MORNING SKATE: Thrashers at Isles

Here are some notes from the morning skate…

- TV 55/10’s CJ Papa is filling in for the absent Deb Kaufman on the FSN broadcast tonight. Islanders VP of Game Operations Tim Beach will sub for CJ for the in-game entertainment at the Coliseum tonight.

- The talk of the morning was once again the “Kid Line” of Jeff Tambellini, Frans Nielsen and Blake Comeau. They impressed with their solid play against the Maple Leafs as they went up against the Mats Sundin line in Toronto and more than held their own.

- Rick DiPietro will be in net tonight for the Islanders. It looks like Kari Lehtonen will get the nod for Atlanta. If he does, it will be the fourth straight Finnish goaltender the Islanders have faced. (Backstrom, Niitymaki, Toskala)

- Mike Comrie and Trent Hunter will wear the “A” on their jersey until the injured Mike Sillinger and Brendan Witt return to the lineup.

- On the FSN broadcast tonight, you can look for a small package on Hockey's Hockey Weekend in America with sound clips from Rick DiPietro, Bill Guerin and Andy Hilbert. Also, Billy Jaffe will talk to Aaron Johnson on the bench during the pre-game show.

TV: FSN NY HD in NYC

Islanders fans in New York City can now finally watch Islanders games that are broadcast in High Definition in...well… High Definition.

For a while, Time Warner Cable only had the MSG Network HD channel on their programming lineup. But now, FSN NY HD is available. Yup, that’s Howie, Billy, Butch and Deb in H.D. in N.Y.C.

If you ask Kerry Cornils, the Islanders customer service legend, if this complaint was in the top-10 of all time, he would said “YES!”. Complaint resolved.

For those wondering, the FSN NY HD is located on Ch. 748.

Enjoy city Islanders fans.

TV: The Jiggs-ernaught Returns Again

You might have caught this at the end of the Rangers-Devils telecast on MSG, but if you didn’t here it is… Howie Rose will not be with the Islanders tomorrow night in Pittsburgh or Friday night in New Jersey due to a death in the family. The condolences of the entire Islanders family are with Howie, his wife Barbara, their children and the entire Rose family.

Replacing Howie in the broadcast booth will be Hall of Famer Jiggs McDonald. Jiggsy met the team in Pittsburgh this afternoon from his summer home in Florida

BABY WATCH: More news from the broadcast booth of FSN NY… Billy Jaffe and his wife Victoria are expecting their first child at anytime. Don’t be surprised if one day soon you see Butch Goring filling in as the color analyst. Butch has done a great job as an intermission analyst for FSN’s Islanders telecasts so far this season

TV: Mears on FSN, Butch on Radio

Due to family reasons, Howie Rose will be unable to join the Islanders in Philadelphia for tonight’s game versus the Flyers. Stepping in for him will be Islanders radio play-by-play announcer Steve Mears, who will be making his NHL TV debut. He will of course call the game with Billy Jaffe.

This will be Mears’ first foray into live TV, but not TV altogether. When he was with the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs, Mears occasionally called the CHL Game of the Week for Leafs TV.

On the radio side, Chris King will slide over to play-by-play and will be joined by FSN analyst Butch Goring for tonight’s broadcast.

CAMP: Not Just for Practicing

Moncton, NB – Training camp isn’t just for practices and scrimmages. It’s an opportunity to get the players to do an onslaught of interviews for our FSN NY, Islanders TV and Game Operations crews, or as I like to call them F.I.G..

All the veterans and some rookies take 45 to 60 minutes of their time to do the three-stop circuit. Why is it so important? FSN NY gets a lot of the interviews done for their one-hour pre-season preview show in addition to some spots for in-season vignettes. Islanders TV is planning some big stuff for this season and a lot of it comes from these interviews. And every time you see a player on the scoreboard during a game for trivia or announcements? Well, that gets done here too.

All of these interviews are done when the guys are at the rink and it’s all done in a short amount of time. Yeah the guys rib the staff for doing these interviews, but it’s worth it in the end, even for the players. They just don’t want to admit it yet.