The Coliseum’s Jumbotron will be lit up once more on January 19, as the Isles take on the Devils at home to open the season. (Photo: Doug Kerr/flickr)

According to multiple writers, the Islanders are set to open the 2013 season at home on Jan. 19, against the New Jersey Devils.

Tom Gulitti of The Bergen Record first reported about the tilt, followed by the New York Post and Isles beat writer Arthur Staple (Newsday). These reports are in the midst of the new CBA’s ratification, which the NHL’s Board of Governors completed earlier this week. The NHLPA has begun the process as well, according to Staple.

Staple wrote in a separate report  that Edmonton Oil Kings (WHL) defenseman Griffin Reinhart and Niagara IceDogs (OHL) Ryan Strome will be at the Isles’ training camp this weekend. Strome’s sticks have already preceded him to the Island, as the Isles’ Twitter feed posted earlier today.

John Tavares and Mark Streit are also close to rejoining the team after spending time in the Swiss National League.

Lubomir Visnovsky and Slovan Bratislava look to rebound from an ugly 6-0 loss to Severstal last week. (Photo: Clyde/flickr)

It’s been a while since we’ve looked at how the boys are doing overseas, so let’s do that, shall we?

• SC Bern has been reeling a little bit. After beating HC Davos 6- 3, they won 4-3 against the SCL Tigers, then dropped their next two against EHC Biel and the Zurich SC Lions. John Tavares has nine points (four goals, five assists) in seven games played, while Mark Streit has fallen off a bit on his point-per-game pace with eight in eleven (four goals, four assists, including a goal scored against the Lions). Bern plays next against the Rapperswil-Jona Lakers on Tuesday (10/23).
• Rauman Lukko is still toward the bottom of the standings with 20 points in 15 games played — regulation wins are three points in the SM-liiga, not two —  but Frans Nielsen has been on point with his playmaking. He has nine points, in fact, all assists, in eight games, and has been very disciplined with only 2 PIM. He and Rauman Lukko play the Blues next, also on Tuesday.
• Villacher SV has suffered a couple of crushing losses in the past couple of games, including an 8-4 blowout against HC Orli Znojmo and a 6-3 loss against the EHC Linz Black Wings. Michael Grabner is tearing it up on the top line wing with five points (3 G, 2 A) in his four games played. VSV plays EC KAC on Friday (10/26).
• HC Energie Karlovy Vary came away with a 5-3 win today against Ceske Budejovice, its second in a row. Andrew MacDonald has two assists in four games and is a -2. Karlovy Vary plays Trinec next on Tuesday (Tuesday night is popular with the Euro teams, I see). Fun fact: Dustin Kohn, who suited up for 22 games with the Isles in 2009-10 following an Andy Sutton suspension, is the only other Canadian on this team.
• SC Riessersee is 1-9. Got that? Good. Their only win came during their season opener against Eispiraten Crimmitschau. Their latest loss came in the shootout against the SERC Wild Wings. (Sounds like a bar/grill I know.)  Rick DiPietro posted a 3.03 GAA in his one game played against the Landshut Cannibals on Oct. 14 — and no, as far as I know, he did not get hurt, fortunately. Riessersee doesn’t play against till next Sunday (10/28) against the Fischtown Pinguins. (No, not Penguins. Pinguins. I love Germany.)
• Lubomir Visnovsky has three points in eight games for HC Slovan Bratislava, two of them goals (none of them PPG, unfortunately). Slovan beat Neftehkimik 5-4 in the shootout and lost against Salavat Yulaev in similar fashion, 3-2, then lost their last game miserably against Severstal, 6-0, on Oct. 17 and don’t play against until — you guessed it — Tuesday, against CSKA Moscow. It’s so much easier to get KHL info, by the way, mainly because they have an English-language website that is a Godsend. Whew.
• Finally, here’s a name we missed — Jesse Joensuu has been playing with Assat Pori in the SM-liiga (whose name translates to “Aces”, at least according to Google). The Aces won their last game against Ilves 6-1, snapping a three-game losing streak and scoring the bulk of their goals in the third period. Joensuu has done his part, with 15 points (8 G, 7 A) in 13 games. They face off against HIFK on Friday.

Michael Grabner (not shown) has suited up for VSV, currently on a seven-game winning streak. (Photo: Wolfgang/flickr)

• SC Bern managed to turn around a two-game losing streak with a sound 5-1 beating of Geneve-Servette. John Tavares earned his first two points in the Swiss NLA, both assists, and Mark Streit also tallied an assist. Streit has improved to a +1 and five points in six games played. Bern faces off against Ambri-Piotta on Tuesday.
• Michael Grabner has signed with his hometown club, Villacher SV, in Austria. The speedy winger scored a goal and an assist in his debut against Dornbirn, a 4-3 VSV win and their seventh in a row. Next up is Innsbruck on Friday.
• Lubomir Visnovsky made his return today for HC Slovan Bratislava against Dynamo Moscow, but it wasn’t enough for them to win. Alex Ovechkin scored a goal and an assist, leading Dynamo to a 3-2 win. Bratislava did mount a good comeback rally, with Miro Satan (hey, remember him?) scoring a couple of goals late, but it proved to be too much. Visnovsky finished with two shots and no points. Slovan plays again on Thursday against Neftekhimik. 
• Lukko of the SM-liiga needs a little bit of luck. They’re 2-6-2 so far, good for 13th in a 14-team league. Frans Nielsen, though, has shown off his playmaking skills, with three assists in three games played. He’s also a +2. His team faces off against fifth-place SaiPa next on Tuesday.

(Photo: Robert Kowal/flickr)

Either Mark Streit had a really convincing spiel for John Tavares to sign with his team, or Johnny just wanted to follow in the captain’s footsteps.

Whatever the case, the young center has joined the ranks of SC Bern in Switzerland, about a week after Streit made the jump back overseas. The signing was announced on Bern’s website and on eliteprospects.com yesterday.

There had been talk of Tavares considering going to Europe should a lockout occur, but I’m not sure we were expecting the Swiss NLA, of all places. At any rate, this makes Bern exciting to watch now (for Isles fans, anyway).

SC Bern beat HC Lugano soundly last night by a score of 5-0 on goals by Streit and Roman Josi, among others. They have improved to 3-3 overall and are playing HC Fribourg-Gotteron on Oct. 2 next, by which time I would imagine Tavares will be suited up. In the meantime, I will be trying my absolute hardest to find out where I can at least find highlights!

Until next time.

Mark Streit is suiting up for a team in his native Switzerland during the lockout.(Photo: Robert Kowal/flickr)

With the lockout curtailing hopes of starting another NHL season on time, some Islanders players have made job moves elsewhere.

Captain Mark Streit is heading back to his hometown to play for SC Bern of the NLA in Switzerland, as confirmed by the club. Also on the move was newly-minted Isle Lubomir Visnovsky, to play for SC Slovan Bratislava of the KHL, and Jesse Joensuu to Assat of the SM-liiga in Finland.

According to EliteProspects.com (which has an updated list of all lockout transactions),Frans Nielsen is also rumored to be heading to Finland, and there has been talk of Evgeni Nabokov entertaining offers from the KHL, but nothing’s set in stone yet. Stay tuned.

Mark Streit stumbled in his first season as captain, but here’s his play stacked up against other captains, and why you shouldn’t count him out as a leader. (Photo: Robert Kowal/flickr)

Coming into this season, Mark Streit knew that he had to come back strong after missing a year with a shoulder injury. He also had to do it with the added pressure of a “C” on his chest.

The Swiss blueliner was, for most, the logical choice to replace Doug Weight as captain; however, as the season dragged and the Islanders fell rapidly into the Atlantic Division cellar, Streit came under fire for not playing his best. There were questions about his defensive skills, how much of it was rust, and whether or not he was a good leader.

» Continue reading “How Does Streit Fare in 1st Year As Captain?”

John Tavares was a standout for Team Canada in the IIHF World Championships, despite Canada losing in the quarters. (Photo: Francis Larrede/flickr)

All of the Islanders playing in the IIHF Worlds are heading back home.

The USA and Canada both played in the quarterfinals; however, Canada was eliminated by a 4-3 loss to Slovakia, and the Americans were knocked out by Finland, 3-2 (on a late goal by Isles prospect Jesse Joensuu, no less). Finland will be playing in the bronze medal game, set for Sunday. John Tavares finished with nine points (4 G/5 A) and a +4 in eight games, while Kyle Okposo finished with three points (2 G/1 A) and a +2.

Frans Nielsen’s home country, Denmark, finished with a 1-6 record in seven games played, including a 6-2 loss to Norway in their final preliminary game. Their only win came against Latvia, 2-0. Nielsen finished with three assists, a -4 and around a 50% faceoff percentage.

Switzerland was knocked out of playoff contention with a string of losses, including an upset loss to France, 4-2. They came away with a 3-2 loss to Canada and a 5-2 loss to the USA. Mark Streit tallied four points (2 G/2 A) and a -5 in seven games as captain. Nino Niederreiter was held pointless in all six games he played, and had a -5 as well.

You can check out all team stats, game summaries, and more at iihf.com, as well as the Isles’ IIHF Worlds Blog.

Just a couple of notes on how our boys are doing in the World Championships:

• Switzerland beat Kazakhstan yesterday, 5-1, and Mark Streit won Player of the Game. Streit and teammate Ivo Ruthemann scored two goals and an assist apiece. Nino Niederreiter went -1, but won the only faceoff he took, so there’s that.
• Kyle Okposo and John Tavares faced off against each other yesterday as Team USA took on Canada. The U.S. prevailed, 5-4, but JT won Player of the Game for his work (1 G, 1A).
• KO didn’t score against Canada, but he did score twice in the U.S.’s 7-2 win over France on Friday. Congrats, Kyle!

Overall, I think our Isles are doing some good work for their respective countries. Keep it up, boys!

(If you’d like to keep abreast as to how each country is doing, check out Intermission Report for scores and news. I’ll be covering Team Switzerland! Also, check out IIHF’s official website here for more info. )

The cliche goes, “The best defense is a good offense.” That may be true, but when your offense is inconsistent much of the time, it helps to have a decent blueline to fall back on. Not the case this season.

The Islanders allowed the fourth-highest number of goals in the NHL this regular season (255). That’s a combination of defensive and goaltending mistakes, but in order for the goalie to even touch the puck, it has to get through those two guys on the blueline first — and this D had some serious holes. The top six D on this team — Mark Streit, Travis Hamonic, Milan Jurcina, Steve Staios, Andrew MacDonald, and Mark Eaton — combined for a rating of -96. Two of them — Streit and Jurcina — were a -61 together. Add in 238 PIM among the six and you have a recipe for disaster.

Let’s break it down by player, shall we?

Mark Streit: The captain had a bit of adjustment to do after missing a full year with a shoulder injury and then being given this shiny new leadership position. The first half of the season was miserable for him, as he posted a -21 and was almost a non-factor on the PP, but in the second half he rebounded, scoring 21 points and only managing a -6 overall. Still, he managed only 47 points on the season (7 G, 40 A), a significant drop from his first season on the Island (though not much from his second). Grade: C

Travis Hamonic: Often the best defensive player on the team, Hamonic logged major minutes this season. He posted the highest plus-minus on the blueline with a +6.  Not a typical goal scorer, he still managed 22 points on the season (20 of them assists), showing that he’s still a factor in the offensive rush. Though he still drops the gloves every now and then, his PIM have declined significantly (73, down from over 100 last season); he still has the highest PIM total on the defense, though many of those minutes were BS, in my opinion. Plus, he was a shot blocker extraordinaire. Grade: B+

Andrew MacDonald: Another top D, A-Mac picked up much of the slack alongside Hammer. Only a -5 all year, he played in multiple situations and showed a bit of a scoring touch with five goals. He also displayed smart, relatively disciplined play and blocked a fair few shots himself — one of which even sat him out earlier in the season. Grade: B+

Mark Eaton: Blah. Blah numbers, blah play, blah everything. His one goal this season was a showstopper (literally- it won us a game in OT against Ottawa), but other than that… just BLAH. No telling whether he’ll be back for another year, but I’d prefer someone a bit younger and less prone to mistakes on the D. Grade: C-

Milan Jurcina: This dude’s been the whipping boy all year, and mainly for good reason. A -34 on the year and often the reason for bad mistakes on defense, Jurcina doesn’t bring to mind any positives right now. He’s big, no doubt, but he doesn’t use his size for anything except getting in the goalie’s way most of the time. Grade: D-

Steve Staios: Older and slower, and his 53 PIM are basically due to him trying to slow down opponents with his stick or his arms. He can definitely serve as a role model — Hamonic says he’s learned a lot from the veteran — but we can find more mobile players than him. Grade: C-

Dylan Reese: Only played 28 games this year due to injury, but Reese still managed a decent 28 games, with seven points and an even rating. Can’t ask for much more than that. Hope to see more of him next year, as he’s a smart, well-spoken guy and a smart player on the ice too. Grade: B-

Overall Defensive Grade: C-. Some flashes of brilliance, but not nearly enough to help out the goalies or the offense once it managed to score some goals. Better luck next time.

Next up, I’ll be talking about the goalies. Nabokov will be here another year- who will back him up? (dun dun dunnn) Stay tuned.

(Above Photo Credit: Robert Kowal/flickr)

John Tavares is one of the Islanders playing in this year's IIHF World Hockey Championships in Finland and Sweden. (Photo: Robert Kowal/flickr)

A number of Islanders players will be going international for the IIHF World Hockey Championships.

John Tavares will help out Team Canada and Nino Niederreiter and captain Mark Streit will play for Switzerland. Kyle Okposo has also been named to the roster for Team USA. The tournament will be from May 4-20 in Helsinki, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden.

Michael Grabner is also currently playing on Team Austria in the IIHF Div I World Championships in Slovenia. Austria is 2-0 so far, and Grabner has two assists in two games.

You can stay in the loop on all of the games with the blog on islanders.nhl.com. , which has the schedule, breakdown of groups, and much more. Be sure to check in and root for your Isles! (Unless they play each other, in which case… you’ll have to pick a side. )