Save The Last Chicken Dance for Me - Oct 11th

By Peter Flynn

First of all, a little info on how I'm planning to contribute to this site. I wanted to register for the NYI Blog Box, but being a full time student with 2 part time jobs, I didn't think I would have the time. I was then going to start my own blog called "Save the Last Chicken For Me. When I told Roger about it, he suggested that I just post on here. Seeing that by doing it this way, I don't have to go through the hassle of creating a site and such, I decided to take him up on his offer.

Unfortunately, I am not an insider. I don't have any behind the scenes access to players or coaching staff, although my brother met Rick DiPietro's father (or fell for a clever ruse). So what can you expect here? I'll try to do what I did last night for the game, and have a live blog of what's happening in each game. It's not polished, hopefully it's a bit funny, but basically it's just my views on what's going on in the game. I try to write it so that someone without access to the game can read it and get more info than they would if they read a post-game wrap-up. We might be able to update it after every period, although I'm not sure if that's going to happen. Also, I'll miss a few games and should be at the Colliseum for a few games, so obviously you won't get that.

I'll try to post entries in between games as well. Like the rest of today's entry. (Should be a live blog during tonight's game).

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Some questions for tonight:

Which Jason Blake will we see?

I was saddened to hear that Jason has serious health issues. I enjoyed the energy he brought to the team, and how he never gave up on a shift or a game. i was disappointed that he decided to go public with his unhappiness with his contract negotiations; I felt that was very unprofessional, but everybody's human and can let frustration cloud their judgement. I hope he fully recovers, but that he doesn't score against us.

Which Mike Comrie will we see?

Comrie made Garth Snow look like a genius in the first two games of the season, but hasn't had the same impact in the second 2 games of the season. Someone on Islander Fans speculated that perhaps it was because Miss Duff was in the house, and that perhaps she had, how shall we say, robbed him of some of his energy. Obviously he's not going to score 2 goals a game for the entire season, but it would be great to see that top line light it up again tonight.

When will Comrie hook a brother up?

You don't really see stories about Rick being spotted with a celebrity gal pal (I would know, my wife reads all the celebrity mags). So, is Mike going to hook rick up with one of Hilary's celeb friends? On second thought, we don't need our franchise goalie dealing with public relationship drama while he's trying to get ready for a game. But it would be nice to get a third hot celebrity fan to complete our line with Duff and Christy Brinkley...

Rick or Dubie?

We all know that Rick would like nothing better than to play all 82 games of the regular season, but that's not going to happen. It seems tonight would be the perfect opportunity to give Dubie his first start on the year. He looked solid in the pre-season game against the Devs in the Port.

We'll see what happens tonight. It will be key to jump on the Leafs early. Their fans surely remember the 7-1 pasting that the Canes laid on them 2 nights ago, and if we can score a few in the 1st, the fans will turn on them and make our job easier.