LEAFS at ISLES – Tonight 7:00 – MSG; WBBR (1130 AM)
There were no white flags raised above Nassau Coliseum yesterday, but there is a feeling that the Islanders have pulled the plug on this season with the flurry of purging moves leading up to yesterday’s trade deadline.
The day after shipping veterans Mark Parrish and Brent Sopel to Los Angeles, Isles GM Mike Milbury sent Brad Lukowich to the Devils for a third-round pick. Oleg Kvasha was also moved with a conditional fifth-round pick to Phoenix for a third-rounder, thereby trading away the two players Milbury acquired in 2000 for Roberto Luongo and Florida captain Olli Jokinen, perhaps a fitting final transaction at the helm of the franchise.
“It’s tough. It’s definitely tough,” Rick DiPietro said. “It’s a sad time for all of us. I thought we were playing our best hockey as a team, I think we were finally putting two and two together, figuring out how to play a full 60-minute game. I thought the results were good. It’s tough now to see some of your buddies leave. It’ll be tough sledding here for the next 21 games.”
Milbury will step down at the end of the season, and thanks to yesterday’s final moves, the new GM will come in with more salary cap space and a cleaner slate going into next season.
Milbury was not available for comment.
The future may be brighter with an abundance of draft picks and getting former first-rounders Jeff Tambellini and Denis Grebeshkov for Parrish and Sopel.
However, for the players who remain in uniform, there seems little belief in making a miraculous playoff run in the final portion of the season. In moving Parrish and Lukowich, the Islanders traded away their two assistant captains, weakened their already rickety defense and made clear that the only thing to play for now is next season.
“I don’t know necessarily that they’ve given up,” DiPietro said. “I think they’ve addressed some of the salary issues that they wanted to address. The thing they wanted to achieve was to free up some cap space for next year. Unfortunately they had to get rid of some really good guys, but we’re professional athletes and this is what you have to deal with.”
Brad Shaw said that Mike York and Alexei Zhitnik will be named assistant captains before tonight’s Coliseum game against the Maple Leafs.
