Isles TV Schedule released

MSG will produce 81 of the Isles' 82 games this season, with the exception of the November 7th game in Boston that is exclusive to Versus in the NY market. 

55 games will air on MSG Plus, 25 others on MSG Plus 2.  The November 21 game at Pittsburgh will air on MSG.

The complete TV schedule is on the MSG website:

http://www.msg.com/our-teams/islanders/islanders-2011-12-season-schedule-1.48856

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Congratulations to Mark Streit

...named today as 13th Captain in Islander history.

While each of the first 5 Captains (Westfall, Gillies, Potvin, B. Sutter, Flatley) each served over 2 full seasons... and all but Gillies served over 300 games, only one of last seven (Michael Peca) have served over 2 seasons.

Streit is the 4th defensemen to be named Captain, following Denis Potvin, Bryan McCabe and Kenny Jonsson; he's the first to do so since Jonsson resigned the captaincy in November, 2000.

Streit of course missed all season with an injury.  Only Trevor Gillies, Kyle Okposo, Matt Moulson, Dylan Reese, Andrew MacDonald, Frans Nielsen, Michael Haley and John Tavares were in the line-up for Streit's last NHL game (4-11-10 vs Pittsburgh) and are still in the organization today.

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Webb and Patty hit NYC

Congratulations to Steve Webb (@stevewebb20) and Pat Lafontaine who are completing their 48-hour bike ride from the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto to the NHL Store in NY.

At last update they were exiting Central Park South so barring any crazy NYC traffic over the last few blocks, they will beat their 11am goal.

http://w20foundation.org

http://www.cic16.org

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Best wishes to Rob Carlin-- who announced earlier tonight (via Twitter, how appropriate) that he will be "staying closer to his family" in the Baltimore area and not be part of the MSG broadcast team this season.
Rob noted that he will "announce his next move soon".
In 30 years, I've worked with only 2 play-by-play announcers (Howie and Jiggs) but there have been a number of hosts, including Stan Fischler, Matt Loughlin, Mike Crispino, Deb Kaufman Placey, CJ Papa and Carlin.

UPDATED:12:30 AM Wed.  Before he surprised Long Island, Rob surprised his wife... on morning TV in Baltimore.  http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/news/region/baltimore_city/good-morning-maryland%27s-megan-pringle-gets-%27surprise%27-

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Patty, Webb continue ride

As you probably have seen elsewhere, Pat LaFontaine and Steve Webb are riding from the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto to the NHL Store in New York in a span of 2 days ... by bike.  They left Toronto at 11am Monday.

They are raising money for their respective foundations:

(Webb) W20 Foundation MISSION
Promotes social responsibility and community giveback through athletes in North America. Increase young athletes self confidence, promotion of responsibility, independence and overall help to build strong character.

A portion of proceeds will also support Alzheimer's and Dementia research.    

(LaFontaine) CIC Foundation MISSION
Building interactive game rooms in children's hospitals throughout NorthAmerica. These rooms connect hospitalized children to their family, friends and heroes. We will open rooms inCanada and NYC w/in weeks of the ride.  

Webb is blogging about it here:  http://w20foundation.blogspot.com/

You can also find out where they are at this link:
http://maps.google.com/?q=http://share.abvio.com/ee71/9080/4e45/3e4d/Cyclemeter-Cycle-20110919-2143.kml

(As of 1:45 ET they are in central NY, just east of Bridgewater NY (and about 30 miles north of Cooperstown) --just over 200 miles from NYC.)

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick 

Islanders get another shot at Staios

Steve Staios has accepted a training camp invite from the Isles. 

Staios, who turned 38 in late July could have been an Islander 20 years ago.  He was drafted by St. Louis in the 2nd round of the 1991 Entry Draft -- one pick after the Islanders selected Zigmund Palffy.

Staios has appeared in 936 NHL games, primarily with Edmonton.  He was a teammate of Islander General Manager Garth Snow with the Canucks in the late 1990s.

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Cyrgalis on Ricky

Brett Cyrgalis had a lengthy and interesting piece in the Post on Rick DiPietro earlier in the week.

In the wake of this summer's NHL news, one quote, however, caught my attention:

"The past three years, for both of us, have been as tough as it's ever been," says DiPietro's wife of two years (and girlfriend of 10), Cassandra. "I've felt for him. It's like he lost his identity, everything he knew was taken away from him. He felt helpless, worthless, depressed. And there was nothing I can do to help."

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/islanders/dipietro_sticks_with_it_after_painful_6vYiJGHsO9SRs2mpI2QX8J#ixzz1Y829R0qw

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

@brettcyrgalis