Bits: Mikko on the move; Petrov rumblings; playoff polls
by Dominik on Apr 16, 2010 12:15 PM EDT
in Bits o' Islanders News
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PrintAHL Playoffs: By Sunday night, it could all be over for the Sound Tigers. That's not a prediction -- just a marvel at how fast things go in the AHL. After their heartbreaking and controversial OT loss in Game 1 Wednesday, Bridgeport has one of those only-in-the-minors weekends: Game 2 in Hershey tonight, Game 3 at Harbor Yard Saturday night, and Game 4 Sunday afternoon. Tonight's starting goalie is to be determined; so is the weekend's, as get this: Utah's second-round series with Idaho begins tonight, but Mikko Koskinen has been called up to join Bridgeport for this weekend's home games.
Kiril Petrov, and the KHL: Chris Botta has an interview with Petrov's agent that makes me equal parts hopeful and nervous. Maybe "nervous" isn't the right word: In the current NHL-KHL transfer climate, I just don't count on Russians, period -- not until they're here, signed, playing and happy. So I'm glad Petrov's committed to prospect camp and pre-training camp -- really, the player's desire is the first step -- but the agent's answers to Botta about a transfer agreement and about whether Petrov would accept a Bridgeport assignment leave my hopes tempered.
More playoff talk, info about a draft gathering for readers here, and your own playoff picks after the jump.
Site News/Admin Stuff
Playoffs?! You Talk about Playoffs?! I'll continue the polls on the last two first-round series today. But WebBard launched a bracket of sorts, so make your full playoff picks in this FanPost. Who's going all the way? I'll also add the tally for how many votes we had in each first-round series. I originally set each poll to close before Game 1 completed, but that's being a little too strict (and I never even got a Vancouver-L.A. one up before last night's game), so I'll re-open them for the next few days. Here they are if you haven't voted on who wins (and in how many games) yet:
- New Jersey-Philadelphia poll
- Buffalo-Boston poll
- Montreal-Washington poll
- Pittsburgh-Ottawa poll
- San Jose-Colorado poll
- Phoenix-Detroit poll
- Canucks-Kings poll is at the bottom of this post; Chicago-Nashville will be up later
Lighthouse Hockey Draft Party/Booze Cruise: If you missed it, WebBard and Hans und Franz and a few others were tossing around a June 25 (that's Draft Day) gathering for participants and friends here. Great chance to meet up with people you see commenting and shooting the bull here.
They were leaning toward meeting up in NYC, but keep an eye on this FanPost for details (it's featured in the right sidebar) and weigh in on the options if you're interested. Also, if you don't know, Lighthouse Hockey is on Facebook (link is also in the sidebars), and there is a Facebook invite to the event here. If you're interested, do let us know, because people will have to make travel plans. This sort of thing was one of my goals when launching this site ... so naturally I'm almost 95% certain I can't make it. I have an extended family trip that's all but certain to be that weekend, but if that date changes (and with my brother coordinating, that's always a possibility), I'll be booking plans for NYC that weekend.
On-going Conversations: Sorry that all these playoff series poll posts have bumped other on-going conversations down or even off the main page. If you use this site the way I use SBN sites, once a post gets bumped to the second page or archives, you stop checking for comments. But some of the more popular recent posts are in the "Featured Stories" box in the right margin. And I will try to remove the playoff polls from the front page as we go forward, so that will create some reading room for the on-going Isles-focused threads.
A final note on this, if you have a Lighthouse Hockey login, when you check the Lighthouse Hockey archives page, it highlights which posts have comments you haven't seen.
Canucks-Kings Poll
- GAME 1: Thursday, VAN 3, LAK 2 (OT)
- GAME 2: @Vancouver, Sat. 4/17, 10 p.m.
- GAME 3: @Los Angeles, Mon. 4/19, 10 p.m.
- GAME 4: @Los Angeles, Wed. 4/21, 10 p.m.
- GAME 5*: @Vancouver, Fri. 4/23, 10 p.m.
- GAME 6*: @Los Angeles, Sun. 4/25, TBD
- GAME 7*: @Vancouver, Tue. 4/27, TBD
SBN Coverage and links: Nucks Misconduct | Jewels from the Crown | Battle of California
This is one more chance for Roberto Luongo to seize an opportunity for playoff glory with a superb team in front of him, with the Sedins in their prime. There are still occasional questions about Luongo's "big game" readiness -- his Olympic performance was hardly inspiring despite the shiny medal -- but it's undeniable he's been one of the upper-tier elite goalies in this league the last few years. Which means his time will probably come one of these years, just as it came for Ed Belfour before him.
If you don't catch Western games much, Los Angeles is a fun, well-coached team that should make this an exciting series and might even make it a long one. Game 1 was no exception, though the Kings were outplayed in the third period and much of OT, during which their best opportunity was robbed by Luongo. They just look like a young team, still figuring themselves out. This will be a great experience for them, but that's probably it.
The only thing the Canucks don't have going for them is the continued absence of Willie Mitchell thanks to a concussion -- which is precisely why I wouldn't bid on him in free agency. Ironically, last night's ejection of Andrew Alberts helps the Canucks -- because Alberts isn't very good. Pop Quiz: Who helped John Tavares score five points in Vancouver? Answer: The dude named in the previous sentence.
Head Says: Canucks in five. Heart Says: Just give me a long series.
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i’m struggling to understand why they removed mikko from the echl playoffs to sit as 3rd goalie for Bport, i figured that link would tell me one of them was hurt, but instead tells me that capuano doesn’t know if he’s starting monroe or lawson – anyone have anymore info on this?
NY Islanders Hockey: Where MRI's are addictive
Mystery, intrigue, hush-hush
It’s the Garth Snow Era!
I’m at a loss. I have to think they did it with the expectation that he gets in a game this back-to-back-to-back weekend, but man is that a tough move for the goalies and teammates. I guess that’s life in the minors though; Mikko swoops into Utah for rehab stint and playoffs, then swoops back out on the even of the next series.
Lighthouse Hockey: Playing the NHL Lotto
The local Grizzlies coverage had no further insight on the move…
Lighthouse Hockey: Playing the NHL Lotto
Thanks Dom
For Giving the Brackets and Draft Get Together a Bump.
Also did you see Luongo’s insane save last night? It was Vintage Luuuuu
Mauldin Played for Columbus a few years ago, He has six career games.
That was amaaazing
I loved the part afterward, too, where his stick was stuck in his pad loop and keeping him from getting up. Can you imagine if an OT goal were scored because of that? And can you imagine how helpless he felt at that moment on his belly?
Lighthouse Hockey: Playing the NHL Lotto
That was great
I mean, it could have been a disaster, but the odds of that happening the way it did, on an innocuous play like that…incredible.
Lighthouse Hockey: Playing the NHL Lotto
I loved the part afterward where Milbury the Tool had to comment on the save
Hey, Mike! Bet you say Bobby Luuuuu’s face in your dreams at night!
I missed that
What did he say? Let me guess: “And proof that even if you’re caught swimming you can make a save…”
Lighthouse Hockey: Playing the NHL Lotto
was on the HNiC Coast to Coast
and it wasn’t so much what he said…which I didn’t entirely catch—he mumbles sometimes and the girls were sleeping downstairs. It was more the way McLean and the others seemed to relish making him admit that Bobby Luu came up big at a big time. Would love to see a History will be made thing showing him at one press conference or another with Yash and DP with images of Chara, Bobby Luu, Heatley, Gaborik, and others flashing across the screen. Did you see the Times piece with all the satiric versions of the History idea?
I misread things a bit
The yuks had more to do with a Kings stick getting under a Canuck’s visor and Milbury said he didn’t know whether the Canuck was hurt but he still found it funny. What a guy! He referred to Luongo’s save as not being funny but being serious goaltending. Locally folks are intrigued by the mysterious absence of Sami Salo…made more serious by the absence of Mitchell.
http://www.youtube.com/user/HockeyHaven76#p/a/u/0/U5DilR9yjVE
Petrov
Lot’s of caveats on him coming over and playing in Bridegport if necessary, but its a sunny Friday afternoon and I’ll take it all as good news. Sooner the better to see what we’ve got.
He hasn’t played much for Ak Bars, but they aren’t in development mode where kids are forced to play just to fill the roster like the Islanders are. He’ll certainly need ice time to develop, but if he has the skills and the professionalism to stick at the NHL level, the Isles have already shown the willingness to throw players to the wolves (re: Bailey). Hopefully he isn’t Tambellini’d if he negotiates no going to the AHL as a condition of him coming over and he it turns out he isn’t quite good enough to play a regular shift in the NHL.
Makes you wonder...
If he’s on a two way in the KHL? He got a good contract according to the stores surrounding him, but if he’s only making a fraction of it due to a two way, maybe a two way with more potential to play second half games in the NHL are enough to make him want to come to NA.
If Snow guarentees a guy with no NA experience a top level one way I’d be floored… considering they had a pretty good audition with Bergy and made him play in Europe over a similar argument… Don’t make a line you won’t cross on Monday, and cross it on Tuesday.
Best case… the point is moot and he EARNS a spot out of camp…. But then they have a really good problem at RW… but too late for draft day moves.
NHL 500... Let the Less Filling vs Tastes Great debate begin!
Mikko Moving = Biron Not?
I think I have to take a step back from a debate I had around deadline time. It was my original contention that the Isles give older, riper AHL vets a shot to back up Roloson next year as opposed to spending on an NHL 1A.
The push for Mikko to possibly play against the best AHL team under the playoff microscope sems to be TEST ONE for the post up goaltender.
Do they clean house in BP to make room for Mikko and Poulin in 2010-11, then next year it’s the loser of the NHL sweepstakes and Nilsson at BP… with Mikko and Biron(or dare I say it… DP) between the Colly pipes.
BP should be a pretty good iTicket with Petrov(?), Hamonic, deHaan, Martin, Rhett Rock, DiBo, Figren… maybe Lee, casey…
The fun times are coming.
NHL 500... Let the Less Filling vs Tastes Great debate begin!
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1979-80
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May 24, 1980: Tonelli to Nystrom. At long last, the steady build of the New York Islanders from expansion doormat to surprise semifinalist to annual contender reaches the promised land: Buoyed by a late season trade for Butch Goring that gave the team the depth up the middle GM Bill Torrey had been seeking, the Islanders knock off the Philadelphia Flyers in six games.
The victory justified the faith in coach Al Arbour who guided them from their second season to their first Stanley Cup seven seasons later. The Islanders would not be the first expansion team to win the Stanley Cup, but they would be the only one capable of a dynasty.
1980-81
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May 21, 1981: This time it was much easier. After falling to "only" 91 points in the 1979-80 season, the Islanders returned to their division title tradition, piling up 110 points -- a whole 13 points over second-place Philadelphia.
Between the quarterfinals (where they beat the upstart Oilers in six games) and the finals, the Islanders reeled off eight consecutive wins -- with a four-game sweep of archrival Rangers in between. As they defeated the Minnesota North Stars in five games for their second Cup, their goal difference in the final was a combined +10.
1981-82
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May 16, 1982: Another year, another landslide title. The Islanders won the Patrick Division by a whopping 26 points over the second-place Rangers, and were seven points clear of their nearest competition for the President's Trophy, the still-not-quite-ripe Edmonton Oilers.
A first-round scare against the Pittsburgh Penguins turned in the Isles' favor thanks to John Tonelli's heroics, and a true dynasty was on its way: Past the Rangers in six games, then an eight-game sweep of the Quebec Nordiques and Vancouver Canucks to run away with the Stanley Cup.
1982-83
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May 17, 1983: Not so fast, whipper-snappers. The Edmonton Oilers' steadily rising challenge for league supremacy took them all the way to the finals for the first time, where the New York Islanders summarily dispatched them in a four-game sweep. For the Islanders, the Dynasty was secured. For the Oilers, it was a powerful lesson in where talent ends and the demands of playoff hockey begin.
Four years, four Cups, 16 consecutive playoff series wins (a record that would grow to 19 until the rematch with the Oilers the following year). Mike Bossy scored 60 goals yet again, and Wayne Gretzky became acquainted with Billy Smith's crease.
