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Posts Tagged Rick DiPietro

Time to Retire

Jan 15

Posted by EB in Soap Box | No Comments

Today’s NHL is younger, faster and stronger. Yet, today’s NHL still has some old guys refuse to understand that. Sure, they were once something in their day, but that was in their day. Here’s a list of players that should think about hanging ‘em up and begin to enjoy the golf season a little more.

Teemu Selanne, quit playing games with the fans Sir. Commit to a year or don't, no in between.

Rick DiPietro – New York Islanders goalie at the age of 30 has seen better days. Playing only 47 games dating back to the 2008-2009 NHL season, and now out for most of the rest of the season with surgery to repair a sports hernia, how much play does he really have left? DiPietro signed a 15-year, $67.5 million dollar contract before the 2006-2007 season. If the Islanders can opt-out of the agreement because he is unfit to do the job, maybe then they can continue with their youth movement and start winning some games.

Chris Pronger – Pronger has had a good run of being one of the dirtiest, biggest and toughest defenseman in the league to go up against. Nowadays though, he has turned into that old guy at drop-in who can’t really skate anymore so he slashes the heck out of you. That is of course until his concussion like symptoms after taking a stick to the eye from Toronto Maple Leafs’ Mikhail Grabovski. The snow-ball effect kicked in and eventually Pronger had knee surgery that is seeing him sidelined for the remainder of the season. His age has set in and everyone would respect him for retiring, knowing that Pronger is Hall of Fame bound, won Gold medals as well as the Stanley Cup and that he could kick the crap out of you and me with one hand tied behind his back.

Teemmu Selanne – When you think of Selanne you can’t help but be amazed that the 41 year old put up 80 points in 73 games last season. Absolutely amazing. But, with every great thing comes something bad. Selanne is bordering the Brett Favre of the NHL. (besides that of Peter Forsberg) Selanne continues to go year by year, not letting the Anaheim Ducks or any team know if he plans on playing. That’s great when he does play, but what happens when he just retires when the Ducks are leaving a roster spot open for him? Leaves them high and dry. Time to hang ‘em up or quite playing games in the off-season.

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2011-12 NHL Season Preview: New York Islanders

Sep 3

Posted by Matt in Season Previews | No Comments

Michael Grabner of the New York Islanders

The Islanders hope Michael Grabner can build off of his succesful 2010-11 season.

Key Offseason Additions: Brian Rolston, Evgeni Nabakov

Key Offseason Losses: Doug Weight, Rob Schremp, Zenon Kenopka, Radek Martinek

Last Season Ranking: 14th in East

Offense: The Islanders have a solid group of young players, lead by John Tavares who began to really pile on the points during his sophomore season. Tavares will try to improve upon his 67 point campaign while surrounded by the likes of PA Parenteau, Matt Moulson, Michael Grabner, and Blake Comeau. These players are not quite household names yet, but they are good young players who have a lot of potential. Adding Brian Rolston to the mix gives the forward unit a man with much more experience and great leadership qualities.

Moulson, who put together a surprise season in 2009-10 with 48 points, improved on that number last season. His 31 goals and 22 assists were both career highs, and he will be expected to continue that improvement for the Islanders this season. Michael Grabner will be an important piece to the offensive puzzle as well. Grabner lead the Islanders in goals last season as a rookie, with 34, and had 18 assists to go along with it. On a team full of minus players, his team leading plus-13 shows he is an all around player, and important to the success of the franchise.

The health of Kyle Okposo will be a bonus to the orange and blue. Okposo missed the first half of last season after having shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum. He returned to have a modest 20 points in 38 games, but will be counted on to contribute upwards of 50 points this season.

The Islanders could see Nino Niederreiter return for an extended stay in 2011-12 and make the team right out of training camp. The fifth overall pick from 2010 played in only nine NHL games last season, picking up a goal and an assist. Playing full time with the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL, Niederreiter tallied 70 points on 41 goals and 29 assists. When he finally makes the transition, expect his numbers to be consistent with the guys mentioned above. He’s a skilled young player, as you can tell from videos like this, and will fit in nicely playing alongside a young, talented Islanders team.

Defense: The return of Mark Streit, who missed all of last season with a shoulder injury, will be huge for the Islanders defense. He typically hovers in the 50 point range, but more importantly, he can effectively captain and lead the power-play unit to much more success. The loss of James Wisniewski at the trade deadline last season will continue to haunt the Islanders blue line, however. Their defensive units, besides Streit, will be young and inexperienced. The young theme is constant throughout the squad, and on defense, it’s going to hurt more than it will help this year.

Goaltending: The goaltending situation for the Islanders continues to be a question mark. Last season, a total of six goalies started games, with the majority going to Rick DiPietro, Dwayne Roloson, and Al Montoya. Roloson has moved on to bigger and better things, but DiPietro continues to work his way through a lengthy contract. The addition of Evgeni Nabakov never panned out last season, but he is supposedly ready to give it his all in New York this season. Much of the work will likely fall in Nabakov’s lap as DiPietro has not played a healthy season since 2007-08. Regardless of who is net, however, the young squad will make some mistakes that even the best goalie will not be able to recover from. Nabakov, a steady regular season goaltender, will likely bring a solid game to help the Islanders squeeze a point or two out of some close games.

HWB Playoff Prediction: Not playoff bound. Despite having a young group of talented forwards, there is still a lot of work to be done on Long Island. Expect a season long performance much like last seasons.

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Brent Johnson KO’s Rick DiPietro in one Punch

Feb 3

Posted by Eddie in Media | 3 Comments

If you haven’t yet seen the video where Pittsburgh goalie Brent Johnson gets into one of the quickest goalie fights you will ever see with New York Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro, here it is. Johnson punches and knocks out DiPietro with one punch. I’ve had gumballs from the quarter machine last longer than DiPietro in this fight. If you even care who won the game Wednesday night, Pittsburgh won 3-0.

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Hockey World Blog Season Previews 2010: New York Islanders

Sep 2

Posted by Matt in Season Previews | No Comments

Key Offseason Losses: Martin Biron, Jeff Tambellini, Tim Jackman

Key Offseason Additions: James Wisniewski, Mark Eaton, Milan Jurcina, Nino Niederreiter, Zenon Konopka, P.A. Parenteau

Last Season Ranking: 13th in East

John Tavares needs to have a big season for the Islanders to have a chance in 2010-11

John Tavares needs to have a big season for the Islanders to have a chance in 2010-11

Offense:

The New York Islanders are continuing to work with a young squad, spending much of the past decade rebuilding their team. This season, we should see tremendous growth out of the 2009 first overall draft pick, John Tavares. He started the 2009-10 campaign on a roll, and finished strong as well. Over the last 8 games of the season, he tallied 11 points. Throughout the middle of the season, however, Tavares struggled. As he develops and gets better, so will the Islanders.

To compliment Tavares, the Islanders have brought back 30 goal scorer Matt Moulson to play on his left wing. On the right wing will be Kyle Okposo. He put together a nice season last year, picking up 19 goals and 52 points, but is still only 22 years old. Okposo’s numbers have increased in each season with the Islanders, but with another year of experience under his belt, and playing alongside Tavares and Moulson, look for Okposo to have a real break out season.

Beyond the top line, the Islanders don’t have too much going on. While their lack of depth will hurt again this season, they have made some big strides. Blake Comeau is another youngster who put together a nice season last year, putting up 35 points in only 61 games. If he stays healthy, he’ll be a nice threat on the 2nd line. Additionally, we could see Rob Schremp really have a break out season. He was a highly touted prospect with the Oilers organization, but management didn’t really think he had a shot with the team. Instead, after coming to the Islanders, he put up 25 points in only 44 games, including 5 goals and 5 assists on the power play.

Finally, we have a couple of new additions to the squad. First, Nino Niederreiter, the 5th overall pick in the 2010 draft. He’s a Swiss stud who’s only 17 years old right now. He’ll turn 18 on September 8th, but is said to already have NHL size, and could very well see time with the big boys this fall. Nino has put up good numbers everywhere he’s been, including a 60 point campaign, in 65 games, last season with the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL. Beyond that, the Islanders brought in Zenon Konopka to protect the current and future stars. Konopka bullied his way to 265 penalty minutes with the Lightning last season, and will more than likely have a repeat performance.

Defense:

The defense continues to build up and add depth, just like the offense, but the 2010-11 line-up still won’t be enough. Leading the way is Mark Streit, one of the better defenseman in the game. He moves the puck very well, and is a star on the power play. Streit ended last season pretty hot, and should pick up right where he left off.

The new guys, James Wisniewski, Mark Eaton, and Milan Jurcina are all experienced defenseman. Wisniewski is the youngest, and has the most potential as well. He’ll see lots of time on the power play, and should have a pretty big impact at that role. Eaton should see time on the power play as well. Both he and Jurcina will pick up more responsibility with the Islanders than they had with their previous teams. Radek Martinek and Jack Hillen will also battle for ice time on defense.

Goaltending:

The Islanders have two skilled goaltenders in Rick DiPietro and Dwayne Roloson. However, DiPietro has only started 12 games in the past two seasons combined. His injury troubles have certainly plagued the team, but with Dwayne Roloson on the squad as well, they have two netminders who are capable of holding the number one spot. Expect a strong battle through training camp, and even into the season, for the number one goaltending position. If DiPietro can stay healthy, and regain his old form, he could earn back his position.

Season Outlook:

The New York Islanders are still in the midst of a rebuilding project, but the situation is definitely progressing. Youngsters like John Tavares, Kyle Okposo, Matt Moulson, and Rob Schremp will lead the way this season, while future stars such as Nino Niederreiter try to make the squad. Doug Weight will also return to add veteran leadership. Unfortunately, the Islanders still lack enough depth to be a true contender this season. A playoff appearance might not be out of the question though if all the pieces fall in to place and the Islanders can add some additional help at the trade deadline.

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New York Islanders

Sep 2

Posted by Matt in Season Previews | No Comments

Jonathan Tavares

Jonathan Tavares

With the number one pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, the New York Islanders selected Jonathan Tavares of the London Knights. The young stud, who will turn 19 on September 20th, was nothing short of a goal scoring phenom in the OHL. This will certainly prove to be helpful for a team which ranked next to last in goals last season.

As we know, however, scoring goals isn’t everything in the NHL. A solid goaltender will help any team improve. Since starting goalie Rick DiPietro continues to fight through injuries, the Islanders spent some money this off-season on a couple solid netminders to hopefully help turn things around.  They initially signed Dwayne Roloson and less than a month later picked up Martin Biron as well, so expect a battle all season long for the number one goalie spot.

While the scoring and goaltending have certainly taken a step in the right direction, the Islanders still have a ways to go on defense. Number one defenseman Mark Streit will be a great help again this season along the blueline, especially on the power-play, but he lacks the support necessary to make a solid defensive corps.

The Islanders are continuing to rebuild around young stars like Tavares and Kyle Okposo, along with some veteran leadership in Doug Weight, but don’t expect them to turn things around overnight. While there will definitely be some improvement in 2009-10, I don’t see them climbing out of a last place finish in the Atlantic Division.

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