The team that’s lost more man-games to injury than any other NHL team three years running - the total exceeded 500 last season - is staying upright, none more so than 34-year-old defensemen Brendan Witt and Andy Sutton. Sutton missed 59 games last season, Witt 17. They’ve missed a total of two games so far. Radek Martinek is gone for the season again, but Jack Hillen may prove to be worthy of regular minutes.

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Post from: Eye of The Tigers

Gametime is 5 p.m. MST on Monday. Both are in the lineup tonight. Should be more worth a CC fan’s time than Monday Night Football.

Projected Lineups

Bruins
Forwards
Marco Sturm–Patrice Bergeron–Mark Recchi.
Blake Wheeler–David Krejci–Michael Ryder
Daniel Paille–Vladimir Sobotka–Brad Marchand
Shawn Thornton–Steve Begin–Byron Bitz

Defensemen
Zdeno Chara–Derek Morris
Matt Hunwick–Dennis Wideman
Mark Stuart–Andrew Ference

Goaltenders
Tim Thomas
Tuukka Rask

Islanders
Forwards
Matt Moulson–John Tavares- Richard Park.
Sean Bergenheim–Frans Nielsen–Kyle Okposo
Jon Sim–Josh Bailey–Trent Hunter
Blake Comeau–Nate Thompson–Tim Jackman

Defense
Mark Streit–Bruno Gervais
Brendan Witt–Andy Sutton
Jack Hillen–Freddy Meyer

Goalies
Dwayne Roloson
Martin Biron

Post from: Eye of The Tigers

Post from: Eye of The Tigers

NHL

At Uniondale, N.Y., Sean Bergenheim, Blake Comeau and Jack Hillen each scored their first goals of the season to help the New York Islanders break out of a two-game offensive drought and beat Atlanta 6-3.

AHL

HOUSTON - Former President George H.W. Bush was on hand Saturday where the Houston Aeros (8-7-0-0) defeated the San Antonio Rampage (6-6-2-1) 5-2 in front of 8,433 on Military Appreciation Night at Toyota Center. Forwards Peter Zingoni, Chad Rau, Robbie Earl, Jon DiSalvatore and Petr Kalus each scored for the Aeros and G Anton Khudobin saved 24 of 26 to record his third straight victory and sixth on the season. The Rampage netted two second period goals off the sticks of D Jeff May and LW Brett MacLean while G Josh Tordjman tallid 23 saves to get saddled with the loss.

IHL

Port Huron scored with 16:51 left in its 6-1 loss Saturday on a goal by Mike Kinnie with assists to Derek Patrosso and Kris Vernarsky.

ECHL

Goaltender Richard Bachman has a 4-1-1 record and a 2.78 GAA in six games with the Idaho Steelheads, the Stars ECHL affiliate. Bachman has helped lead Idaho to first place in the ECHL standings at 7-1-1 (15 points).

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Post from: Eye of The Tigers

Brian Rolston and Brendan Shanahan also scored and Martin Brodeur had 19 saves as New Jersey finished the preseason 4-0-1 to start coach Jacques Lemaire’s second stint with the team.

Jack Hillen and Mark Streit scored goals for the Islanders (2-5-1) in a game that featured five fights, including three with New York forward Joel Rechlicz. Dwayne Roloson made 16 saves for the Isles.

Both teams will open the regular season on Saturday night at home. The Devils will play the Philadelphia Flyers and the Islanders will face the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

After giving up power-play goals to fall behind 1-0 and 2-1, the Devils scored twice in the final six minutes of the second period to take a 3-2 lead.

Rolston made a great play on the game-tying goal. He played the puck off the side boards, skated around defenseman Radek Martinek and beat Roloson with a shot between the pads for a power-play goal.

Zajac made two plays to give New Jersey the lead with 2:01 left in the period. He kept a clearing pass in the Islanders’ zone, fed the puck to Parise along the goal line and then took a return pass and beat Roloson.

Shanahan put the game away with about 8 minutes to play by one-timing a pass from Nicklas Bergfors.

Hillen gave New York its first lead 62 seconds into the second period with a shot from the left circle that Brodeur appeared not to see.

Parise tied the game 1-all four minutes later, stuffing the rebound of Jamie Langenbrunner’s shot under Roloson.

Streit, who led the Islanders with 10 power-play goals last season, connected on a two-man advantage at 10:18.

Post from: Eye of The Tigers

Post from: Eye of The Tigers

So, here’s what you’ve really been waiting for (have had computer issues this week!). Here’s some random notes and observations from practice this week:

The Tigers have been doing anything and everything they can to practice shooting AND scoring. On Thursday, CC worked on its power play and 5-on-3 (Denver is a highly penalized team).

For its penalty kill, the Tigers focused on forcing the mock Denver players to the wall, using an inside-out approach to protect the middle of the ice. I noticed that defenseman Art Bidwill, who was playing on the scout power-play unit, has quite a shot from the point: considering he was able to get three in a row through CC’s penalty kill, it was tough to miss. Looks like he’ll be a good addition to the power play as he continues to develop.

Then, CC worked on face-offs as a team, which is a departure from last season, where centers would just practice taking draws by themselves. But the Tigers worked on offensive- and defensive-zone face-off situations, reinforcing the concepts for the wings and defensemen especially. Then, volunteer assistant R.J. Enga worked specifically with the centers to improve their technique.

As is typical at this juncture of the season, the lines have jumbled a bit. Part of that has to do with going on the road, part of it is trying to spark CC’s offense. You could see a freshness on the ice in practice, it will be interesting to see how it pans out Friday.

Hall-Rau-Walsky
Sweatt-Vlassopoulos-Testwuide
McCulloch-Johnson-Schultz
DeBoer-McMillin-Civitarese
Overman-Dineen-Quilico

Three quick alumni notes:

–Aaron Slattengren is getting a chance with the Portland (Maine) Pirates of the American Hockey League. Slattengren, who is the Augusta Lynx (ECHL) captain and one of the top-scoring forwards in the ECHL, has played in the AHL before with the Providence (R.I) Bruins.

–Jack Hillen was sent down from the New York Islanders to the Bridgeport (Conn.) Sound Tigers to make room for defenseman Andy Sutton. Hillen said he’s looking forward to playing more than the 15 minutes he averaged in six games with the Islanders.

–Hillen’s classmate, Derek Patrosso, landed close to home with the Port Huron (Mich.) Icehawks. Patrosso was released from the Fresno (Calif.) Falcons (ECHL) after training camp, but reached an agreement with the IHL’s Icehawks.

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Others receiving votes: Northeastern University, 18; Cornell University, 17; Northern Michigan University, 14; University of Vermont, 10; Harvard University, 8; University of Wisconsin, 8; U.S. Air Force Academy, 5; University of Minnesota Duluth, 3.

Former Tigers round-up:

**Mark Stuart talks to his hometown paper about his whirlwind year.

**A shoulder injury to Radek Martinek could keep Jack Hillen in the New York Islanders’ line-up a little longer.

**Marty Sertich scored for the Lake Erie Monsters (AHL) on Saturday.

**Brandon Straub and Jimmy Kilpatrick helped the Las Vegas Wranglers (ECHL) to a 5-2 win on Saturday. Kilpatrick is on a tryout agreement and trying to land a permanent gig.

**Brian Salcido had a goal in his first game with the Iowa Chops (AHL). It’ll be interesting to see if and how much he plays for the Anaheim Ducks this season.

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