DiPietro's season over
by James Mirtle on Jan 20, 2009 4:24 PM CST
18 comments
The New York Islanders have announced that goaltender Rick DiPietro will miss the remainder of the 2008-09 season. Team doctors have referred to the decision as precautionary due to swelling in the knee that DiPietro had arthroscopic knee surgery on to repair a meniscus injury on October 31st. DiPietro is expected to resume skating this summer in preparation for the 2009-10 season.
"After extensive consultation we feel this decision is in the best interest for Rick and the team," said Garth Snow, New York Islanders General Manager. "This will allow Rick ample time to make a full recovery for next year."
>> team release
This had been rumoured for quite some time, but now it's been confirmed. And DiPietro's unfortunate 15-year contract looks about as bad now as it ever has.
It's at the point where you now have to wonder just how much of a career he will even have.
Here's DiPietro on the news: "This has been one of the most frustrating situations I have ever had to deal with, but this is the right decision for me and the team. I am confident this will allow me to make a complete recovery, be ready in plenty of time for next season and compete to my highest ability for many years to come. I’d like to thank Islanders fans for their patience and I look forward to playing in front of them next season."
I've written a ton about DiPietro's monster contract in the past, as well as other long-term deals like the 12-year one Mike Richards signed last season, so my opinion's well-known. You take on a lot of risk if you gamble like this, and we've seen players far more reknowned than DiPietro have their careers crash and burn before their 30th birthday.
DiPietro is 28 years old, has had three or four significant surgeries in the past few seasons, and by the time this fall rolls around, he will have played just 250 minutes of NHL hockey in the previous 19 months.
I wonder if the Isles will even get 400 games out of the man with the longest contract in NHL history. The odds are getting longer as we go.
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Soo what number does Tavares wear?
Because they might as well get it ready for him. I don’t understand how a team can be in such a bad situation. Their starting goalie right now is a guy who hardly kept the starting role in the AHL. Okposo & Tavares should make a pretty sweet duo though.
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by gillis on Jan 20, 2009 4:31 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
The only way the Isles don’t get Tavares is by losing the lottery. Which isn’t impossible.
by James Mirtle on Jan 20, 2009 4:34 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
I guess, but chances are, he’s going to long island.
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by gillis on Jan 20, 2009 4:40 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
48.2% chance to be exact. Unless the league is changing the lottery rules
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by gillis on Jan 20, 2009 4:43 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Right, so it’s essentially a coin flip for either Tavares or Hedman.
This is the route they should have went years ago anyway.
by James Mirtle on Jan 20, 2009 4:51 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
You see a 48.2% chance the Isles win it.
After what I’ve been through, I see a 51.8% chance they don’t :-)
Lighthouse Hockey: an SB Nation New York Islanders blog with hip issues.
by Dominik on Jan 20, 2009 5:05 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
I don’t understand how a team can be in such a bad situation.
Where to begin?
- a decade of cheap, foolish ownership, including 15 minutes of a purely fraudulent one (Spano)
- followed by a decade with a new owner who is not cheap (see: Yashin) but also not always of sound hockey mind (see: Yashin)
- a GM who had the job too long, and made too many short-sighted moves based on (presumably) his own misjudgment and pressure to field a competitive team in search of a new building
- a new GM who, while competent, made a short-term move (Smyth) to nudge his team into the playoffs and possibly to establish himself as a GM who could hold his own
- that GM finally winning autonomy in Wang’s “management by committee” structure, to the point he finally had the trust and confidence that he could hit the long-overdue restart button — last summer — and live to see its fruits
Since 2000, the Islanders have spent half this decade squeaking into the playoffs by credit card. A desire to garner popular support to get a new building amid drawn-out political hurdles probably played a role in that short-term thinking regarding the roster, too. Most symbolic of this, the Yashin/Peca moves bought them one year of excitement and several years of pain.
Lighthouse Hockey: an SB Nation New York Islanders blog with hip issues.
by Dominik on Jan 20, 2009 5:27 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
I feel sorry for the Islanders fans, I really do.
You guys don’t deserve this.
by Afino on Jan 20, 2009 6:48 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Ya I guess they could thank Mad Mike for where they are right now:
- New York Islanders traded Olli Jokien and Roberto Luongo to the Florida Panthers for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha.
- Ottawa Senators traded Alexei Yashin to the New York Islanders for Zdeno Chara, Bill Muckalt and 1st round selection (Jason Spezza) in 2001.
- NYI trade Bertuzzi, McCabe, 3rd rounder(Ruutu) for Linden
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by gillis on Jan 21, 2009 10:26 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
The fact that Milbury has a job on TSN as a ‘hockey analyst’ is pretty damn funny.
Everytime I see him I wonder how come he hasn’t shot himself already… I mean, how do you live with yourself if your resumé looks like that??
by Habs on Jan 21, 2009 2:45 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
The funniest thing I ever saw was Mad Mike and JFJ analysing all the trades at the deadline, telling which ones they believe are good or bad. Those are possibly the two worst GM’s in NHL history. Their opinions mean nothing
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by gillis on Jan 22, 2009 7:21 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
It's almost like karma...
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by Brandon Worley on Jan 20, 2009 8:32 PM CST reply actions 0 recs
As a fan of U.S. goalies, I have been watching this for a while as well.
The long-term contract seems to not make sense; in the post strike NHL is has become even less attractive, actuarially speaking.
This article caught my attention, http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090114.wsptgoalies14/GSStory/GlobeSportsHockey/home
Perhaps we can segue into another blog, if not my observations are;
- Higher risks due to more lateral movements,
- more crashing the net,
- and what no one mentioned in the article, the shootout.
It was apparent that Nabakov was injured in a shootout, Nittymaki, I believe as well. I’m not sure anyone discloses that injuries occur in the shootout, I don’t expect teams to say “he is susceptible to injuries if he is deeked”. Although some injuries are visible as they occur, I wonder what are the effects of the shootout the next day, the next practice, etc?
I have often questioned “The Rick’s” bodybuilding approach to goaltending, and the resulting upper body weight to lower body weight ratio.
by cubanpuckstopper on Jan 21, 2009 7:45 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
One can also point to a lot of back to back games, and certain goalies being played in both of them, as a source of injury. As I go into great detail about here, there are a number of physiological factors that lead to increased injury risk, particularly when playing back-to-back games. Given that all of DiPi’s problems have been groin- and knee-related, I’m going with either a poor workout regime or, perhaps more likely, poor biomechanics in the net. The butterfly demands a lot of things of the legs that they weren’t strictly meant to do, so I’m not surprised in the slightest that he’s having this many issues, nor am I surprised that Hasek had as many over his career.
by Doogie2K on Jan 21, 2009 9:59 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Great stuff and huge factors, I think — stuff that doesn’t seem to come up much in discussion of the shootout. Another factor, I would think, is that these extreme moves goalies have to make in the shootout are coming at the end of 65 minutes of highly contested hockey, with the game on the line: It’s a lot to ask of the body for a rather unnatural movement.
Then there is the prevalence of power plays and 5-on-3s, which are no cakewalks for goalies. Put it all together, and an early impression after the post-lockout rule changes was, “Cool, teams are going to have to use two goalies again.”
Lighthouse Hockey: an SB Nation New York Islanders blog with hip issues.
by Dominik on Jan 21, 2009 11:13 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs
Tell that to Lindy Ruff
After he ran Ryan Miller into the ground last year (76 games, tying the franchise record, including the last 30+ in a row)
Miller himself admitted in February that he was at the weight he was usually at at the end of the season. In February! Of course, part of that was due to the complete lack of trust Ruff had in Thibault after a couple of poor outings early in the season. Well then, why wasn’t something done about it THEN?
They have learned their lesson (somewhat) with bringing in Lalime, who is an upgrade, but there’s been several times this season where it would be a perfect scenario to play Lalime, and Ruff hasn’t done it. Now, no one’s pointing it out now because Miller has been lights out for the last month or so, but if the Sabres would miss the playoffs again, Miller’s decline due to overuse may be a big reason why.
I’m also seeing this in Carolina this year. Cam Ward just played his 13th in a row, including all three games of a 3-in-4 night road trip. I understand the need to stay in playoff contention, but at what cost??
It will certainly make some of the “rental” backups that much more valuable as time goes on. That’s why we’ve already seen that trade between Pitt and Edmonton.
by Afino on Jan 21, 2009 12:34 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
On that note...
From the Newsday coverage of DiPietro being shut down:
Scott Clemmensen of the Devils explained that in the post-lockout, salary-cap era, many teams invested much in their No.1 goalies and did not have much money to spend on backups. So a team’s No.1 plays just about every night. “I’m hoping, as a goalie myself, that teams out there kind of realize the value of having that kind of [solid] backup.”
Lighthouse Hockey: an SB Nation New York Islanders blog with hip issues.
by Dominik on Jan 21, 2009 1:59 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs
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