No practice today for the boys. Although, I would have liked to see them skating till they puke, but that's not happening.

So here are a few things that I thought of this morning:

1) Please tell me you sent Trevor Gillies on the bus passed the Coliseum and straight back to Bridgeport last night. There is no reason for him to be in the line-up. Call up Matt Martin if you want someone over 6' tall.

2) Looking for information today on the status of Robbie Schremp and his right knee. I'm not sure how it happened, or what happened. But Robbie played a little over 4 minutes before leaving the ice and not returning.

3) With the possibility of Robbie Schremp being out of the line up, did Jeff Tambellini do a happy dance in the press box? That's about the only way he gets back in the line-up.

Well, one period in the books and surprisingly enough, it's 1 - 0 Islanders. John Tavares found a puck on the side of the net when Leighton was otherwise preoccupied and managed to sneak it in on the side of the net.

Sim has been a nuisance to Pronger and Trevor Gillies actually was let off the bench. I swear, it will snow in Boca tomorrow.

@DNFlyers Tweeted: Flyers locker room is a MASH unit... in the middle of the 1st period! Krajicek = shot to face. JVR = shot to face. Carcillo can't even walk

It has been messy.

Hopefully the Islanders remember this is a 60 minute game, but they managed to come out with the jump that Scott Gordon was hoping for in the first. That is 20 minutes they didn't waste. They have 40 more to go.

*Note: Isles vs Flyers preview on Versus Website Here.

It’s been a week since the Gold Medal game in Vancouver. Everyone has gone back to their pre-Olympic lives including NY Islanders’ head coach Scott Gordon. I was lucky enough to be able to catch Gordon in his office between practice and a 1:45pm team meeting to ask a few questions.

Well, had they played 60 minutes, they may have won, but the 3 - 2 score in favor of the Bruins stood after I packed up at the five minute mark. I thought if I did, Kyle Okposo would have tied it up and sent it to overtime and I would be kicking myself for having packed the computer. No such luck.

But I did get a few minutes with call-up Dylan Reese who is very familiar with Matt Moulson's scoring touch. Postgame here at HB. Scott Gordon had some strong words in today's post game regarding dissapointment and mental mistakes. The frustration level is evident.

Blake Comeau was escorted off the ice and didn't return, but Gordon said it didn't seem like there were any concussion symptoms. We hope that's true. We'd also like to see if any rulings come down for the hit.

3:27 left and I'm calling for a kyle okposo game tier. I hope.
But I have to pack up now.

later for postgame from the couch.

10:02 According to IslesNation According to islanders spokesman. Comeau is "fine had facial lacerations and kept out for precautionary reasons." That's more than i got up here.

Great shift by the Islanders with nothing to show for it on the score board.

14:00 of the third, and just as I expected, Matt Moulson cuts the lead to 3 - 2 with the Islanders now leading in SOG by 3 at 32 to 29.

One more and we get Wendy's Chili!

Period 3: With a less than 2 minute power play available to them, and in front of 14,587 fans, the Islanders had better come out firing on all cylinders in order to get this game back on track. They are only down by 2. Completely doable.

Certainly more than one could be "several" and it certainly looks better than saying "two" if you are looking to make a point or cause a ruckus. But when I checked with MY anonymous source the term "several" in relation to the latest Newsday headline, the quote I received was "That's just the media being the media. That's all there is."

Don't forget if you are coming to Saturday's game against the Bruins, please bring 3 cans of non-perishable (non-expired!) food. Three cans will get you a ticket voucher for another Islanders game and will help refill the Long Island food pantries who are having a hard time keeping up with the demand in this economy.

Please?! Thanks!

I was looking forward to this game because the tension of trade day was over. We know this is the team that we are ending the season with and they had an exceptional showing over the Black Hawks on Tuesday.

I stopped at the Isles store on my way home and then picked up way too much Taco Bell with the idea of being able to sit in front of the big screen and just enjoy the game.

Yeah.

As hindsight is always 20/20, I was very happy to hear the HTM guys on XM this morning saying that Garth Snow absolutely did the right thing by standing pat and not trading just to make trades.

If all the interest was in Dwayne Roloson, it was obvious that wasn't a deal he could make. If there was interest in our depth players, if he wasn't getting back equal or better value, then what would be the point. And if anyone was dumb enough to start asking for JT, Kyle, Josh or Matt Moulson, I would hope he would have just laughed and hung up the phone.

As the HTM guys said, we don't know what the conversations were. We have no idea what was being offered. Rumor has it that many GMs make offers that are routinely laughed at. Maybe this is their day of private jokes. Who knows.

That's what seems to be the difference in Blake Comeau's scoring ability. According to Scott Gordon, he's using Hunter's sticks.

The Man of the Hour, the guy with the hat trick, stood in a puddle of stuffed bean bag toys surrounded by the media. They asked him about each goal. He took them through them, one by one. Considering how often Comeau has been a healthy scratch, he can relish every second of this.

with less than 4 left, the Hawks get one back from Roli and make it 3 - 5. It actually looked like Blake Comeau scored that one too from this angle.

And with 2:42 left to go, I'm packing up. I don't think this one will go to overtime. So I think I'm safe.

5:36 left: For the second time in this period, Huet has been knocked to the ice. Guess he likes to put himself in compromising positions. No call of course as none is warrented. But dangerous for him.

9:46 left of the 3rd: A puck trickles behind Roloson and into the net, it is deemed no goal. Not that it would matter that much, but at least Dwayne doesn't have to fight for it to be waved off.

Period 3: With a score of 5 - 2, it very well may be the Islanders will keep the Winning Streak over the Black Hawks going. SOG are now 212 - 33 in favor of Chicago, but it doesn't seem to matter much.

As expected, Andy Sutton has been traded. Andy will head to Ottawa for a 2nd round draft pick that originally belonged to San Jose.

At the last minute, Dustin Kohn has been recalled from Bridgeport for tonight's game.

Well, that's probably the biggest trade Mr. Snow will make this year. Unless of course he can indeed finally find a home for Jiffy Jeff, Jeff Tambellini.

With knee swelling. Supposedly does not change the Islanders course of action for trade deadline.

Maybe that Huet trade wasn't so freakin' stupid after all!!!!

WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE????

Yep, we are fast approaching March 3rd, and while I don't expect anything earth shattering to happen here on Long Island, it still is a time to ponder. So, "WWGSD" is upon us. Here is my very short list of things I would like to see happen.

Funny thing though. Friday I was reading around the net as I took a "Snow day" of the percipitation type and found an article written by a BlackHawks writer with comments from their fans. They were talking about Garth dealing for Huet. That was a big "huh?" moment for me. Why the hell would they be talking about us trading for yet ANOTHER goalie? Don't we have enough? Are they smoking something in Chicago?

And then I asked around to see if there was something I was missing. The answer I got was "Don't believe everything you read." Right... wait...I write stuff too.

HEY!!!

It's not your fault.

It was an amazing game. One that ended as most would have thought as soon as Canada scored the first goal; and then the second. Team USA trailed 2 - 0 until Kesler managed to put Team USA on the score sheet at 12:44 of the second.

The game was so fast, a few times I thought they were skating eight aside. It was just a blur of players. Even without the ability to drop the gloves, it was obvious this was not a gentleman's game. The hitting was big, the shoving ever present. The penalty calls, however, were inconsistent.

*(This was Arena Hostess Dina's view when she attended one of the Team USA Olympic games.)

5:21 pm; Never underestimate the power of the BIG cookie!
Congratulations to Team USA and the entire roster for a job well done. Here's to going for Gold on Sunday! And as usual -- Scott Gordon was right! They were staying until Sunday!

Original post: 10 am

And a small one at that, but Andrew MacDonald was handed a 4 year contract extension today. Here's the quick hit at HB.

But more importantly, I did something today that I have been postponing for a long time. I took the "55" off my necklace. Yep. Weird feeling for sure. I'm feeling very disconnected. Maybe it's because of the Olympic break. Maybe it's because I haven't been able to match the feeling I had that caused Big Angry Man to buy me this necklace to begin with.

Team Russia gets to go home. Did anyone have these match-ups penned on their guess list? I doubt it.

Four teams remain: USA, Canada, Finland and Slovakia. Team USA faces Finland at 3 pm on Friday. Canada faces Slovakia immediately after.

I haven't even WATCHED Finland play this tournament. I think I caught Slovakia for a few minutes on the web -- IN BETWEEN FREAKIN' COMMERCIALS!

As much as I like you -- don't come home yet!!

Wishing Team USA all the luck I can muster out of the cosmos today as they face Mark Streit and Team Switzerland -- again!

USA! USA! USA!