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Scott Gordon on Washington without Ovechkin |
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“Go to the corner so you can get that puck!” Gordon barked on the ice. When the rink is this empty and quiet, you can hear him loud and clear. With it empty, they can also relax and not feel as if they are working in a fishbowl. They ran through different scenarios: 5 on 5, 5 on 3, and even the scenario of “Dog Pile on John Tavares” inside the crease.
Back in the coach's room, crowded by media, Scott said that DiPietro looked good today and would return to the ice on Thursday. I didn’t see him. I wanted to, but I didn’t. This was his fist back to back days of practice. Next week, he’ll shoot for two days on, two days off, and see how that goes.
Scott chuckled and smiled with the reporters asked about Kyle missing practice saying “We wore him out.” No, he was already being drained by the H1N1 virus. They just didn’t find out until yesterday. We know what it did to Doug Weight so expect Kyle to be out for at least two weeks. Expect more of this until the Islanders find a way to get all of their team vaccinated against this particular flu.
Sometimes You Win; Sometimes You Lose:
In the awkward silence that fell in the coach’s dressing room when the MSM didn’t know what else to ask Scott Gordon yesterday, I piped up with something that has bothered me.
“Scott, going over the face-off percentage, your last game against Washington produced a 70% win percentage. Your game against Buffalo was 17%. Which is the anomaly?” Not bad, right? I think that's the first time any of them heard me speak.
“Well, Buffalo really took advantage of the situation. I’m not saying they cheated to come out on the plus side, I doubt it, but they took advantage of the fact they didn’t have to put their sticks down first. It’s the responsibility of our centers though to talk to the linesmen and make sure they’re not getting taken advantage of. That’s something our centers have to identify all the time."
Hear that boys? You CAN be a tattle-tale.
Who Gets the Nod in Net?:
That always seems to be the question at hand. That's always the one that Scott likes to be coy about. He doesn't like to say who is playing until the last minute. But I can tell you a little secret. Scott has his gameplans all mapped out well in advance.
He did get a little dig in to one of the Newsday reporters who asked about Biron when he said to him with a Cheshire cat grin "Since you're you're still in baseball mode -- Marty hasn't gotten the run support." Who says Scott Gordon is boring?
Washington without Ovechkin:
Still a formidable foe and Scott Gordon knows that. “With the exception of the penalties, the five on five, I liked the way we played the one in Washington. They had some pretty good chances on their power play that they really came up big on. At five on five, I thought that was probably the best we’ve played against them. I guess everything is relevant. You’re talking about a line that has Ovechkin in it.” But Ovechkin reportedly won’t be in tonight’s line-up. Gordon smiled “I’m not going to complain about that but it doesn’t mean we can take them any lighter. Not when they have Semin, Backstrom, Knuble and Fleischmann who Bruce Boudreu says is one of the best kept secrets. He’s a very talented player.”
Surprising fact:
There’s a conference room overlooking the rink at IceWorks that is heated… and no one ever told me. But that’s okay. I’m no wuss. I’ll freeze downstairs close to the ice.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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