less, and now if he goes back to Edmonton they will pay the least.

His average cap-hit only helps Edmonton, it’s money they will not pay him.

Updated:
Smyth is finally a confirmed trade to Edmonton.

Darcy Regier really needed Ales Kotalik’s three million salary that badly? Robyn Regehr is a solid player, but either Regier was watching old game films of Kotalik or he caught Terry Pegula in the honeymoon spending period?

Color me skeptical Ted Nolan, lasts very long now that Rochester is the Buffalo Sabres affiliate. Regier/Ruff go back to Nolan’s time or replaced Nolan. Terry Pegula has his work cut out.

The lack of thanks/praise to former owner Tom Golisano, who kept that franchise going is not appropriate.
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The Islanders website coverage was frankly not good this weekend, virtually nothing archived (at least yet) from the scouts, or Snow in articles. Seemed to go video centric, and a lot of that was NHL-related.

A lot was done live with a team centric-ITV feed, it has not been made available as of yet.

Having written that those folks have been working very hard, and have had to go above and beyond for a while. Press conferences with Mangano at Coliseum, coverage in Las Vegas, in Minnesota, from the draft party.

Hopefully Wang meant his employees, when he praised the folks working round the clock, the other day. They sure do deserve it.
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I understand the hype will start soon to add UFA.

Look at the current roster and how many players are signed? Not immune to trades, or signings, but as I have written every year, to add, you must subtract.

No folks, this team does not need Brad Richards front-loaded, likely over 50m dollars/hopefully without concussions. Tavares, Bailey, Nielsen, Strome, Nelson, Cizikas, Ullstrom, and all the other centers under contract are good enough unless Snow is looking ahead to UFA for Nielsen, who is not a five on five scorer.

If Snow trades Nielsen, includes in a defender (Eaton/Mottau/Jurcina) in a deal and them wants to make a run at Richards, that risk makes more sense.

You qualify Josh Bailey, put him at center, and leave him there, unless a team is offering a star player at Bailey’s age.
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No idea what will happen with the goaltending. I do not like the idea of three top quality players, who need to be number one goaltenders sharing the work in Bridgeport, who’s head-coaching search just got much tougher with all the AHL hiring by their parent teams.

I more than understand two are coming off surgery, same as at this level. No doubt the Islanders do not know how to proceed either.
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As for NYIFC a free agency section will be setup Tuesday/Wednesday.
I like the new sidebar format for information, sorry the old one failed during draft.
Considering a twitter box for Islander centric/former players only here.

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Newsday Islander Insider

Newsday: Greg Logan’s Friday Islander Insider had a full review of Josh Bailey’s first NHL season with summaries on Kyle Okposo, Blake Comeau (where Bill Guerin had some interesting comments about his play) Frans Nielsen and Sean Bergenheim who’s World Championship participation is in question because of his groin injury despite returning the last two games.

Head coach Scott Gordon is asked about Joel Rechlicz penalties in the Carolina game and that game itself where Richard Park commented. Bill Guerin also discusses about how tough it was losing this season and felt Mark Streit would be an excellent choice to be named captain.

Other items as well.

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Islander News Articles 4/8

Will add in more articles and fill in blanks Wednesday:

Scheduled blogs:
Stay or go (good timing) 2009-10 New York Islanders.
Announcement on plans for NYIFC, Bridgeport playoffs and WJC with final date ever still 4/17.

Newsday: Greg Logan recaps the Islanders 9-0 loss against Carolina Tuesday night which he reports is the worst in franchise history with a few pregame comments from Doug Weight at this time.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I looked through some 72-73 games with some 9-1 games or 9-2 games, Islanders had a loss in Calgary 11-4 in 1981 when they dominated the NHL. I know Brad Shaw his first week had a 8-1 loss against Vancouver at home and I will never forget the 8-1 loss
at home to Winnipeg in 1988 that ended the Terry Simpson era.

I guess this game is the worst disparity loss in club history.

Newsday: Mr Logan in the Islanders Newsday blog had a very late entry on the loss where he did not feel it was as bad as the 9-2 game and make it a point to bring up injuries all season (including Blake Comeau’s) but also correctly pointed out there is no excuse for a team being outplayed, outshot to the degree they were in that game.

Also included (among several other items) are Yann Danis comments on the goals he allowed and a late lottery update with Colorado’s shootout loss.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Mr Logan did an excellent job in this update. He absolutely made a great point on the goaltending and was very generous including about this teams overwhelming injuries and their very competitive record in a game they did get back two key players and still were terrible in every area.

I do have to ask once again where have all these kinds of updates been from him in Newsday’s blog all season win or lose after games that Mr Zipay does after almost every game for his beat?

I do not think this is asking an unfair question on my part once again.

Newsday: Eden Laikin reports The Long Island Association Tuesday used a full-page ad in Newsday to announce its support for the $3.7-billion Lighthouse Project that would surround a renovated Nassau Coliseum with 150 acres of shops, condos, eateries and offices.

The ad was signed by LIA president Matthew Crosson. A spokeswoman said he was unavailable to comment. The LIA did not pay for the ad, which appeared courtesy of a barter agreement between the Islanders and Newsday, according to a source familiar with the deal. Newsday would not confirm the barter arrangement or say how much such an ad would cost.

Neither Lighthouse nor Islanders officials returned calls.

Also reported LIA’s chief economist Pearl Kamer was paid by the Lighthouse Group to study the potential economic impact of the project: revenue, job growth and numbers of school-aged children. Kamer said Tuesday there’s no conflict between her role as a Lighthouse consultant and a part-time LIA employee.

Town officials said they stopped the recent Petition mailing when questions were raised about whether the Lighthouse project qualifies for stimulus money or whether the request is too late but one supporter of it is Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), according to a letter he wrote to Gov. David A. Paterson’s office last month.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Wonder if that barter agreement included Newsday ads on the teams website and throught hockey games? Kind of funny Newsday would not confirm something it’s own reporter asked them about for a story?

Makes me kind of happy this blog is heading for syndication not doing any more of these kinds of updates.

NewsObserver.com: Chip Alexander’s article on the Canes dominating is already up.

The News: Adam Richardson in the Pictou local Newspaper selected Islanders goaltender and local product Joey MacDonald for his player of the year award.

The Republican: Gary Brown has comments from former Islander draft pick Ryan O’Marra on his struggles in the AHL as he had a few words on his time with the Islanders.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio in the Sound Tigers blog examines the ramifications of losing Blake Comeau for Bridgeport and again reviews the clear-day rules for playoff roster in terms of who can be added and when.

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Islander News Articles 4/7

Will fill in blanks tomorrow with more coverage.

Newsday: John Jeansonne covered Monday’s practice with comments from Jeff Tambellini, Josh Bailey, Blake Comeau and head coach Scott Gordon about missing out on this year’s playoffs but are looking ahead and will be watching while the thirty plus losses by one goal (open net) are touched upon.

Also reported Defenseman Bruno Gervais left practice early after apparently injuring a shoulder, though Gordon didn’t believe it was serious. Veteran forwards Doug Weight and Dean McAmmond both missed practice because of illness. Defenseman Mark Streit (groin strain) returned to practice but forward Kyle Okposo (groin strain) did not. Gordon said three forwards would be summoned from Bridgeport for Tuesday night’s game.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Anytime Scott Gordon wants to invite us all over the watch games on that television system sounds good to me.

Newsday: Greg Logan had more about Kyle Okposo who could be named to team with his comments which is essentially a repeat of his earlier blog.

Newsday: Editorial this time singles out David Denenberg (D-Merrick) and claims he has ambitions for higher office, is using his current one to circulate a pretentious petition in support of a project that must still get a lease from the county.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Did you folks really think Cablevision is on any side other than their own which is to save hundreds of millions and expand their own brand? Tom Suozzi reportedly is working on a lease to save time with the developers from Newsday’s own coverage.

Newsobserver.com: Chip Alexander confirms Cam Ward will start against New York on Tuesday with head coach Paul Maurice’s comments.

Matt Cullen is out tomorrow. Jussi Jokinen continued to center the line with Chad LaRose and Ray Whitney in Cullen’s absence. Patrick Eaves, who was a scratch for the Pittsburgh game, was at practice and working on the fourth line with Dwight Helminen and Ryan Bayda. Rod Brind’Amour’s line had Scott Walker and Sergei Samsonov on the wings.

The News.com: Adam Richardson shares a very funny April fools joke played on Jon Sim when he was a Los Angeles King years ago in an article that praised him for his excellent play in Bridgeport with the Sound Tigers in a tough situation for him.

NHL.com: Chuck Gormley has comments from Bill Guerin on his trade from the Islanders.

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