Islanders Esoteric

Congrats to Ricky for tying Chico in the Single Season Victories Record as
the 3rd Goalie ever to win at least 28 games in a single season. With 19
Games left he only needs 5 wins to take this record. See COUNTDOWN TO 33.
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Mr. Smyth Goes to Long Island. Salutations. Lots of chatter on many hockey
boards about concerns as to whether or not he is signed or not signed. Sure
I have concerns but I will worry about that come June when we are still
playing hockey. (OBTW, Mr. Smyth? We have great Pizza, Bagels and Beaches to
hang out on in the off season. The sun stays up for almost ten hours here on
Long Island.)
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Congrats to Richard Zednick for becoming the 405th player to lace up the
skates with the New York Islanders in regular season play. Which means that if
Ryan Smyth makes it to the Island for the game on Thursday he will be the
406th player ever.
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Jumping Ferraro - Ray got jumped in a few categories tonight.
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Fan un-favorite Don Maloney is in the Esoteric as well.
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Congtrats to Hunter for scoring his 60th goal with the Islanders.
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The ball is in the Islanders court. There are only 4 teams with magic
numbers higher than the Islanders. See the Magic Number Section. Tampa Bay is
tied with us as a 5th team. We have Magic Numbers over 9 teams. I point this
out because the playoffs are ours to lose with 19 games left.
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ESOTERIC
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San Jose Shark's....I mean Anaheim Duck's newest player....Jason BLAKE had a
hat trick and a 4-point night on a day that every one expected to send our
leading goal scorer packing. His first game back with the Islanders is his
407th GP and is #32 on the all-time GP list. He is 4 GP behind Wayne Merrick
and is the current active leader in games played as an Islander. His 3 Goal
game gives him 117, 118, and 119th Goals in his Islander Career. He breaks a
tie with Ray Ferraro - Jumps over his pal Parrish as well as Steve Thomas and
is alone at #17 on the all-time Goal scoring roster. He is 2 Goals behind
Duane Sutter at #16 and 26 Goals behind Marius Czerkawski at #15. His Assist,
his 126th overall places him 12 Assists behind Greg Gilbert in the #28th
spot. He now has 245 Points and in 407 Games Played he is at #23 overall a mere
4 Points behind David Volek (396 GP).
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HUNTER had a 2-Goal evening. In his 225th Game as an Islander he is 2 Games
behind Bryan Smolinski at #77 all-time in Games Played. His 59th and 60th
Goals with the Islanders makes him the 43rd player to ever score 60 Goals or
more tying him with Oleg (332 GP) and 4 Goals behind Jude Drouin. His Points,
garner him the #57 spot all-time with 119 Points 1 Pont behind Brad Dalgarno
(321 GP).
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SIMON has played in 63 games with the Islanders and is #186th on the big
list tied with 4 others in Hill, Sillinger, Park and Kozlov. His Goal, his 8th
with the Islanders, is #134th overall tying him with 9 others including Bob
Loriner. His point tonight gives him 25 with our team and the #137th spot
tied with German DEL player Dave McLLwain (http://dave-mcllwain.com/) ).
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POTI had an 22nd assist tonight for #124th overall tied with Jason Weimer
(94 GP). Tom did it in 59 Games and is at the #196th spot on the all-time
Games Played roster a single game behind Wade Flaherty and Ari Haanpaa. He is 1
Point behind Brent Sopel with 26 Points at the #134 spot.
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ROBATAILLE gets 3 Points with his 3 Assists tonight. His 3-Point showing
gives him 17 Points as an islander and the #163rd spot tied with 9 others
including Park. The 3-Assists gives him 11 in his career with the Orange and Blue
and #168th overall in this category. He now has seen action in 41 games in
his two stints with the Isles leaving him 1 GP behind the likes of Brian
Lavender, Wyatt Smith, Evegny Korolev.
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SILLINGER who is tied with 4 other active players in Games Played with 63 GP
t the #186th spot. He had 2 Assists tonight for a total of 28 Assists and
is #112 overall. He is tied with Bill Berg who scored 28 Assists in 154 GP.
His Points tonight his 47th and 48th tie him with erstwhile player and
erstwhile Islander GM, Don Maloney at #104 overall.
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CAMPOLI is racing up the Islander charts by playing in his 112th Game and
getting the #128th spot, 6 GP behind Dave Chyzowski. His Assist tonight, his
34th with the Islanders is good enough for the #101st (AIR ASSAULT!) spot and
a single Assist behind Bill MacMillan (231GP). His 44th Point is #111 on the
all-time Point roster tying him with Joe Reekie and Janne Niinimaa.
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PENALTIES
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ASHAM - the current active leader in Islander Penalties had 7 PIMs for
198PIMs with the Isles and is now #42 overall jumping over Ray Ferraro and Randy
Wood.
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SIMON's 7PIMs tonight gives him 59PIMs and the #144th spot all-time in PIMs.
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MEYER's 2 PIMs gives him a whopping 10 PIMs with the Islanders and #259th
overall tied with 4 others including Raffi Torres and Jamie McLennan.
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GOALIE ESOTERIC
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DIPIETRO has played in 195 Games. He is #86 on the all-time player roster 4
games behind Ralph Stewart. He is #4 on the all-time games played for
goalies 46 games behind Hrudey. His 11,148 minutes are also #4 and is 2,469
Minutes behind Hrudey. That’s about 41 games. He has give up 520 Goals and is #5
on the all-time GA list, 44 Goals Against behind Healey who did it in 176
Games. He has 86 Wins only 20 Wins behind Hrudey for the #4 spot on the
all-time Wins list. Hrudey had 106 Wins in 241 Games played. Hrudey had 90
Losses, 10 Losses ahead of Ricky who has 80 Losses and the #4th spot all-time in
Losses.
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COUNTDOWN TO 33
Single Season Victory Leaders. 33 Wins will set the new record. Ricky is 5
Wins away. That would be a minimum of 37 Wins for the Islanders.
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1) 2001-2002 OSGOOD 32-25-6
2) 1981-1982 SMITH 32-9-4
3) 1977-1978 RESCH 28-9-7
4) 2006-2007 DIPIETRO 28-18
5) 1993-1994 HEXTALL 27-26-6
6) 1978-1979 RESCH 26-7-10
7) 1976-1977 RESCH 26-13-6
8) 1978-1979 SMITH 25-8-4
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5 Wins will give Ricky the single season victory record with 33 Wins. 5 Wins
will also give us 37 Wins which will give us one more victory than all of
last season. Last Season we ended with 78 Points. We now have 72 points in 63
games played.
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MAGIC NUMBERS
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Teams with Magic Numbers over us. A combination of their gaining or our
losing the amount noted will mean they finish ahead of us. The number is magic
number in points. The numbers in parenthesis is the win-lose-tie scenario
and the number in brackets is the amount of points a team has available if they
were to win every game.
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Buffalo 22 (11-0) [127]
NJ 25 (14-0-1) [122]
Ottawa 33 (16-0-1) [116]
Pitts 36 (18-0) [115]
TB Tied [110]
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Teams we have magic numbers over
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Atlanta 37 (18-0-1) [108]
Carolina 34 (17-0) [105]
Toronto 34 (17-0) [105]
Montreal 33 (16-0-1) [104]
Rags 33 (16-0-1) [104]
Boston 33 (16-0-1) [104]
Florida 28 (14-0) [99]
Wash 24 (12-0) [95]
Phil 9 (4-0-1) [80]
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As always please let me know if you see any errors.

The following is a letter written by a friend of of the ISLANDERS ESOTERIC PAGE, followed by my try at a letter to the management as we were not happy by the on ice product last season. As of yet, 26 Aug, neither has heard an official response.

The Fan Forum on the Isle website is taking messages for Michael Peca. While I'm absolutely certain they'll never show mine on the website, I sure hope Mike does read it to let him know what some Joe Islander Hockey Fans such as myself were thinking last season.

First off, I hope your off season is going well and that your knee and shoulder have returned to near 100%.

While last season was certainly a disappointment to the organization as a whole, it was extremely disappointing to fans and season ticket holders such as myself. It wasn't the "losing" per se as much as it was "the way" we lost several games. Two that come to mind were the January 21st game v. those overpaid mercenaries from Manhattan. Let me start by saying that while I am very much in favor of keeping fighting in the NHL, I am not advocating turning the NHL into the WBA. However, after Chris Osgood and Eric Cairns where taken out of the game by cheap shots, there was absolutely NO retribution from any of you guys on the bench. That is completely UNACCEPTABLE, and as captain of my favorite hockey team, I hope that you will rectify that, along with your teammates, in the upcoming season.

The second game which comes to mind is the March 28th game v. the Leafs. The Isles were losing by three late in the game, and Darcy was out there on the ice for the taking. You could have ended the Darcy - Mike media hype once and for all if you squared off with that cretin who stole last years playoffs and a significant amount of last season for you and the franchise. His cheap shot on you has now gone unpunished for 17 months. If I as a fan find that unacceptable, how do you?

As a paying customer, I refuse to continue to shell out hard earned dollars to watch an unmotivated team which at times just didn't seem to "care". Let me remind you that the fans of the New York Islanders are second to none. We've been through many tough times before your arrival here, and are thankful that you've been a big part of righting the ship. We've dealt with teams that were short on talent but long on heart. However, a team that is seemingly long on talent but short on displaying heart or motivation in front of the most loyal fans in the NHL is UNACCEPTABLE. **Please do not ever have the fans of the New York Islanders ever have to question the heart of our players ever again. The organization now has a new coach, new philosophy, and hopefully healthy team once training camp breaks. I fully EXPECT that as Captain of the New York Islanders, you lead by EXAMPLE, and demand nothing but 100% from each and every member of the Isles. After last season, you and your fellow teammates owe it to the organization and especially the fans. Best of luck in the coming season.

I didn't want my friend above to have ALL the fun, so this is my stab at getting a message to the Captain of the Good Ship Islanders! Has the Captain lost his ability to steer the ship? When a team challenges for first in their division one season, and then, with virtually the SAME players, falls into disarray the next, making the playoffs ONLY because of the complete incompetence of the team that plays in New York City, and being quickly eliminated in an historically EMBARRASSING fashion, who's to blame? Obviously, management and ownership decided to blame the coach, and apparently, so did most of the players, as well, but if I'm not mistaken, wasn't it the PLAYERS who insulted their fans with their dismal, dispassionate and seemingly disinterested play last season? Aren't you the LEADER of those players? What was your roll in getting the coach fired after last season, Mike...and are you ever going to explain your actions publicly? And, if -- as the old saying goes -- where there's smoke, there's fire, how do you feel about hearing your name mentioned prominently in trade talks? Why would the Islanders be anxious to get rid of you only two years after they traded away two young players to acquire you to begin with? Have you ALREADY worn out your welcome on Long Island? For the first time in MANY years, I will NOT be a season ticket holder for this upcoming season. Why? It's because I refuse to allow players like you (and others) to insult me any further with your inability or distaste for acting like professionals ON the ice, as well as OFF the ice. Your actions of last season was a disgrace and I'm wondering what -- if anything -- you plan to do to get people like me interested in spending their hard-earned money on tickets again. Anxiously awaiting your response.