I don’t know how this rumor got started, but it was posted on two separate message boards today. It basically said that Mike Comrie would be missing the remainder of the season due to a hip injury requiring surgery.

This rumor is not entirely true.

From what I gathered, Mike Comrie does have an injury to the hip and will indeed miss the game tomorrow - what happens after that depends on how fast whatever the injury is heals. As a hockey player, I can give my personal opinion on a hip injury, when they are minor. As I type this, I am nursing a hip pointer suffered tonight in my own game. If I had a game in the next night or so (I have a playoff game Sunday), I would likely sit out depending on how aggravating it is because it makes it harder to skate with such a nagging injury.

Also just wanted to throw some kudos to Isleschick at Islandermania, she actually confirmed the hip injury first.

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I think I may have over-reacted a bit last night and had a complete brain lock - because Ted Nolan did offer a fair amount of insight into what he changed in their style of play between the Flyers game and the game last night against Pittsburgh. You can hear me stumble through the question at the 3:35 mark of the video on iTV:

For those who may not want to watch or listen, I asked the Coach

“What did you change in the game plan exactly, as last night you guys seemed a little timid. You didn’t really go into the corners and would be two or three steps away and get beaten to the puck a little bit.”

Ted’s response:

“We can’t give away all our secrets :laughs:. We changed just the way we go into the neutral zone, it was a big thing. A lot of these guys have played for many different coaches, a lot of different systems and we changed a little bit in the neutral zone to help in our defensive zone and tonight it paid off.”

So there you have it, while I may not have posed my question in the greatest way - I did get a fairly respectable (albeit open ended) answer anyway. I think I was more or less embarrassed by the way it came out - it happens and I can laugh about it now.

At least the questions I have asked previously have sounded more professional - there is some hope for me!

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If anyone has watched goaltender Rick DiPietro as close as I have since the infamous All-Star F-Bomb, the news last night that DiPietro’s season is over due to his second consecutive hip surgery isn’t all too surprising. Thankfully, the surgically repaired left hip of last season is good to go, it’s now his so called “good” right hip that is in need of attention.

DiPietro’s surgery was scheduled for today in Vail, Colorado at the hands of Dr. Marc Philippon, the well known hip surgeon that completed his first surgery, the surgery on now GM Garth Snow two seasons ago and most recently - veteran Mike Sillinger. The decision to call the remainder of this season off was an easy one to make, DiPietro has obviously not been 100% for quite sometime and was likely pushing himself due to the now impossible feat of making the post-season. So to get an early jump on the surgery and the recovery period is a big positive and will help out more than hurt.

Greg Logan brings to light numerous valid points, as always that are a must read in his blog entry today. Here are a few quotes that stand out best:

But with so much riding on DiPietro, the Islanders have to learn they can’t ride him game after game. As much as he admires Devils workhorse Martin Brodeur, it just might be that DiPietro isn’t built to maintain the ironman pace of a Brodeur, who played 78 games last season and has been between the pipes for 68 of the Devils’ 74 games so far this season.

This one in particular:

Whether the Islanders re-sign Dubielewicz, who will be a free agent, or bring someone else in as DiPietro’s backup, it’s time the coaching staff made it clear to the franchise goaltender that he is going to be rested on a regular basis. No more riding him into the ground. The thing is that he needs the mental break as much as the physical break, and if he gets it, DiPietro might attain a level of consistency that is necessary for him and the franchise to take the next step toward true contender status.

I just can’t wait for further contract backlash given DiPietro’s emergence of an oft-injured player and how we could potentially be stuck with a player forced to retire early regardless of the remaining contract years. Either way, DiPietro came to camp lean and mean this year, in the best shape of his career - so I don’t expect anything different next year.

Several of my blogging constituents take on the task of DiPietro’s butterfly style of play as the potential root cause of the hip problem, be sure to check them out when you get the chance!

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