The Final Roster Is Here!!!

Here is the starting roster for the 2007-2008 New York Islanders:

GOALTENDERS (2)
34 Wade Dubielewicz
39 Rick DiPietro

DEFENSEMEN (8)
2 Aaron Johnson
8 Bruno Gervais
14 Chris Campoli
24 Radek Martinek
25 Andy Sutton
32 Brendan Witt
44 Freddy Meyer
47 Marc-Andre Bergeron

FORWARDS (13)
7 Trent Hunter
10 Richard Park
11 Andy Hilbert
12 Chris Simon (eligible to return Oct. 13)
13 Bill Guerin
16 Jon Sim
18 Mike Sillinger
20 Sean Bergenheim
26 Ruslan Fedotenko
27 Darryl Bootland
63 Josef Vasicek
81 Miroslav Satan
89 Mike Comrie

17 Shawn Bates (injured)



Just like the title of my last post; UH-OH!.

As you can see, we weren't able to find a spot for Berard. And what hurts me even more is that Tambellini didn't make it. What's going on here?

I do have to congratulate Aaron Johnson and Darryl Bootland for making the team. Good training camps pay off!

More as this unfolds....

UPDATE:

Here is an interview with coach Ted Nolan on the starting roster:

On having eight defensemen on the roster:
“It’s a good luxury to have with eight or more strong defensemen who could play for us. It’s not necessarily about picking the most skilled people, but the right people. It’s going to be exciting, because every decision we make is going to be a tough one. This bodes well for us, because if it was easy, than we wouldn’t have people competing for jobs.”

On filling the power play spot next to Marc-Andre Bergeron:
“We have a number of guys who can fit in on the power play. Campoli has some offensive ability and Sutton could jump into that position. Martinek is another guy. We have a bunch of guys who could fill that spot.”

On the importance of defense:“There is no question we’ve been focusing on the defense right from the get-go. From the first day of training camp, we emphasized our coverage of the defensive zone. Defense is the way to compensate for any weaknesses we might have. That’s why we have a tough decision on defense. We had a couple of young guys come in and play pretty well. Aaron Johnson played pretty well, making it even more complicated. Hopefully, we come up with the best solution as to who plays opening night.”

On Jeff Tambellini being sent to Bridgeport:“In order for Jeff to be up here, he has to be among the top nine forwards. Jeff’s not a fourth-line guy. The way Sim and Fedotenko played in camp, and the way Andy Hilbert performed for us consistently last year, it was just one of those things. That’s not to say he won’t be back up here in a very short time. He’ll get his chance, and if he performs on a consistent basis, he’ll stay here.”

On Andy Hilbert playing alongside Miroslav Satan and Josef Vasicek:“Andy will be a very reliable defensive person on the line with Vasicek and Satan. If you look at all the big lines on any team, there’s always one guy who is more defensively-minded, as the high guy and the first one back. He’s one of those guys who does a lot of the work, but doesn’t get the credit for it.”


Big thanks to the Isles website (islanders.nhl.com) for the interview!

UPDATE 2:

Here are the lines that are likely the ones we will start opening day with:

Defense
Brendan Witt - Radek Martinek
Andy Sutton - Marc-Andre Bergeron
Chris Campoli - Bruno Gervais
Aaron Johnson - Freddy Meyer

Offense
Ruslan Fedotenko - Mike Comrie - Bill Guerin
Andy Hilbert - Josef Vasicek - Miroslav Satan
Jon Sim - Mike Sillinger - Trent Hunter
Sean Bergenheim - Richard Park - Darryl Bootland





Let's Go Isles!!!