Danis on XM Thursday Morning

Islanders goaltender Yann Danis is scheduled to be a guest on XM Radio's Hockey This Morning with Shawn Lavigne at 9:05 AM tomorrow (Thursday) morning.

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The Ice Down

With that Circus that is Britney Spears in town last night, the Coliseum was only able to start the transformation into hockey mode today.

The dashers and glass are up, but the ice is currently being laid down. It’s a full 24-hour process. At 5:15 PM they are finishing painting the center ice logo. They still have to paint the in-ice sponsor logos. That will probably take 90 minutes to 2 hours. After that, it’s layer upon layer of ice, all of which has to completely freeze before the next goes on top.

It always amazes me how bright and sharp the blue and orange paint looks when it’s fresh on the ice. It obviously just dulled with the ice layers that are put on top.

The Coliseum will not have the ice ready for the Islanders tomorrow at 10:30 AM for their morning skate which will have to be held at Islanders Iceworks. However, it will apparently be ready for the Minnesota Wild's (probably optional or non-existent) morning skate at 11:30 AM.

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Draft Lottery News

Just as a general FYI: The NHL Lottery Draft Drawing has been tentatively scheduled to take place on Tuesday, April 14.

I'll assume it will take place in Toronto again and I'll hope Versus and TSN will televise it again this year.

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Cel-le-brate good time, EH?

So about half the hockey world is up in arms about Alexander Ovechkin's celebration after scoring his 50th goal of the season. The other half – me included – loved it.

What’s so bad about having a little fun on the ice?

AO didn’t taunt anyone in their face. He didn’t hit anyone from behind. He didn’t deliver an elbow to the head of another player. He didn’t rip the helmet off someone in a fight. He didn’t get caught (or take, at least to our limited knowledge) steroids. He didn’t kneecap an old lady walking her cat in the park.

He celebrated a major milestone. He has fun on the ice. Fans in turn have fun watching him play and more importantly, score goals.

Worst of all, he drew some major attention for the NHL. Something our league can’t get enough of.

Everyone needs to back-off Alexander Ovechkin. Is he getting a little cocky? Looks like it from the outside, but he’s the best player in the league right now.

All I know is that the NHL could use a few more Alexander Ovechkin's to promote our great game.

P.s.: If he played for Toronto, I’m sure this would all be different…

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Colin Campbell on XM/Sirus with Bettman

Colin Campbell, NHL Senior Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations will be the guest on today’s edition of NHL Hour With Commissioner Gary Bettman on SIRIUS XM Radio.

The show encourages fans to submit questions via phone and e-mail. To submit questions to NHL Hour call 1-877-645-6696 or e-mail nhlhour@nhl.com.

Campbell will join Commissioner Bettman to review the issues that were discussed during the NHL General Managers meetings this week. … BUT… I’m banking on one adventurous Islanders fan to get through and ask about all things Pock/Mottau/Witt.

NHL Hour with Commissioner Gary Bettman broadcasts live on Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET on NHL Home Ice (XM Channel 204 and on SIRIUS Channel 208 as part of the “Best of XM” programming package) and NHL.com. The show will re-air on SIRIUS XM Radio, with archived shows available for download via podcast on NHL.com.

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1,000 Games and Counting…

Tonight when the Islanders faceoff against the Leafs, it will be Equipment Manager Scott Bogg’s 1,000th game as a professional equipment manager.

According to Professional Hockey Athletic Trainers Society and the Society of Professional Hockey Equipment Managers or “PHATS/SPHEM”, very few athletic trainers or equipment managers ever reach this plateau.

According to them:

His achievement comes after twelve seasons in Professional Hockey. The 1000th game milestone is a testament to Scott’s commitment, professionalism and endurance. We are proud to count him among our 300 members, and know that the New York Islanders organization shares in that pride. At the 2009 PHATS/SPHEM Annual Meeting in Phoenix, AZ., Scott will be recognized by his peers for achieving the 1000th game milestone.

Either way, congratulation to Scott Boggs! He’s been a great addition to the Islanders staff since joining the team prior to the 2006-07 season.


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Sock-Gate Solved

When the Islanders introduced the vintage alternate uniform system in November, something was amiss. As you can see in the picture to the left, there was a manufacturing mistake with the socks – a blue gap in the stripes on the back of the leg.

Rebook originally told the NYI that replacement socks wouldn’t be ready until the start of the next season. And in the grand scheme of things, not the end of the world. Just annoying.

But the team got word a short time ago from Rebook that the socks were ahead of schedule. Delivery date was this weekend and you can see below, the problem was fixed for today’s game versus Phoenix and all is right in the uniform world again.


Photo credit tot Bruce Bennett and Mike Stobe of Getty Images/NHLi/and of course the NY Islanders

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