The Grinch has come early for Islanders fans this year, stealing any chance of a win so far this month.  We all know what a number he has done on our team in terms of games lost to injury and especially our D so far.  The latest drama, losing Andy Sutton to a broken foot, is no music to any Islander fan's ear.   This year the Grinch hasn't only stolen Christmas, he has stolen our "D", the bastid. 

The latest recipients of bad, life altering news related to the stealing on Wall Street downturn in the US economy is New York Newsday and more so, the 5% of its staff that will be laid off.  This brings up a huge issue for Islanders fans.  What will become of Greg Logan?

Greg Logan, who writes for Newsday, is the only journalist that accompanies the team on its away games.  He breaks a lot of news and is responsible, along with Chris Botta of Islanders Point Blank, for maintaining the top of the NYI blogging pyramid.  If Mr Logan's duties get cut partially or fully, it will dramatically affect the shape of NY Islanders media coverage. 

I received this email moments ago from who I believe is Jiggs McDonald's daughter. Looks like some good news for the McDonald family as well as the fans old Jiggs still has.

Your update just came up on my Google alert. I just wanted to share with you that I think we have made some progress in getting them out of Thailand. The proof will be in the next 48 hours. This is what I sent to the various media contacts I've made over the past few days. Please let me know if I can answer an questions. And thanks for your eagerness to help and get others involved.
_________

Thanks to all of you who have helped to draw attention to the plight of Canadians stranded in Thailand due to the political unrest. It appears that my Mom and Dad are part of a group of 37 from their tour who will be departing Thailand on Tuesday, headed for Hong Kong. That trip is the result of an offer of help from the Canadian Embassy in Thailand and, for that, we are extremely grateful.

I have to admit I had no idea that we would be going to the game tonight. I was watching my 6 year old nephew Sam and went to the Islanders website thinking it would be cool to go to a game soon.

Then I saw the promotion. Bring 3 or more non perishable food items in exchange for 2 tickets to a game in December. That, plus we were going to play a team that we had been owning lately. Also, Sam had never been to a game before and I haven't been for 10 years (due to being out of the state/country) so the stars were in alignment tonight.

I get the feeling that something is going to blow.  It is nice to watch the team play with an edge, and after that slew foot to Chris Campoli the team has been playing chippy hockey.  I hope all hell breaks loose and the team makes a statement tonight.  After last night and losing Nielsen, it is about time the team bucked up.

**Note:  All hell didn't break loose, but the Isles did win.  Go figure. 

No ice.  No pucks.  No hockey sticks.  And the beginning of the season was fast approaching.  I was 4 hours east of Jakarta, Indonesia in my wife's rural farming village called Cilandok Lor.  There is no ice there.  There are barely ice cubes there, and those are even sketchy to questionable.  The temperature hovers around 95 degrees every day and winter is a pipe dream invented by television to them. 

I really thought we were going to shut the "offensively challenged" BlueJackets out tonight after going up 3-0 in the first two periods.  Luckily the Islanders were able to take a nice nap (while giving up three unanswered goals) in the third period so they could come out fresh in overtime and win the game.  It looked like Comrie nearly flubbed up the last play but the BJ defenseman stick checked the puck to Campoli who did his second Ray Bourque impression of the night to the thrill of the fans and his birthday celebrating mother by burying the puck into the top of the net. 

The goal in overtime was one of the funniest plays I have seen in my life.  After Campoli scored for the second time on the same play, I figured the Isles luck was changing.   Just the fact that he hit the net thrilled me and this play could be an omen for the rest of the season.  Either way they won the game at least and is a positive step.  

It's a miracle.  The goal by Andy Hilbert vs the Flyers impressed me more than anything so far in the past two weeks.  First, he took his time and used the Philly defenseman's butt as a bumper and banked it off of him to score.  That slight delay he made gave him a better angle on the goal and allowed him to see the situation a little better.  Great play there Andy!

I'll be the first to admit that I don't have high expectations for this years team.  It's my mechanism for coping with things that don't turn out as I like and saves me from high blood pressure and other ailments, like broken knuckles from punching walls and bills for repairing my house and local pubs.  Of course I would prefer a team that had a superstar or two, as well as several higher end players that can score goals and consistently make smart plays. 

It has been a long convoluted journey but 6 years and 4 countries later I am back on LI and primed for acces to my first season of NHL hockey in 11 years.  

Greetings bloggers,

This is an open letter to New York Islander Bloggers and hopefully some insight into what is happening in the NY Islanders blogging world.  I've created a page with many NYI bloggers listed.  My apologies if you have an Islanders blog and I didn't list it.  Please leave a comment on the page and I will be happy to add it.  Also, please bear in mind that this was done for fun and is not a critical evaluation of how good your site is.

I was searching for some cool videos and found a couple of our GM Garth Snow getting into some fights during his playing days. He definitely had some fire and didn't mind getting into scraps.  I wonder how this affects his mentality in the office... 

I'd like to thanks Andy from nyicastaway.blogspot.com for creating the logo for the site.  I dig it and hope you do too.  Also, a big thank you to The View From Section 317 for being the latest blog to sign up.

Scott "Flash" Gordon has taken over the reigns.

Flash - a-ah - saviour of the universe
Flash - a-ah - he'll save everyone of us
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Flash - a-ah - he's a miracle
Flash - a-ah - king of the impossible

He's for everyone of us
Stand for everyone of us
He'll save with a mighty hand
Every man every woman
Every child - with a mighty flash

Flash - a-ah
Flash - a-ah - he'll save everyone of us

Just a man
With a man's courage
He knows nothing but a man
But he can never fail
No one but the pure in heart
May find the golden grail
Oh oh - oh oh

I have to be honest, starting a project like this and asking people directly to join up can be a daunting task. I have never taken on a project like this before and I am happy with the response it has received so far. I'd like to thank the bloggers who have signed up already, The Drive for Five :: A New York Islanders Blog, B.D.

Hello to everyone who is coming over from the NYIC boards. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you like the site.  It is open a bit as far as what can be done, so make sure to leave your suggestions. 

The Islanders are sticking to their plan.  It's obvious to this writer that the plan is a classic "youth movement".  The budget will be low, and so will the expectations.  Hope and potential will be the key buzzwords associated with them, and any success will be overachieving, for a few years anyway.  You can forget any big name aqcuisitions unless the Islanders are the benefit of a large salary dump.  The team wil be going with many of the same players they had last season, although some more expensive bigger name talent were let go to make room for the k

Who would have thought the Islanders would one day owned by a native Chinese man? There is a severe Chinese pronunciation problem in the western world, so I would like to set the record straight regarding Charles Wang's last name.

Like sands through an hourglass, these are the days of our lives... After thinking about this briefly, I came up with a few questions. What could be more boring than watching sands filter their way through the bottleneck in an hourglass? I'm not saying I'd rather sit in touch and go traffic on the LIE during rush hour, but I'd prefer to find other more decadent ways to kill my time.