More photos » Kathy Kmonicek - AP

Oh, as if this doesn't happen at your house every now and then.

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The actual, snarkless AP caption for the photo above:

Tim Beach, Vice President of Game Operations and Events for the New York Islanders and Media Intern Josh Mevorach hold an 18 foot piece of aluminum flashing that fell 50 feet from the roof of the Nassau Coliseum due to severe weather. A 12 x 12 foot piece of aluminum flashing also fell during an NHL hockey game Saturday, March 13, 2010, in Uniondale, N.Y.  (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)

A bit from the Post, under the heading "Nassau Coliseum Falling Apart":

Strong winds brought down two pieces of the aluminum façade that goes around the entire building at approximately 5:30 yesterday -- about 90 minutes before the Islanders hosted the Devils -- near the box office. The larger piece was 10 feet by 18 feet.

The jokes write themselves, what with the age of the building, the squabbles over the lease and a replacement venue, and the tales of locker room plumbing problems of yore.

But the nostalgic sap in me always come back to the acoustic purity of stuff like this:

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It's a game day (a particularly torturous one for my long-held dual loyalties), but the preview will wait until after we know more about how the Islanders will deal with the Rob Schremp injury.

In the meantime, the NHL GMs agreed on language for a proposed head hit rule:

"A lateral, back pressure or blind-side hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and/or is the principal point of contact is not permitted. A violation of the above will result in a minor or major penalty and shall be reviewed for possible supplemental discipline."

Greg Wyshynski at Puck Daddy (whose parsing of Richards/Booth vs. Cooke/Savard I disagree with) believes that this wording would disallow the Doug Weight hit on Brandon Sutter last season. I don't agree with that, either, though it's possible the NHLPA (at least when this came up last year) might. There was nothing "lateral, back pressure or blind-side" about Weight's hit. That hit was face-to-face, and as I argued then, the biggest factor was that Sutter lunged forward (and down) to poke the puck forward at the last second:

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More photos » Paul J. Bereswill - AP

We'll never forget that first time.

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Oh Rob Schremp Hockey, say it ain't so.

I'm so sorry that just as you showed yourself to be a worthy Islander, you caught the indoctrination curse so many Islanders must accept: Whether it's still-juniors Calvin De Haan (shoulder) and Travis Hamonic (shoulder), towering AHL goalie prospect Mikko Koskinen (hip), or just-established NHLers Andrew MacDonald (broken foot), or now you (knee), Islanders fans know if there's a reason to get excited about you, then a long-term injury cannot be far behind.

When Garth Snow took the near-no-brainer step to scoop you up off waivers, I was not your biggest doubter, but I do confess what all those meany Oilers pundits said about you gave me pause. So did the YouTube hype (Admittedly, the word "dangle" is anathema to me.). So did the (pre-Islanders) third-person reference to "Rob Schremp hockey," which, again, I confess I secretly loved in a ready-made bloggy nickname kind of way.

Yet you showed Islanders fans you have a place in this league. You did and said all the right things, you went through the wing experiment without complaint, you accepted your chances at center with often subpar linemates, and you used your creativity to provide offense, slicing passes, and general hope when many of your teammates could think of no more interesting options than north, south and a pile of dust.

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More photos » Tom Gannam - AP

Andrew Mac: +8 in his young career.

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This is something that is probably best done after (or rather before?) the season, but timing and planning has never been the way of things here -- no sense starting now.

The other day, in the official site's "something happy in every loss" style, they pointed out that Mark Streit's assist his 200th career point (91 of those and 25 goals have been in an Isles uni). Which got me in a career stats state of mind: I get immersed in the in-season figures and process, but I got curious about where different Islanders fall in terms of career games, goals, +/-, etc.?

Current Islanders career totals are after the jump. I included Andy Sutton, Brendan Witt, and three most-likely Bridgeport callups, since all featured this year. Which totals or rankings surprise you?

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I still get the print version of The Hockey News. I don't know why -- for a decade, I've periodically received issues three weeks late and/or two consecutive issues at a time. It's just nostalgia and tradition, I guess, tracing back to when THN was my main print source for league news, Ken Campbell still had dark hair, and I knew how Bob McKenzie wrote but not how he spoke.

Anyway, ruffling through a recent issue (well, recent for my mailbox), I came across a bit they had about former Thrashers goalie Michael Garnett, who is playing for MVD Balashikha in the KHL. Read this excerpt and then just imagine the fun if an NHL team were sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security:

"Since the MVD Balashikha club is sponsored by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Garnett was issued a badge entitling him to privileges usually reserved for police officers, border guards and secret service agents.

One of the perks is being waved through whenever he is in a car and stopped by police for a random check."

>>THN, (Feb. 22, 2010, Vol. 63, No. 18, p. 64)

That can only end well, I'm sure. I can just picture Alex Ovechkin's friends back home asking him, "But Sasha, you play in capital, home of government: Why cannot you just speed with sportscar wherever you want, no questions asked?"

Befitting the method in which I came across this, there was actually more from the KHL All-Star Garnett on this coveted badge a month ago, in this piece at his hometown thestarphoenix.com:

"It's not like we're made men or anything, but it definitely helps."

And how.

More photos » Paul Connors - AP

Congratulations to Glen Sather on his new prize.

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Yesterday Brian Burke gave this warning to Toronto blood-chasing journalists, for their future reference: He's not typically active on the trade deadline. To paraphrase Burke, if you're looking for moves at the deadline (when prices are high), then you must have made a big mistake in the construction of your team. (He also took credit for rebuilding the Ducks in less than five years, which conveniently ignores the assets that were in place when he took over Anaheim, but whatever.)

But if you look at the Atlantic Division in the past few days, that's not the impression you get. The Atlantic's two best teams were the most active around the trade deadline, while the other three teams' lack of activity would, on the surface of Burke's theory, give you the impression that their teams were already quite well-constructed. And that just isn't so.

The reality, of course, is that there is no steadfast rule about deadline behavior. Befitting a league of 30 teams and (more or less) 30 different markets, it all depends on the context around a given team. So here's a review of what the Islanders' Atlantic brethren did around the deadline, and what it tells you about where those teams are.

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More photos » Frank Gunn - AP

Welcome to the fold, Andrew. Get ready for the Islanders Health Plan.

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How's this for capping a day of Islanders fan ennui? On the heels of coming up empty on Trade Deadline Day -- when every fan hopes for the tooth fairy to drop by with undeserved gifts -- the Islanders also learn that Andrew MacDonald is out 4-6 weeks with a broken foot (aka "The Sutton") and oft-injured Trent Hunter returned from the Olympic break to promptly hurt his quad and "upper body," shelving himself for 1-2 weeks.

Tough break for MacDonald, who played so well in 38 games as an unexpected call-up for Radek Martinek (well, when you're next in line behind the injury-cursed Martinek, you should generally expect action) that he earned a four-year contract during the break. Naturally, this being our luck, he breaks his foot in his first game afterward.

The bright side, I guess, is recent AHL acquisition Dylan Reese now gets a look in Atlanta for his NHL debut. Reese has put up some points in the AHL, and his Bridgeport debut included a goal and an assist.

Now about that Rick DiPietro health update: It's ... indefinite.

More photos » Kathy Kmonicek - AP

Ready to resume.

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For NHL-only fans, the long Olympic nightmare is over. For general hockey lovers, the letdown and hangover after a pretty riveting Olympic final now begins.

For Islanders fans, that means 20 more games in Rebuild: Year 2. It means hopes of some trade deadline resolution, some rebound in John Tavares's rookie season (including a second 20-goal scorer), and the healthy return of Jack Hillen and Josh Bailey, as well as Tim Jackman. The roster on the ice for practice Monday morning may be different from what we see later this week, and quite different from the one that finishes the season.

Despite the continued playoffs lip service that is a requirement of getting out of bed each day and doing your job as a competitive professional athlete, the Islanders basically made their bed with a 2-8-0 run before the break: They sit in 13th in the East, six points and five teams out of 8th. One saving grace they may have is a wealth of rested non-Olympians, and perhaps the easy pressure of low expectations. But the opponents who await them are substantial:

• Combined record of remaining Islanders opponents: 631-476-122, or a .563 points pct.
• Islanders record against those remaining opponents: 18-26-6, or a .420 points pct.
• Record needed to reach a modest playoff bubbly 88 points: 15-5-0

Maybe they can play a bit of spoiler; maybe they can get hot and reignite playoff dreaming one more time; maybe they can elicit a bit of "this team will be dangerous in a few years" buzz. However it goes, I'm way past ready for NHL games to resume.