Isles on the brink of... something

Some final thoughts as the Islanders get ready to open the season Friday night at New Jersey, a team they somehow dominated a year ago:

Good to hear that Chris Lee is OK after being boarded by Rostislav Olesz Monday night. Always scary to see that, and it's why boarding penalties need to be enforced even more strictly than they are now. The league will suspend a player a dozen games or more for swinging his stick, but slamming someone into the boards from behind -- which can do serious damage, including paralysis -- draws far less punishent. Never made sense to me.

It was a bit surprising to see Josh Bailey on the opening-night roster, but why not have him show the coaching staff and the fans what he's got? It will be fairly clear within a week or so if he's ready or not. If not, then within nine games he can go back and captain his junior team. If he lights it up, keep him around. This team can use some juice.

Michael Farber at SI.com has a column this week that calls out the NHL for thinking about expanding into Europe. It's ridiculous, he says, and I agree. What is the point? Why create more teams and water down the product in North America -- you know the top Euros would jump at the chance to play closer to home -- nevermind the obvious logistical problems of playing games across the pond.

I don't even like the idea of playing season-opening games overseas, regardless of the sport. But the NHL in particular should focus on the fans it has than worrying about picking up more fans across the globe. Forget globalization. Embrace hockey as the great niche sport that it is.

I hesitate to even mention the column by Newsday's Johnette Howard because it only serves to give it the attention it doesn't deserve. But I can't help myself (I won't link to it -- if you still want to read it after this, be my guest). It's the typical, poorly researched, kick-someone-while-he's-down, easy pot shot column that Wallace Matthews has mastered.

It hasn't been that long that the Isles haven't made the playoffs (and you could argue that injuries aside the team would have had a shot last season), but you wouldn't know it by reading this drivel. Columnists like Howard and Matthews only serve to assure me that I did the right thing when I canceled my Newsday subscription. You ain't missing much, at least if you're an Islanders fan.

Speaking of the low road, it was good to see that Ryan Hollweg was suspended for the first two games of the season for picking up his third boarding and game misconduct penalties in the last 41 games. The guy is a cheap shot artist and hopefully won't be in the league much longer.

It pained me to see Hollweg labeled the victim when Chris Simon hacked him in the face (Simon was wrong, no doubt), only because Hollweg has been one of the dirtiest players in the league for some time and in that case got a taste of his own medicine. Hollweg's specialty, it seems, is boarding, and we know how I feel about that.

And so the blog comes full circle. You're welcome!

Game recap: Rangers 4, Islanders 2

Eleven games and counting where the Islanders have scored no more than twice. Remarkably, they are 5-5 with an overtime loss in that stretch, which says a lot about the defense and the play of Rick DiPietro. But you wonder how much longer the team can tread water when a third goal by the opposition equals a loss.

You kind of knew beating the Rangers would be tough one night after a big win over the Senators. Toss in the fact that the game was at the Garden, and that the Rangers were supremely motivated to win after dropping the first three meetings of the season. Sure enough, they jumped out on top on a goal by Jaromir Jagr. Miro Satan got the equalizer early in the second, but two more goals by the Rangers threatened to blow the game open. Mike Comrie's wrister late in the second got the Isles within one again -- but that also meant they had reached their goal quota for the game.

Again, the power play (can we really call it that any more) was a major culprit, going scoreless in four chances, including a 29-second, 5-on-3 advantage in the first.

We mentioned it in one of the early blog posts this season, but the Islanders just don't have that one scorer who scares you, or who can carry a team when they need it. So you figure if Garth Snow has a Christmas list, a sniper is at the top.

The ugliness came courtesy of Ryan Hollweg, who showed again how classless he is by threatening to rip open the fresh stitches in Radek Martinek's face. Martinek caught a skate blade the night before, but played with 15 stitches nonetheless. Of course, Hollweg saw the wound as a target, and displayed his intelligence by telling Martinek he would rip them open when they met in scrum along the boards.

When Simon slashed Hollweg in the face, it was a bad split-second decision by a player who has always been highly regarded by his teammates. Hollweg, however, thinks about his violence before inflicting it, and is as much of a lowlife as anyone in the league. If the NHL is serious about protecting its players (and some of Colin Campbell's "punishments" make you wonder), it will sit Hollweg for a few games.

Not that it would make much of a difference to Hollweg.