Sunday 10:55 am: As reported by Lighthouse Hockey, the IIHF has suspended the Atlanta Thrasher player who hit Radek Martinek for 3 games. In the World Championship terms, that could be until the end of the tourney. Check out the post here: http://www.lighthousehockey.com/2011/5/1/2146631/sunday-links-and-news
It is amazing the great coverage that can be obtained by someone who lives so far away from the team he covers. Guess you really DON'T need on-site access to generate amazing coverage. Kudos to the LH team and Dominik!
Sat 5:25 pm: The black cloud that follows Radek Martinek around just decided to open up again. This report from the IIHF after today's game between the Czech Republic and Latvia:
Czech defenceman Radek Martinek was injured in the first period, when Latvia’s Artuts Kulda checked him in the corner. The hit is under review from the IIHF Disciplinary Panel to determine whether there will be supplemental disciplinary action. Martinek was brought to hospital due to his head injury. He suffered a hematoma and might be gone for the rest of the tournament according to first information from the Czech team staff.
As noted, Martinek does not have a contract for next season which questions if he was carrying his own insurance or if his team or the IIHF itself was covering him.
10 am :
Well, that was great fun. If you missed it, try to make the next one. You can also catch the HockeyNightLive.com podcast where
HockeyIndependent.com's Tony Stabile argued, ah, guest starred with the IceCreep guys, Mike, Paul and Sean, for the entire show. Okay, well the Islander IceGirls did make a quick guest appearance too.
While hanging out with fellow hockey fans watching playoff hockey on the big screens is always fun, I was more happy to just be able to wear my colors again in public. It really, really stuck in my head when Eric Cairns said "Bleed It!" to me on Monday morning. That's how I started this journey of mine, bleeding the Blue & Orange. It was nice to have a few hours being true to form: Islanders hockey from head to toe. It felt good.
Great fun, if you want to read the rest, head to my 7thwoman.blogspot.com website.
So it's 10 am and I'm parked on the couch watching Team USA take on Team Austria at the IIHF World Championships on Versus. This is something that we get to take advantage of with the NHL agreement with Comcast/NBC TV deal. Versus will carry every Team USA game that is played during this tournament while TSN will carry all the Team Canada games. Here in the states, ESPN would never do that for hockey. That is the difference with the TV deal. Comcast/NBC wants to grow the game. Exposure will help.
It's a shame to see Zach Parise have to sit this one out, but he is the special guest of Versus doing in studio analysis this morning.
Al Montoya, or should I say Alvaro Montoya is in net for Team USA today in their first game that counts. Their only exhibition game was a 3 - 2 win for USA. This is a difficult tournament as Team USA doesn't have much practice time so Scott Gordon has a challenge ahead of him. Some players are still making their way to Europe as they are eliminated from their own playoff runs.
Yesterday, John Tavares was the top Canadian player in their exhibition game where he scored a goal and an assist. Would he have had more than two points had Team Canada tagged Matt Moulson to also play? I think so.
Hockey IS the best game on the planet and the International competitions are great to see the top talent in the sport playing for their flag and not their logo. Thank you Versus.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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