Ziggy Stardust

I saw a great note earlier by @cyclelikesedins on former Islander star Ziggy Palffy.

Leads me to this:

Palffy, now 40 years old, last played in the NHL in 2005-06 with Pittsburgh.  He has since retired a couple of times, only to come back and play for HK 36 Skalica.  After going 26-57-83 in 48 games last year, Palffy is 11-26-37 in 19 games this season.

Palffy made his NHL debut in the 1993-94 (Al Arbour's final season).

His first NHL goals came in the same game the following season--he scored twice 2:04 apart in the third period as the Islanders rallied for a 2-1 win over Florida at the Coliseum.  The date was January 21, 1995 -- the first game after the lockout.

Palffy scored 329 games in the NHL and has added 273 more in the Czech (before his NHL career) and Slovak leagues.

Ziggy has also appeared in three Olympics (1994, 2002 and 2010) -- might an appearance in Ufa in 2014 make it four?

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Time to end this "hill" of a lockout: NHL makes offer

It's been three weeks since Bill Daly described the difference between the NHL and its PA on term limits (and other contractual issues) as a "hill to die on".

However, this morning, it appears that that hill may soon be flattened:

from TSN:

<<The NHL has made a new CBA proposal to the NHL Players' Association, an NHL player told TSN on Friday.

The player, who requested anonymity, said the NHL made a new offer to the NHLPA on Thursday, one which moved on term limit for player contracts, salary variance and buyouts.

According to TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger, the NHL adjusted its maximum contract length from five to six years (seven years if a team is re-signing its own player) and boosted the variance from five to 10 per cent.

TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun adds that the new offer includes the 'Make Whole' provision that stays at $300 million and allows each team one compliance buyout prior to the 2013-14 season. The buyout would not count against the cap, but it would against the players' share.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly would not confirm what the player said when reached by TSN. There is no scheduled meeting between both sides for Friday, as the NHLPA needs time to review the offer from the league.

More to follow.

<<
 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Big day for Strome in Canada win

From TSN.ca:
<<Ryan Strome scored twice and defenceman Morgan Rielly had a goal and two assists as Canada overcame two game misconducts and a pair of two-goal deficits to rally past Slovakia 6-3 at the World Junior Hockey Championship.>>

Strome scored on both of his shots, and also was Canada's best face-off man, winning 11 of 14.

Griffin Reinhart had an assist, and was +2 for Canada, who improves to 2-0-0-0 in the tourney.

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Following Mr. Marginal

About a year ago,an ESPN contributor named Neil Greenberg raised quite a stir around these parts when he failed to named John Tavares to his "Top 25 under 25" list.

Howie picked up on it, and noted: "You could make the case that John Tavares is among the best 25 players in the league, period, never mind under 25 years of age."   It helped that Tavares would then go score both goals in the game, including the overtime winner, earning him the tag "Mr. Marginal".   (You can enjoy Howie's rant here: http://islanderspointblank.com/news/video-howie-rose-trolls-neil-greenberg-for-not-including-john-tavares-in-top-25-list/ )

As the lockout drags on and on....apparently Neil has taken to being Tavares' social director, retweeting the following:

Mackenzie Tout ‏@Tout23

Funny, my ex gf is at the Spengler Cup cause she's now dating John Tavares #dagger

Mr. Tavares' current girlfriend's former boyfriend is a collegiate golfer in Canada.

Somehow Canada lost their Spengler Cup opener today, 2-1 to a German club team (Adler Mannheim) on an OT goal by locked-out Jason Pominville. apparently the poultation of
Pominville continues to grow --even in the lockout (classic clip : www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmB-_XK5i1Q )   Tyler Seguin had Canada's only goal.

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

EA Sports NHL 13 simulation

Of all the silly ideas in this silly lockout, apparently EA Sports has been simulating the entire NHL season.

EA has the Bruins with the worst record in the entire NHL --maybe that's why Jacobs won't let anybody play?

Their Christmas week Atlantic Division leaders -- the NY Islanders.

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/8780403/2012-2013-nhl-season-week-12-simulation#standings

Apparently Evgeni Nabokov simulates well -- he's been credited with 9 shutouts (When they actually play on the ice, the Isles as a team have reached only 9 shutouts in a season once in their history --they had 10 in 1975-76.) and a league-fake-best 94.11 save percentage.

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/8780404/2012-2013-nhl-season-week-12-statistics

Today -- Boxing Day (12/26) is a traditional day for the Isles to play -- having played on this date in every season between the lockouts.Had they hosted New Jersey tonight as originally scheduled, they would have been looking for points 35/36 on games played on Boxing Day. (34 points on 12/26 second only to 35 points on 12/17 --which would have been an off-day this season.)

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Hey, the NHL made Time Magazine (.com)

Of course, the league is not going to want you to read what they have to say.

I, on the other hand, do.

http://business.time.com/2012/12/19/hockeys-wealth-redistribution-problem-whats-really-behind-the-nhl-lockout/

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Mears/EJ to voice Team USA's run for gold

Former Islander radio voice Steve Mears will have the play-by-play of all Team USA games in the World Junior Tourney, which begins next week in Ufa, Russia.  Mears will be paired with NHL Network/NHL.com's EJ Hradek.  Rob Simpson will be the rink side reporter.

More details from Ken Schott (Daily Gazette, Schenectady NY) here: http://www.dailygazette.com/weblogs/schott/2012/dec/17/nhl-network-to-televise-all-usa-games-from-world-j/

and from NHL Network here: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=647851

There are no Islander prospects on the Team USA preliminary roster, but there are some familiar names to New York fans, including Stefan Matteau (1st round pick of NJ and son of Stephan), as well as Ranger first round picks JT MIller and Brady Skjei.  Steve Zipay noted today that Miller may end up being the team's captain, while Skjei, a defenseman, may not make the final roster (which also includes Union College [ Let's go U!] defenseman Shayne Gotisbehere).

Two pre-tourney games will also be shown on NHL Network  (Thursday at 12:30pm and Saturday at 6 AM, both with repeats in prime-time).

Islander prospects Griffin Reinhart and Ryan Strome (the OHL's leading scorer) are both on the Canadian squad-- all Canadian preliminary games will also be on NHL Network in the US; the US faces Canada on Sunday December 30th.  The game will air live at 4:30 AM, with a repeat in prime-time.

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Isles/Rangers Game 5/1990 tonight on MSG

The Greatest Rivalries series continues with the 5th and final game of the 1990 Patrick Division Finals.  This was a wild game, one that would have been Bryan Trottier's final game in an Islander uniform ... had he not been benched by Al Arbour.

In the end, it was a big night for Mike Gartner and the Rangers...who survive a furious Islander onslaught late in the game. The Rangers' victory came on the 50th anniversary of their 1940 Stanley Cup championship. The game airs on MSG at Midnight tonight --and repeats at 2pm tomorrow.  (I can only imagine the Islander fans complaining about the time slot had this been an Islander victory.)

NY Times coverage (no subscription needed) http://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/14/sports/hard-hitting-rangers-reach-patrick-final.html

Earlier tonight (10pm) -- a new episode of the Garden Transformed ... which features a special guest: Denis Potvin.  Preview it here: http://tinyurl.com/c3yhr6y

BTW -- MSG has a Christmas present scheduled for Isles fans as well.  The next episode of Greatest Rivalries will premiere on Christmas Night at 9:00, and repeat at midnight.  It's the April 2, 1993 game in which Pierre Turgeon's 50th goal of the season comes in overtime at the Garden.  While there were still two weeks left in the season, the win gave the Isles a three-point lead over the Rangers, and propelled the Islanders towards the playoffs.  The Rangers would lose 11 of their final 12 under former Islander Ron Smith (who had replaced Roger Nielsen).  Smith's replacement: Mike Keenan.

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Talk...talk..talk tick...tick...tick

As the NHL & its players continue to talk (or not) -- apparently they were even seen in the same room at some point today  --  and a $3.4 Billion biz becomes a $2 Billion biz (or less),

both sides should be concerned about the results of a poll conducted by CBC.

The complete results are here:  http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/opinion/nhl/survey-results.pdf

Some notes: 80% of respondents are either "angry" or "don't care"; 55% support neither side, with 1/4 backing the players and 1/6 behind the owners.  78% says they won't buy a ticket this season if they play and 85% won;t buy merchandise.  71% did say they would watch on TV.

While we know these polls aren't scientific, important to realize that since this is a CBC poll, most respondents were Canadian.  One can only imagine how much worse the results would be for a US-commissioned poll.

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Isles- Rangers set for MSG -- December 22

Of course it's a charity alumni game:

<<Two hockey rivalries are renewed, as the FDNY and New York Rangers alumni team up to face their rivals from the NYPD and the New York Islanders alumni. 

 

This unique event hits the ice at The World's Most Famous Arena in "Rivals for Relief," a benefit for Hurricane Sandy victims with portions of the proceeds going to the Red Cross and the Stan Lee Foundation.

 

http://www.fdnyhockey.com/

http://www.facebook.com/NYPD-Hockey/

http://rangers.nhl.com/

http://www.stanleefoundation.org/

http://www.redcross.org/

 

Alumni currently scheduled to appear:*
 
NY Rangers
1. Steve Vickers
2. Rod Gilbert
3. Ron Duguay
4.Chris Kostopoulos
5. Brian Mullen
6. Pete Stemkowski
7. Ed Hospodar
8. Peter Ferraro
9. Chris Ferraro
 
NY Islanders
1. Gordie Lane
2. Pat Flatley
3. Mick Vukota
4. Benny Hougue
5. Eric Cairns
6. Randy Wood

>>

The Islanders may have youth on their side --Gilbert is now 71 and Stemkowski 69.

If they can find another Ferraro (Ray) -- maybe he could convince Mullen to give him credit for the OT goal in 1993 vs the Caps.  (Ferraro is already credited with the other two OT goals in that series)

Tickets available through Ticketmaster.

It's apparently a lot cheaper to see old hockey players than old musicians...

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Brooklyn, why Brooklyn?

Change "Nets" to "Islanders" and "Knicks" to "Rangers" in this story and you'll start to see why the Brooklyn move certainly made sense for the Nets and will likely be the same for the Islanders.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-12-11/nets-rivaling-knicks-creates-505-percent-ticket-gain-at-barclays-center

As you do, think of this Saturday at the Nassau Coliseum -- the only day the building will hold an event between now and Christmas.  Not including a blood drive, of course.

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

They tweet the truth

 A couple of tweet on the ongoing lockout that gave me a giggle:

Seth Rorabaugh @emptynetters 10 Dec  
Nine current NHL franchises have played fewer regular season games than Gary Bettman has canceled (2,224).  
________________________________

Sporting Charts @sportingcharts  10 Dec  
#NHL has now cancelled 526 games from the season. 2,224 games have been lost to lockouts/strikes - 670 more than the other leagues combined.  

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick     

MSG's Rivalries series: 1990-Isles/Rangers Game 3

The 1989-90 season was one of the strangest in Islander history-- from last place to first place to a 14-game winless streak to sneaking into the playoffs on the last night of the season (and possibly costing the Isles a shot at Jaromir Jagr in the process).  I referred to that playoff clincher here: http://www.nyiskinny.com/2011/10/isles-40-in-40-honorable-mention.html

In the Patrick Division playoffs, the Isles faced the first place Rangers (who had finished in first place for the first time since 1942 -- 31 seasons before the Isles first played).

The rivalry between the squads is in full-force.  It was in game 1 of the series that Pat LaFontaine was knocked unconscious on a hit from James Patrick (the Isles' Jeff Norton noted it was "Clean"). There was a disagreement regarding the medical treatment of LaFontaine -- Islander trainer Mark Aldridge also complained LaFontaine's ambulance was "rocked and pounded by fans" leaving MSG.  The Rangers won that game 1, 2-1 and then beat the Isles 5-2 in game 2.

That set up a must-win game 3 for the Isles at the Coliseum. It is that game 3 that is featured on MSG tonight (9:00pm).  It turns out to be the first of only three double-OT games in Coliseum history, won by Brent Sutter early in the second OT.

A couple of personal memories from that night:
1. It's one of the only times in recorded history (because who records such things) that two statisticians were jointly interviewed on radio between periods -- the late Joel Blumberg needed guests on Isles radio between the 1st and 2nd overtime so Kenny Albert (who was working with his dad on Ranger radio) and I were Joel's guests.  I wonder whatever happened to Kenny? :)
2. The game was played on the first night on Passover.  So while I was breaking matzvah with Blumberg, Landers, Fischler and Albert at the Coliseum, my fiancee was at a Passover seder ...with my extended family!   (FWIW, the Isles are 3-1 in playoff games played on the first night of Passover...and we're still married!)

The Rangers would win the series in 5, but would lose to the Capitals in the Division Final, extending their Cup-less streak to an even 50.

In addition to tonight's 9pm airing, the broadcast will also air at midnight Mon/Tue, as well as at noon and 4 pm on Tuesday, and noon and 4 pm on Thursday.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

SBA to counsel Nassau businesses faced with NHL Lockout losses

On the one hand, this is a sad story, as business-owners face losses from sales related to Islander games that haven't occurred this fall.

On the other hand, it's a bit comical ...given the games that will be lost in 2015/16. 2016/17, 2017/18 and the 22 seasons that follow that....

The story is here (Subscription required): http://libn.com/2012/12/03/sba-to-counsel-businesses-affected-by-nhl-lockout/

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

Potvin passes Orr

In another edition of NY's Greatest Hockey Rivalry, Denis Potvin passes Bobby Orr in career points in a 2-2 tie at MSG.  Premieres tonight at 7 on MSG Network.
(Also airs at  2AM, 10AM and 4PM tomorrow and at noon Saturday)

This game was played during winter break of my senior year in College -- could it really be this long ago???

A bit more on Potvin passing Orr, twice: http://www.nyiskinny.com/2011/12/isles-40-in-40-31.html

Stan's memories here: http://www.msg.com/blogs/stan-fischler/rangers-islanders--december-20--1985--potvin-breaks-orr-s-record.html

 

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick