Excuse the really cheesy play on words in the title of this post, because it has mixed meaning as you will soon find out. Instead of posting any kind of opinion, live blog or rant last night - I decided that I would be better off going to bed early then attempting to post in the state of mind I was in after the game.

Site Announcement!

Just a quick note before I get too involved with the issues at hand, if you take a quick peak to your right, you will notice that I have added two RSS feed buttons to the top of the sidebar. I am constantly trying to improve the functionality of the site, and one of the things I noticed was the difficulty in finding my RSS feed. Not everyone uses Firefox (which makes it really easy to subscribe) and the only other mention of the feed was in the very bottom of the sidebar. For those who may not know, an RSS feed is a way of the blog communicating with any flavor of feed reader you may use, so that when I update - the reader updates YOU to new content. I also use a service that will send out a daily email update (once daily) for those who many not use RSS in the first place. I know, things always appear complicated at first - but I promise it is really easy to use!

Islanders at Penguins

Last night the Islanders took on the Pittsburgh Penguins for what many were hoping would be a quick and painless event. The Islanders had faired pretty well against the Pens this season and they were even without Sid the Kid. The Islanders came out with energy, the Bridgeport line was flying all over the ice and cycled the puck well. Colliton hit just about everyone, as did Fedotenko and Hunter. The Islanders would tally the first goal of the game (a rare event) when Conklin misplayed the puck behind the net allowing Hilbert to corral the puck and dish over to a wide open Comrie for an empty net goal. The Islanders lead wouldn’t last however, as the Pens scored on a powerplay tying the game at one. As if Comrie didn’t impress enough, he would eventually drop the gloves against Pittsburgh’s Talbot - in a fight that seemed to be more of a wrestling match than anything.

During the second period, the Pens went up again and the Islanders would eventually tie the game once more on a power play goal by Fedotenko. Another Islanders penalty resulted in a second Pens power play goal by Whitney. The Islanders wouldn’t tie the game back up until another power play goal of their own, by none other than Comrie. The game tied at 3, the pressure was put on by both teams and the Pens would capitalize on a bad clearing attempt with just over three minute remaining on a shot that was deflected off the stick of Brendan Witt. In the final seconds, a flurry in front of Conklin with an extra attacker for the Islanders causing trouble we would see the puck trickle across the goal line only to be waved off with .4 seconds remaining. Game, set and match.

Overall, I felt there was a much better effort by everyone and the Brideport line of Tambellini, Nielsen and Comeau played outstanding, as did Colliton. I felt that puck movement, speed, the breakout and even backcheck was much faster, smarter and well executed. Pressure was on the Pens for the entire game and there wasn’t any indication of someone taking a shift or period off.

Mike Comrie wants to stay on the Island!

No, you don’t have to read that twice - he really wants to stick around (or so it seems). There has been a lot of talk around the internet on how much the Islanders could possibly receive in return for trading Comrie to a contender. There has also been a bunch of talk about how man wouldn’t really miss the toe-drag and his periods of lazyness ala Yashin. I know that I haven’t been the kindest to Mike, but its more frustration than anything. I like what he brings to the team and I really feel like he could excel when completely healthy and paired with forwards who are a bit more offensive minded and unafraid to go to the high traffic areas. Look at last nights game as an example, he shot the puck and actually skated so its not surprising to see him pot a pair.

How do I know he wants to stay? Greg Logan’s Islander Insider, an online article posted on Newsday’s website every Friday has excellent quotes from Comrie:

Comrie likely would be valuable in the trade market. Two NHL scouts at the Pittsburgh game marveled at his second goal and how he scored through a tiny opening. But Comrie said he has no desire to leave.

“This is an organization I want to be a part of,” said Comrie, who will be a free agent this summer. “We’ve got a great core group of guys. We’ve got an ownership that wants to win. They treat us extremely well. I feel we’ve got the best coaching staff in the league, and it’s a situation that I want to be a part of. I think we give ourselves a chance to win every night when we compete. We’ve had a few injuries, but you’ve still got to give yourself that chance.”

So, Mikey apparently likes the Island and Ted Nolan, so as the Islanders only real scoring threat and “top center”, I think he is one of the pieces you need to keep in order to build a successful team around. Hopefully the rest of Islander Country gives him the benefit of doubt this season and welcomes him back with open arms next year. We have no Kozlov, Blake or Yashin this season and need to retain the players who have points - thus making the argument to keep Comrie even stronger.

It’s kind of funny if you think about it, the break just isn’t always a much needed breather for the players, coaches and other people involved in the league. It is also a break for most journalists, TV crews and yes - bloggers, although not quite ALL bloggers. Islanders PR man extraordinaire Chris Botta is down it Atlanta for the festivities, giving us a ridiculous amount of blog entries and updates since his arrival yesterday afternoon - so you may want to check that out. Chris pledges to give us constant updates on DiPietro’s every move as well.

What will you see from Islesblogger? Well - I am not quite sure to be honest. There was a death in the family last night so I am a bit bummed out today. This is also the reason why I may have had a shorter fuse than normal during the in-game posts because I had been going back and forth to the hospital since last weekend. However, if you have a keen eye you will notice a slightly updated sidebar.

What’s new exactly?

I added a recent comments block and a random image rotator from my gallery. This is one of the reasons why I wanted to switch to Wordpress, the widget system is really easy to work with - however you still need to play with CSS in order to get things the way you want. There are a few more things I may tweak this weekend also, so keep checking back.

I came across this handy schedule of events for this years All Star Break:

ALL-STAR BROADCAST SCHEDULE

Saturday:
All-Star Special - Meet The Players (NHL Network, 9:30 a.m., ET)
All-Star Special - Red Carpet Arrivals (NHL Network, 4;30 p.m., ET)
Dodge/NHL SuperSkills Competition (VERSUS, CBC, RDS, 7 p.m., ET)
On The Fly Final, Special All-Star Edition (NHL Network, 10 p.m., ET)

Sunday:
All-Star Special - Pre-Game Show, Live From The Locker Room (NHL Network, 4:30 p.m., ET)
2008 NHL All-Star Game (VERSUS, CBC, RDS, NHL Radio, 6 p.m., ET)
On The Fly Final, Special All-Star Edition (NHL Network, 10 p.m., ET)

What’s new in 2008? Per an NHL press release:

NEW YORK - TORONTO (January 24, 2008) — Six of the NHL’s most prolific and creative scorers will showcase their best moves in quest of a ‘perfect 10′ when they square off against All-Star goaltenders in the inaugural Breakaway Challenge, the signature event in Saturday’s Dodge NHL SuperSkills Competition at the 2008 All-Star Weekend in Atlanta (7 p.m., ET, VERSUS, CBC, RDS), the National Hockey League and National Hockey League Players’ Association announced today.

Three shooters from the Eastern and Western Conference will have two attempts to perform a highlight-reel trick while attempting to score. Shooters can start their routine from anywhere in the offensive zone and have full access to the offensive zone, including behind the net. NHL penalty shot rules do not apply. A panel of celebrity judges will evaluate each attempt and give a score of one to nine points. Scoring is based on creativity, execution and ability to score. An additional point will be awarded for a goal for a maximum total of 10 points per shooter.

Celebrity judges are former Thrashers captain and fan favorite Scott Mellanby, former University of Georgia and Atlanta Hawks basketball star Dominique Wilkins, actor Taylor Kitsch and broadcaster Bill Clement.

The Breakaway Challenge highlights the most sweeping changes to Dodge/NHL SuperSkills since the event’s inception in 1990. Also new for 2008:

‘YoungStars’ 3-On-3′

Rookie scoring leader Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks and first-year defenseman Tobias Enstrom of the All-Star host Atlanta Thrashers headline the 16 ‘NHL YoungStars,’ who will face off in a three-on-three event over two periods of six minutes’ running time. Comprising the best of the League’s stellar rookie class in 2007-08, the eight-player Eastern and Western Conference YoungStar teams will be shooting against goaltenders named to participate in the NHL All-Star Game the following day.

A New ‘Obstacle Course Relay’

The opening event of the competition, the Obstacle Course Relay, will comprise two rounds (45 seconds each) of the obstacle course, involving three players and one goalie per team. The first player starts with a puck from behind the net and proceeds to stick-handle the puck through a line of stationed pucks set up within the face-off circle. When he is finished, the second player (positioned outside the blue line) will attempt to make four “saucer” passes over a barrier and into a net at the far side of the rink. When he is done, the third player will attempt to “one time” four passes at a target in the net. The final leg of the relay will see the goalie attempt to shoot four pucks into the goal at the other end of the ice.

A New ‘Fastest Skater’

The Fastest Skater contestants will face a different test this year. Starting from a standing position at the goal line, one skater from each Conference will race to the far blue line, a change from past competitions in which skaters completed one lap around the perimeter of the ice surface.

Returning to Dodge/NHL SuperSkills are the popular Accuracy Shooting, Hardest Shot and Shootout competitions. In Accuracy Shooting, Marian Hossa of the hometown Thrashers and Eric Staal of the Southeast Division-rival Carolina Hurricanes will compete for the Eastern Conference in a rematch of the 2007 All-Star SuperSkills competition in which the pair tied for the SuperSkills title by each hitting all four targets in five shots. Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara, who captured the 2007 Hardest Shot competition with a blast measured at 100.4 miles per hour, will attempt to defend his title for the Eastern Conference.

Scheduled to participate in the Breakaway Challenge are Eastern Conference forwards Ilya Kovalchuk of the All-Star host Atlanta Thrashers, Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals and Martin St. Louis of the Tampa Bay Lightning, who will face Western Conference goaltenders Manny Legace of the St. Louis Blues, Evgeni Nabokov of the San Jose Sharks and Chris Osgood of the Red Wings. Western Conference forwards Pavel Datsyuk of the Red Wings, Marian Gaborik of the Minnesota Wild and Ryan Getzlaf of the Anaheim Ducks will oppose Eastern Conference goaltenders Rick DiPietro of the New York Islanders, Tim Thomas of the Bruins and Tomas Vokoun of the Florida Panthers.

The 2008 Dodge/NHL SuperSkills events will be staged as follows:

1) Obstacle Course Relay
2) Fastest Skater
3) Elimination Shootout
4) YoungStars Game
5) Accuracy Shooting
6) Hardest Shot
7) Breakaway Challenge

Complete SuperSkills event descriptions and official rules are available online at NHL.com. Player assignments for all events will be released when available.

The 2008 NHL All-Star Weekend in Atlanta will feature live national broadcasts of the Dodge/NHL SuperSkills event on Saturday, Jan. 26 and the NHL All-Star Game on Sunday, Jan. 27 on VERSUS in the United States and CBC and RDS in Canada. NASN and other international broadcasters will provide live coverage of both the Dodge/NHL SuperSkills event and the NHL All-Star Game to more than 115 countries and territories in Europe. NHL RADIO on Westwood One will provide exclusive national radio coverage which can be heard on stations around the United States and Canada as well as on XM Satellite Radio’s NHL Home Ice and NHL.com.

How many of you can picture Rick DiPietro firing pucks the length of the ice and stopping some of the leagues brightest starts in the shootout? I know I can, cannot wait to see that. It sounds like the NHL has really done a bunch to spruce up this event - an event that doesn’t really get the ratings it should.

Procrastination is a funny thing, what some push aside to the “unimportant” or “it can wait” piles - eventually needs to get done at some point. Not that the photos I have taken aren’t important - but I have been really busy with work lately and add in the “Holidays” excuse before that.

Once I realized just HOW MANY photos I needed to sort through and get uploaded - I almost lost it. I just finished sorting through close to 1000 photos and uploaded the “keepers”. Not every photo I take (or any other photographer) will make the final cut. A majority of the time, because hockey is so fast paced the photos will come out blurred or there will be a spectator right in the way of the action. These photos don’t need to be posted, so thus the importance of picking through the pile of digital photos.

Below you can find the list of games and links to the respective game albums:

Dallas 11/26/07
Ottawa 11/28/07
Thrashers 12/01/07
Bruins 12/03/07
Coyotes 12/13/07
Penguins 12/15/07
Buffalo 12/19/07
Capitals 12/22/07
Toronto 12/26/07
Devils 12/29/07
Panthers 01/03/07
Canadiens 01/15/07

Some of my favorites:

Check out the the gallery and let me know which album or photo is your favorite!

From here on out, I will be uploading the game photos either right after the game - or the next afternoon after work.

In case anyone was wondering, YES - the site is different.

I had been debating back and forth for a while about switching over the site from the blog software I was using (SimplePHPBlog) to Word Press. Why? SimplePHPBlog was great, but anytime I wanted to add something - it took a few hours of development on my end to get done. It also wasn’t the most secure code in the world, and was flat text driven. Word Press has THOUSANDS of plug-ins available that extend what the software can do. To top it off, its database driven - which means it will be lightning fast.

I decided to switch this week, because I found a theme I liked over the weekend - it was close enough to the look that I had where I could rip it down and make it look like the older site. What you see here today is the result of about 10 hours over the weekend.

Unfortunately, all old Permalinks will only redirect to the main page - so if anyone has linked up to a specific post in the past you will wind up here. I will do my best to contact everyone.

But what’s in this for me - Mike?

Here are some big things off the bat:

• Speed
• Larger Font and Wider Format (50 pixels)
• Better Live Blogging (via Twitter - all I do is send a text message from my phone)
• Web 2.0-ish - I say ish, because im not 100% sure this theme is web 2.0.
• Better Development
• Comment Reply Subscription
• Post Notification Subscription (Through HERE as well as the existing Feedburner Feed)

I am sure there are more points - but you get the idea.

I am not 100% complete with the refresh - so more will be added as the days go on, but I really wanted to go live before tonight. So look around and let me know if something is broken!

Thanks for being such loyal supporters of www.islesblogger.com!

Today is the day that I will be on the air with Alex and Steve at 3:30pm. We will be discussing several things, including tonights tilt against the Bruins, last weeks Ranger game, Wednesday against the Habs and yesterday’s Bruins game. As well as All-Star Voting and other general topics.

Update:

Show went great, I had a really great time - even though I feel I am a horrible interview. To listen to the show, check out the player below or head on over to www.hockeynightonlongisland.com:

I already downloaded the broadcast, and put it on my iPhone. Thanks again for having me guys, call on me anytime in the future.

The guys over at Hockey Night on Long Island have invited me to be a guest on this Saturday's (11/24) show - which will air at 3:30pm. This is the first time I will be interviewed - anywhere, so please don't laugh too hard at my expense!

I will make another post when Saturday is a bit closer, but you can access the show by clicking the button below.

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In the meantime, please check out their The Tiger Track.

I can't wait for Saturday!