they dont know yet.. depends when they can open camps officially this week (weds-fri).. im assuming if the cba is officially signed and sealed by tuesday, and camp opens weds, we have the 50 game schedule starting the 15th, if they dont have everything signed and sealed by weds, they will probably go with with 48 games on the 19th..
Considering how much the Islanders would be shooting themselves in the foot to bring back a player we know isn't ready for NHL action, which one of Poulin or Nilsson comes up? Do they bring "Big Bird" Koskinen back over for the Bridge?
Hate to be the guy to point to the elephant in the room, but I'm hearing two compliance buyouts and like it or not, Nabokov/Poulin/Nilsson/Koskinen is the stronger quartet.
Big Bird's stats for KaiPa Kuopio: W:15, L:8, T:12, GAA:1.98, SV:0.921
What happened to the Visnovsky fiasco? Is he gonna play or complain still? Wasn't that put off because of the CBA...
I doubt Carkner will play with Vis...Carks is 5-7 defenceman..I do think Reinhart will get 9 games though.
The deal was upheld - *supposedly* it was more a question of whether or not his NTC got violated, as at one point he did have one with LA (I think) before waiving it for the Ducks, or something like that.
I don't think Carkner will play with Visnovsky, although the guy has a pretty 'even' plus minus even playing 82 games. I wouldn't consider him out of the running for 2nd pairing spot duty just yet, depending on how long Hamonic takes to get back after the concussion.
The questions I want answered are:
Burying contracts.
Can the Rangers (and other teams) get away with sending Redden and other horrible contracts to the minors and not have it count against the cap?
The Snow Paradigm
Can the Isles still get away with stupid bonuses to reach the floor?
Yes, I know it is early and these details will emerge....but....These are the two things I'm most curious about.
This is the reason I think we wait as long as we can to buy out dipi. Use his hit to make the floor and then buy him out in the last round of compliance buyouts ( right before Brooklyn)
they better ****ing buy out The Rick. Disgrace it would even be a discussion.
Though without the vehemence, I can't say I disagree at all.
If the Islanders *truly* want to be 'players,' shouldn't now be the time to accelerate the process? The Lockout's over, Brooklyn is happening in (not counting this season), two years or less depending on what Ratner can make happen, and over half the league is over $60M in payroll. The Islanders could do wonders for bolstering any 'big market hockey' image they'd be smart to take advantage of by doing everything necessary to give themselves the best shot at winning.
Can the current squad do it? There are far to many x-factors to know, though it's doubtful. How to improve that likelihood? Assemble the best team and play the best players. It's obvious that it isn't DP anymore, and if there was a perfect time for getting DP off of the books and making a few smart moves with teams looking to preemptively get some cap space back, isn't now the beginning of that window?
