Monday 2:11 pm: Okay, so as to not ruin a comment thread, I'll just update you here. Yes, Roloson gets the start. yeah! Rick seems to be fine and there are some interesting photos of the Pink pads he donned in practice for Hockey fights cancer month.
Dwayne Roloson will debut a new mask tonight that has both Chico Reesh and Billy Smith on it. Masks are so very personal.
Blake Comeau seems to be fine after a few bumps and bruises. And Nate Lawson has cleared waivers so he can go play in Bridgeport.
Okay, Tonight the Isles "Confidence" meets up with Brian Burke's "Truculence." This will surely be a battle. Just hopefully one that doesn't start at the five second mark again. That was just a little rediculous and had all the markings of being staged and premeditated.
Sun 12:04 pm: Good guy Nate Lawson has been placed on waivers (in an effort to get him to Bridgeport which I didn't even think he was actually on the Isles roster and needed to be placed on waivers but that shows you WTHDIK)
“Good things happen when you close your eyes and shoot.”
New Islander acquisition Milan Jurcina was jovial sitting in his stall next to Radek Martinek and (I think) James Wisniewski. They were laughing and joking with Milan about his goal production totals as they were undressing. The throng of reporters hadn’t gotten around to him yet, so I approached the three with recorder in hand and broke up their party.
“Was that your first two goal game?” Wiz asked Milan as he was doing a fine job of asking questions for me.
“I had in Boston, two goals back-to-back. Five goals in three games I had.” That must have been in the ‘05-‘06 season when he scored six goals and five assists for a total of 11 points. Milan has not a big goal producer. He remembers each of them. He’ll remember yesterday’s. But as usual, sometimes you forget the big picture.
“How many goals you finish up the season with?” Wiz asked.
“Oh, eight or nine.” Milan was overstating or The Hockey News has it wrong. He finished that year with six goals and that is the most he has had in any of his NHL homes. We’ll see if he can beat that here on the Island.
But it was the first short-handed goal for Milan.
“I think it was my first short-handed goal. Yeah.” (It had better be because I’m taking my information from Chris King’s radio broadcast.)
Milan didn’t see it coming.
“I just saw the puck was rolling and nobody was going at me, so I just shoot it. I just close my eyes and shot it.” I was speechless for a moment.
I repeated the quote just to make sure.
“So you closed your eyes and shot it.”
“Exactly.” he said. I told him that would be the quote and again he said
“Exactly. Good things happen when you close your eyes.” I think Scott’s going to want him to keep his eyes open, but if closing them gets the puck in the back of the net -- okay then.
The second goal explanation was just as simple.
“I was pinching down and I saw there was a scramble in front of the net so I just throw it at the net. It went off the post. I didn’t know it went in. I saw the guys running at me raising their hands so - I think it went in.”
It did.
Scott Gordon's Postgame quotes on Jurcina:
On Milan Jurcina’s game…
I’ve known him for a while. There’s no question he’s (got) probably one of the hardest shots. Dean (Chynoweth) joked with me that had that missed the net, it probably would have gone around the rink twice.
On Jurcina shooting more…
It’s not a question about more. His biggest thing is he’s got to get it on net. He knows he’s got a hard shot. We actually talked about putting him on the power play, (with the) face-off being on the other side for a one-timer. He does have a bomb.
Josh Bailey sat with the blue hard-hat on his head taking off his socks. I had to ask, even though I knew the answer.
“So, what’s with the hard-hat?”
“Hardest working player of the game. I think Blake had it last game. He gave it to me this game.” It was appropriate.
Josh Bailey has been doing everything right.
“Everything seems to be rolling pretty well. It’s still early but I feel I’ve got a lot of confidence. I think a lot of the guys do too so it’s paid off.”
Bailey has grown a lot in the past two years, both mentally and physically. While web streaming WRHU last night while Chris King was calling the game, I remembered King said that Bailey gained 13 lbs over the off-season building strength and muscle.
“I don’t know about 13.” Uh, oh. Bad info?
“Last year they had it wrong on the website. I gained like 8 lbs.” and then he chuckled
“It goes up every day.” Well, he does feel a lot stronger than he was last season. His confidence and speed has improved and it shows. He told Newsday’s Katie Strang
“When the puck gets down low I feel like guys can’t push me around.” And that is a BIG difference from last season.
In John Tavares’ first game back after the mild concussion, he played 22 shifts for 18:48 of ice time. He closed out the game with an empty-netter to run the score up to 5 - 2 for the Islanders.
“It was a great bounce back for us tonight to get a big win and the two points. There aren’t many home games the next few weeks here, so it’s always important to play strong at home and make it tough for other teams when they come in here.”
John said he felt good about his conditioning and his timing and was happy with the plays he made on the ice.
“But the more games you play, the better you feel.”
The Islanders have not made it easy for ANY team that has played them. Their work ethic and “never-say-die” attitude has made them a worthy opponent. And one that now has six points in five games.
Not too shabby for a team who lost it’s all-star defenseman in pre-season.
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