Training Camp
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Training Camp
Day 3 - 9/10/00
Now that the Islanders have both D Zdeno Chara and LW Brad Isbister in camp, they have all their major RFA's signed. The team is now ready to go on with camp without any holdouts and get the season underway on a good note. Though, you have to wonder about how they got some of these guys in. D Roman Hamrlik seemed to have suddenly decided to take less than what he was originally asking for. Also, D Kenny Jonsson has been a loyal player to this franchise in his last few contract negotiations as he event- ually excepted Islander offers as opposed to sitting out. What- ever way you want to look at it, the Islanders management clearly won all four of these negotiations hands down. Now onto Day 3 of training camp. G Rick DiPietro was added to Group A today so he could join future mentor G John Vanbiesbrouck. Here were the new Groupings: GROUP A Forward Lines Claude Lapointe-Tim Connolly-Juraj Kolnik Jeff Toms-Dave Scatchard-Dmitri Nabokov Jason Krog-Dimitri Upper-Steve Webb Robert Petrovicky-Mike Rice-Mark Lawrence Defense Pairings Branislav Mezei-Kenny Jonsson Eric Cairns-Dan Trebil Anders Myrvold-Mike Stapleton (to even up the number of defense) Goaltenders John Vanbiesbrouck Rick DiPietro Wade Flaherty GROUP B Forward Lines Mats Lindgren-Jesse Belanger-Mariusz Czerkawski Raffi Torres-Justin Mapletoft-Petr Mika Taylor Pyatt-Oleg Kvasha-Mark Parrish Marco Charpentier-Adam Edinger-Trent Hunter Defense Pairings Kevin Haller-Aris Brimanis Ray Schultz-Mathieu Biron Adam Johnson-Lee Sorochan Evgeny Korolev Goaltenders Stephen Valiquette David St. Germain Mike D'Alessandro Jonsson skated in some contract drills for the first time to- day. Hamrlik's flight to NY was canceled last night but he was dur to fly into Albany International Airport at midday. Group A Scrimmage: Team Henning 4 Goals: Krog(2), Nabokov, Trebil Team Gilbert 3 Goals: Connolly(2) Connolly had another great day as he posted 2 more goals for a camp total of 4 in his teams losing effort. Jason Krog led all skaters today with 2 goals and 2 assists in Team Henning's 4-3 win. DiPietro yielded a couple of goals but rebounded from yest- erday by making spectacular saves on a C Dmitri Upper break-away and a 2-0 by LW Mike Rice and LW Mark Lawrence. Rick also recorded an assist on one of Krog's goals. Group B Scrimmage Team Henning 2 Goals: Torres, Korolev, Belanger, Biron Team Gilbert 2 LW Raffi Torres was the talk of this game, as he scored a goal and dished out about 10 hits, including a bone-jarring hit on C Adam Edinger. Butch Goring once again is praising the play of Evgeny Korolev for his steady, stay at home play. Butch says that he may be a legitimate challenge to start the season with the Isles. Korolev also scored off a give and go with Oleg Kvasha. C Justin Mapletoft has been very quiet this camp compared to his camp of last year. With the great play so far of Torres and Pyatt he may be getting outshined thus far. Hopefully he will pick things up. No cuts were made today as promised with the announcement of the contract signing taking center stage on the day. Expect some to be made tomorrow though, possibly some moves with some of the rookies. A couple invitees in camp were noticably absent from todays groupings. The Islanders are still very high on Juraj Kolnik, and while comparisons of him with former Islander sniper Zigmund Palffy may be a bit extreme, the coaching staff believe he will at some point become an above average player. Reports have been that he has added alot of jump to his game and has shown a good nose around the net.Day 2 - 9/9/00
More scrimmaging today. Competition for position are already heating up. With Chara seemingly out of the picture, it opens up a spot on the blueline for a guy like D Branislav Mezei. One thing I have to say about the situation. Even though I think both Chara and LW Brad Isbister are asking for more then they are worth, i'm not sure exiling them for the entire season is a good move at all. They should still try to negotiate. The worst thing that could happen is that both these young guys will lose a year of developement. That would be horrible, especially for Isbister because he is an integral part of the team and their future. If he continues his pace, he could score 30-40 goals maybe even this season. Get it done Mike Milbury and owners. Please! And as for Chara, I think he would be better than anyone else we could find...including D Garry Galley. Group A and Group B remained the same for todays scrimmages. D Mathieu Biron has become very physical these first days of camp as he has dished out some big hits. Yesterday, C Tim Connolly was the highlight. Today, it was LW Taylor Pyatt. The big power forward has great speed and has been labeled the fastest player in camp. He scored 2 goals for team Goring as they defeated team Sterling 6-1. C Dave Scatchard scored another 2 goals today and leads camp with 4. Team Goring 6 Goals: Pyatt(2), Scatchard(2), Brimanis, Team Sterling 1 Petrovicky, Charpentier DiPietro had a tougher day than yesterday as he allowed 3 goals and got caught on one of his patented clearing plays by Scatchard which led to one of his goals. Second game: Team Goring 4 Goals: Kolnik, Edinger, Lindgren, Team Sterling 2 Upper, Toms, Nabokov Juraj Kolnik has showed a real nose for being in front of the net, which led to his first goal of camp. Mike Milbury said to expect some cuts to already take place tomorrow. Coach Butch Goring stated that one player that has impressed him and could possibly take Chara's position is D Evgeny Korolev. Goring thinks he played well at times last season in his call ups. Goring on what players impressed him: "[Petr] Mika was very good in the first game. He handled the puck pretty well. I've liked what I've seen from Kolnik and Toms. I've been very pleased with the play of Raffi Torres and Taylor Pyatt. They're battling for spots." John Vanbiesbrouck said in an interview that he was extremely happy to come back to New York this summer and that he relishes the chance to tutor young Rick DiPietro. The Beezer stated that he likes the Islanders current makeup because of the talented young players that the team has. Tom's Hockey Trivia
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