Sunday Morning Notes

Just a few things before game-time:

*Holding the viewing party at an Astoria beer garden was a great move by the Rangers yesterday, even if I went the wrong way and ended up in Brooklyn first. It was a fun atmosphere packed with fans having a good time. Too bad the team didn't do anything for Game No. 2 today ...

*Newsday had a 12 page NHL season preview pull-out in today's Sunday paper. It was mediocre, and clearly not written recently. With Steve Zipay covering the Rangers in Prague, no one updated the info he put in there and the dates for the Ranger number retirements were listed as TBA. While that was just lazy, this was just stupid: the pull-out appeared to be sponsored by one of the two teams as the Isles had a full-page ad on the back. No signs of impropriety there ...

*It will be really weird seeing Ollie the Goalie in a Lightning jersey today - almost on the same order as seeing Brian Leetch wearing Toronto's blue and white. There is just something wrong with it ...

*And caption this photo:

Yay Newsday!

While I feel that Newsday is inherently biased towards the Islanders - seeing as the Isles are a major advertiser and the Mausoleum holds the most viewed ads for Newsday - they do have Steve Zipay, who breaks most Blueshirts news before anyone else on his blog.

Today Steve had the roster for the Ranger prospect team that will play in the Traverse City Prospect Tournament. While they may not be good enough to win the championship again, it will be interesting to see how they play since there are a lot of questions there. Does Artem Anisimov or Bobby Sanguinetti have the skill to play in the NHL? Was Michael Del Zotto worth a first round pick? Did the wheels fall entirely off of last year's second pick, Antoine LaFleur? How has Tommy Pyatt and Ryan Hillier bounced back after injury-marred seasons?

We will certainly find out, and if not at Traverse City, then during the preseason, which Zipay found out will be broadcast in its entirety. That includes all six games over here and the two games in Switzerland, which is awesome news for us Ranger fans.

On a personal note, I will likely be attending those games in Switzerland, but not the season-opener in Prague which I spoke about so much in the past. The Rangers aren't making game tickets available for the NHL Premier games, just ridiculously-priced packages that cost more than season tickets. I'll have to pass ...

More Outrage ...

On the Islanders Beat - a Newsday blog had the nerve to post this:

[NHL vice-president Colin] Campbell was recorded saying he hoped it would help Simon to meet with “the drug and alcohol, uh, uh, those doctors.” NHL spokesman Frank Brown quickly clarified that the doctors who deal with substance abuse under the NHL/NHLPA agreement also handle behavioral issues.

But the “stereotyping” horse was out of the barn. The gut reaction of Islanders coach Ted Nolan, who described Campbell’s assumption as “sickening” was understandable. Like Simon, Nolan is a member of Canada’s First Nation, and while they have seen first-hand the problems of drug and alcohol abuse within their ethnic community, the broad labeling of everyone who shares that heritage with the “drunken Indian” stereotype is stomach-turning.

That is utterly insane and should be taken as slander by Campbell. The author, Greg Logan, is calling the NHL's disciplinarian a racist. That is utterly and completely ridiculous. Why does Logan, and Nolan for that matter, automatically think that Campbell thinks Simon is a "drunken Indian" rather than a lunatic who may have been under the influence because the attack was incredibly out of sorts for a professional athlete?

I can almost understand Nolan as he has faced a ton of inexcusable abuse for his heritage, but not Logan. The post is not respectable journalism, it is slander.

slan·der (slndr)
n.
1. Law Oral communication of false statements injurious to a person's reputation.
2. A false and malicious statement or report about someone.

One can not automatically assume that Campbell is a racist based on his suggestion that substance abuse may be a problem for Simon. Everyone raves about Simon's character so how can one not consider an illegal influence to be the source of his "snapping?"

As I have pointed out before, Newsday and the Islanders have an incestuous relationship - the Isles buy a ton of ads in the newspaper and the paper plasters its logo around the Mausoleum. Its against any form of journalistic ethics and enough is enough. For them to defame someone as a racist is unethical and inexcusable.