The bigger news via Newsday's Katie Strang is that Kyle Okposo needs surgery on his shoulder [Strang update: torn labrum, 2-3 months], which is a fine how-do-you-do to go with the weekend's kick-me-where-it-hurts news about Mark Streit. Nothing more to say there other than: The Islanders will start the season without their best defenseman and their best right wing. For the love of...
As for the business Garth Snow can control, the club announced a two-way-year [fixed] deal with now-former Devils defenseman Mike Mottau. Longtime fans and longtime readers here will remember he was the guy who interrupted Frans Nielsen's would-be breakout season with a nasty hit, an incident which produced the classic Colin Campbell line, "We treat each incident as separate," when he gave Mottau 2 games in the same era of random decision-making that gave Islanders blueliner Thomas Pock 5 games. Obviously, I found Campbell's methods...unsound. And I'd no love lost for Mottau, who I was told was not really a headhunter.
But that was then, this is now. Watching the Devils' Ilya-bred cap problems this summer gave me the outside fear that the Frans fanboy in me might have to root for the same Mottau who clotheslined #51. So now, that part of me has to grow up, let bygones be bygones, and embrace what is a shrewd signing by Snow. (I am without apology an ardent fan under one hat and a calculating observer under the other.)
So the reality is this, as you'll see if you browse this post at In Lou We Trust: Mottau is a quality defender who logged a lot of tough minutes and PK time for the Devils last season. If not for Ilya Kovalchuk, it's hard to imagine why the Devils wouldn't have brought Mottau back. The Devils luxury loss is the Islanders' gain.
Not a single preseason game played yet, and already we've got enough to chew on for a month, eh?