Reese activated; strange but true

With Dylan Reese activated by the Islanders today, there is not a single injured skater on either the Islanders or Sound Tigers.  Hard to believe.  Bridgeport is so loaded with bodies right now that they had something like 24 skaters at practice this week (plus goalies).

The only two injured Isles are Al Montoya and Rick DiPietro.

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Nilsson Named AHL Goalie of the Month

For the second straight month a Sound Tiger goalie is the AHL Goalie of the Month.

This time, it's Anders Nilsson, who will back up Evgeni Nabokov in Philadelphia tonight.

theahl.com

<<SPRINGFIELD, Mass. ... The American Hockey League announced today that Anders Nilsson of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers has been named the Reebok/AHL Goaltender of the Month for February. In seven appearances, Nilsson went 6-0-1 with a 1.26 goals-against average, a .955 save percentage and one shutout as the Sound Tigers remained the hottest team in the AHL.>>

Nilsson in 10-0-1 in his last 11 games.

Complete release: http://theahl.com/nilsson-named-top-goalie-for-february-p176353

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Kerry Fraser chimes in on the Nystrom-Letang hit

Did you see Eric Nystrom's hit on Kris Letang last night?

Mike Milbury did, and thought it warranted a 5-game suspension.  (Perhaps MM remembers some of the damage Eric's pop laid on him in 1980)  Mike engaged in a heated argument on the air with Jeremy Roenick last night.

Kerry Fraser, in his TSN column, offers his view.  http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=389235  Kerry concludes "I never thought the day would come that Mike Milbury and I would be on the same side of this issue but the day of reckoning has finally arrived."

Apparently, Brendan Shanahan disagrees with Milbury and Fraser.  Per a Darren Dreger tweet, "No discipline hearings for either Smyth or Nystrom for last nights hits. Warnings or fines possible."

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Mottau expected to be scractched tonight by B's

thanks, nhl.com

<<BOSTON -- Bruins coach Claude Julien confirmed that defenseman Greg Zanon will make his debut with the team tonight when Boston hosts the New Jersey Devils at the TD Garden.

[snip]

Julien said that Mike Mottau, who was also traded to Boston on Monday, would be the healthy scratch against the Devils.

>>

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Rolston: I didn't play a lot (Updated)

Few blog posts that I have done have resulted in more fan response than the one I posted with Rolston's comments to the Boston Herald.  (which is repeated below)

One interesting follow-up.  Rolston played 8:21 in last night's Bruins game.  It is the least amount of ice time he has had in ANY game since ice-time has been reported (late 90's) excluding two games in which he was injured and ended up missing substantial (a week or two) time.



Original post:


From the Boston Herald:

<<"When I got into Long Island, they had a good group of young core players. I don't think I fit into their plans as well as I thought I was going to," he said. "It's been a tough year for the Islanders for sure. As far as producing for me, I didn't really play a lot, so it was kind of hard to produce, but I do feel like I have a lot left to offer.">>

Funny, when I look at the stats I see Rolston 6th in power play time on the team (and if we looked at the first half of the season it would have been higher).

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Thank you, thank you!

With a few hours left in the month, it looks like February will be the most viewed month in the blog's history (unless we get a late run, there were a few more views in December, but that's 31 days, vs 29 this February).

Making it all the more shocking is that I was on a cruise last week, with very few updates.  So thanks for checking in ... we'll keep going right to the end of the (regular) season and into the off-season as well.

And no, I haven't forgotten about 40in40.  It just may take until the off-season to get it finished!

Thanks.

More from Elias on the stunning defeat

<<BROUWER AND OVECHKIN LEAD STUNNING RALLY
From Elias: The Capitals trailed 2-0 with less than four minutes to play in their game against the Islanders but Troy Brouwer scored twice to tie the score and Alex Ovechkin tallied in overtime to earn Washington a stunning 3-2 victory.  It was only the third time in Capitals history that they won a game in which they trailed by two goals in the final four minutes of the third period. Washington's previous two such comeback wins were at Boston on Dec. 1, 1984 (5-4 in overtime) and at home against Atlanta on Dec. 6, 2002 (7-6 in overtime).

The game against the Bruins in 1984 was the last time before Tuesday's amazing comeback that a Capitals player scored a pair of goals in the final four minutes of the third period to tie a game.  The Washington player who did it back then was Bryan "Butsy" Erickson, with goals at 16:36 and 18:48 of the third period.

Ovechkin's overtime goal was the 11th of his NHL career and his fourth against the Islanders.  Since 2005-06, Ovechkin's first season, he's scored more overtime goals than any other NHL player. Daniel Sedin is second with 10 OT goals over the last seven seasons.>>

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick