Upset at being left off the NHL team despite a strong start to the season in the AHL, the New York Islanders young forward Nino Niederreiter has requested a trade, according to Katie Strang of ESPNNewYork.com.

“Any conversations I have regarding players, that remains confidential,” Islanders GM Garth Snow told ESPNNY.

Niederreiter, 20, played 55 games with the Islanders last season and only scored one goal with no assists and was negative-29. He has had a great year in the AHL this year though with 19 points and 17 assists in 39 games.

It’s because of that strong start that might help the Isles fetch a decent return for him if they did trade him. However, it sounds like the Islanders aren’t eager to deal him and could even call him up any day now. It sounds like they are just keeping him down in Bridgeport so that he can get more consistent minutes rather than return in the minor role that he played last year. With that line of thinking it may make sense to keep him in the minors until he’s ready for top six minutes.

Considering he’s still just 20-years-old it certainly isn’t crazy to thing along those lines. It is problematic to hear a player so young with so much entitlement just 55 games into his career though.

The Brooklyn Nets announced today that they have assigned the seldom used forward Tornike Shengelia and guard Tyshawn Taylor to the NBA D-League.

This is the second time the Nets have sent them to the D-league. The first time it was only for one game and both players dominated as Taylor had 32 points and Shengelia had a triple-double with 22 points, 12 assists, and 10 rebounds. With the tough schedule coming up over the next couple of weeks, they aren’t likely to get a lot of playing time so it’s probably good for them to go down and get a workout.

Taylor has played the most of the two players. In 21 games he has averaged 13.1 points, 2.8 steals, and 2.0 assists per 36 minutes this season. Shengelia has averaged 12 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 3.3 rebounds per 36 minutes in just 13 games.

After a big third quarter by the Knicks it looked like another loss at their hands for the Brooklyn Nets, but they battled back and a 15-foot pullup jumper by Joe Johnson iced it with 22.3 seconds left for an 88-85 victory at the Garden Monday.

Johnson led the Nets with 25 points and five assists, Deron Williams had 14 points, 12 assists, and five rebounds, and Brook Lopez had 14 and 11 rebounds.

RED HOT JOE: Joe Johnson was on fire early as the Nets won the first quarter 26-24 behind a 4-for-5 shooting performance by Joe. Unfortunately he took a couple of bad fouls and sat to start the second quarter.

BIG LEAD: The Nets had a lead as big as 10 points in the first half, but eventually settled in with a 47-41 lead at halftime. Johnson had the big first quarter, but they got big first half contributions from Lopez, who had 11 points, and Kris Humphries, who had nine.  The Nets out rebounded the Knicks 27-16 at that point, shot 45.9 percent, but had a whopping 11 turnovers.

UGLY THIRD: The Knicks beat them 27-18 that quarter as the Nets shot just 30 percent from the field, 50 percent from the line, and had four turnovers. Carmelo Anthony led the Knicks with 9 points while they shot 59.1 percent as a team with just one turnover.

ALLOW ME TO REINTRODUCE MYSELF: His name is Joe. The Nets went on an 11-2 run to get back in the game and it was Johnson leading the way. JJ went cold for a while there, but came back strong in the fourth quarter. Not only did he hit the big shot late, but he also shot 4-for-8 including 2-for-3 behind the arc.

GOTTA HIT THOSE FREE THROWS: After Johnson hit his shot it didn’t end there. D-Will hit 3-of-4 shots from the line to put the finishing touches on the win.

WHO SAYS LOPEZ CAN’T REBOUND?: Brook Lopez had a solid time rebounding as he pulled down 11 boards. That looks even better when you consider how much he played with Reggie Evans (nine rebounds) and against Tyson Chandler (11 rebounds).

UP NEXT: The Nets face the Timberwolves on Wednesday and then go into a very tough six game stretch where they draw the Grizzlies, Rockets, Heat, Bulls, and Lakers. P.J. Carlesimo is 11-2 as the coach now, it’ll be interesting to see where he and the Nets are after that stretch.

The New York Islanders jumped out to a four goal lead against the Tampa Bay Lightning and even though it wasn’t pretty they were able to hang on for a 4-3 victory, their first of the season, at the Coliseum Monday afternoon.

Michael Grabner, Matt Martin, Kyle Okposo, and David Ullstrom each scored goals and John Tavares was named the top star of the game for assisting on a pair of goals.

FIGHT: This game started off with a bang as Joe Finley and Matt Martin dropped the gloves with B.J. Crombeen and Pierre-Cedric Labrie just one second into the game. Colin McDonald and Ryan Malone also got unsportsmanlike conduct penalties at the same time.

1ST GOAL (1-0 Islanders): Grabner opened the scoring with a powerplay goal at 6:50 off a bomb pass from their own goal line all the way to the opposite blue line by Mark Streit.

2 GOALS IN 62 SECONDS (3-0 Islanders): Later in the second period the Islanders got a pair of goals in a 62-second span. The first was a goal by Martin, who took a perfect pass from Tavares immediately after he came out of the box, and beat Anders Lindback stickside. Okposo scored a minute later on a 2-on-1 assisted by Tavares and Matt Moulson.

4TH GOAL (4-0 Islanders): Ullstrom and Keith Aucoin had a nice give-and-go play to beat Lindback to make it 4-0.

SAFE LEAD? NOT SO FAST (4-2 Islanders): The Islanders were playing solid defense up until this point so a 4-0 lead seemed excessive. Obviously it didn’t last. Martin St. Louis scored the Lightning’s first after Tavares botched a clearing attempt. Benoit Pouliot put in a garbage goal five minutes later that made things interesting.

FROM INTERESTING TO TENSE (4-3 Islanders): When the score was 4-2 it got interesting, but it still felt like the Isles would win in easy fashion. 32-seconds later things got ugly. Steven Stamkos finished off a beautiful play assisted by Cory Conacher and St. Louis and suddenly the Lightning had 12 minutes to tie the game.

The Isles would settle down though and actually had a few decent scoring chances. A late 5-on-3 power play kept the Lightning from a late comeback. It would have been nice to see the Isles capitalize on that PP, but can’t fault them for playing it safe for the win.

WELCOME BACK CAP: Coach Jack Capuano missed opening night with kidney stones, but was behind the bench for this one after being questionable leading up to the game.

UP NEXT: The Isles are on the road for the first time this year as they head to Toronto on Thursday and then down to Boston on Friday.

The Sacramento Kings have been sold to a Seattle-based group for about $340 million and plan on moving the team to Seattle and it sounds like they could be taking legendary coach Phil Jackson with them.

Peter Vecsey, formerly of the NY Post, reported last night that it is “almost a living lock” that Jackson will join the team’s front office in a non-coaching role and will mentor their next head coach.

If true, this is obviously a blow to the Brooklyn Nets whose owner, Mikhail Prokorov, clearly has Jackson in his sights to replace Avery Johnson as head coach. Even without Jackson in the fold now the plan was to go after him with a full court press this offseason. Now it looks like they’ll have to stick with P.J. Carlesimo or find a Plan B.

]]> http://brooklynsportsdaily.com/2013/01/21/rumor-phil-jackson-almost-a-lock-to-join-seattle-bound-kings/feed/ 2 http://brooklynsportsdaily.com/2013/01/21/new-york-islanders-coach-jack-capuano-at-sundays-practice-50-50-for-today/ http://brooklynsportsdaily.com/2013/01/21/new-york-islanders-coach-jack-capuano-at-sundays-practice-50-50-for-today/#comments Mon, 21 Jan 2013 17:00:54 +0000 Rob Abruzzese http://brooklynsportsdaily.com/?p=2103

No word yet whether or not New York Islanders head coach Jack Capuano will be on the bench today, but he was at practice on Sunday and was given a 50-50 chance that he’ll be out there today after he had emergency surgery to remove kidney stones on Saturday, according to Butch Goring of MSG.

Capuano missed the Islanders’ opening night loss to the Devils due to the kidney stones. It was a bit of a surprise too as he was only scratched about 10 minutes before the game started and most of the players seemed to know about as much as anybody else.

It’s good to know that he’s feeling better and it seems likely that even if he misses today’s match against the Lightning that he’ll be out there for Thursday’s road game against the Maple Leafs.

It was the first game back since the lockout, but it was the same old New York Islanders as they lost 2-1 to the New Jersey Devils in Long Island Saturday night. It was a game where the Devils were clearly the better team, but the Islanders somehow managed to stay in there and made things difficult for New Jersey.

1ST GOAL (1-0 Devils): The Devils, led by Ilya Kovalchuk, were clearly the better team early, but they weren’t able to break through until a sloppy line change led to a 3-on-1 and a Travis Zajac goal 14:01 into the period. On the play, Kovalchuk made a great saucer pass above the outstretched Mark Streit and a perfect feed for Zajac to easily put the puck in the net.

2nd GOAL (1-1 Tie): The Islanders tied it up 7:12 into the third period after a the Devils Henrik Tailinder took a hooking penalty that setup an Isles power play. It was Travis Hamonic (with his 50th career point) who scored from the hash marks after he was left alone when all four Devils on the ice went deep into the right corner to chase the puck. He took a perfect shot that beat Martin Brodeur glove side.

3rd GOAL (2-1 Devils): Barely more than a minute later the Devils struck back though. This time it was a David Clarkson wrist shot from the blue line that got passed a screened Evgeni Nabokov.

ISLANDERS 1ST STAR OF THE NIGHT: Evgeni Nabokov was easily the best player on the ice for the Islanders tonight. He allowed two goals, but both were tough goals to stop and he made 26 saves on 28 shots including some big ones in the first period that kept the Isles from getting blown out.

ISLANDERS 2ND STAR OF THE NIGHT: Travis Hamonic showed no signs of the concussion that kept him out for most of the past month. He skated well, played solid defense, and showed off a great shot a few times. He was wide open for his goal against Brodeur, but he placed it perfectly. He also made a couple of nice passes and nearly setup Andrew MacDonald on the power play.

ISLANDERS 3RD STAR OF THE NIGHT: Brad Boyes was another impressive Islander skater tonight. He didn’t score and took a holding penalty in the second period, but he looked good skating tonight and nearly had a goal when he hit the post nearly beating Brodeur late in the first period.

SCRATCHES: Casey Cizikas and Thomas Hickey were scratched with Joe Finley and Eric Boulton starting in their place. The move didn’t exactly work out well as both players played a sloppy game. Boulton was negative-1 on the night. With the shortened season teams are going to have to rotate their scratches regularly though so Cizikas and Hickey will no doubt see plenty of time.

TONIGHT’S LINES: Here was the Islander’s lineup tonight:

New York Islanders:
Forwards
26 Matt Moulson – 91 John Tavares – 21 Kyle Okposo
40 Michael Grabner – 51 Frans Nielsen – 24 Brad Boyes
41 David Ullstrom – 10 Keith Aucoin – 13 Colin McDonald
17 Matt Martin – 16 Marty Reasoner – 36 Eric Boulton

Defensemen
2 Mark Streit – 37 Brian Strait
47 Andrew MacDonald – 3 Travis Hamonic
52 Joe Finley – 7 Matt Carkner

Goaltenders
20 Evgeni Nabokov (starter)
39 Rick DiPietro

UP NEXT: The Islanders will be back at it on Monday afternoon as they host the Lightning. Then they have back-to-back games on Thursday and Friday against the Maple Leafs and the very tough Boston Bruins.

When the New York Islanders finally started their season on Saturday night they did it without head coach Jack Capuano, who missed opening night due to kidney stones, according to Mark Herrmann of Newsday.

Other reports said that it was nothing life threatening. He was actually at practice this morning and was only scratched from the game about 10 minutes before it started.

“We probably found out the same time you guys did,” defenseman Travis Hamonic said. “Our whole coaching staff have the same message. It wasn’t much of a difference. Obviously, we missed him on the bench and we hope he’s going to be OK. I know when he gets back out there next time, he’s going to be excited. It was just unfortunate.”

In Capuano’s absence assistant coach Doug Weight served as the coach and was in charge of the offensive lines. Assistant coach Brent Thompson was in charge of the defensive pairings.

Nothing is imminent, but the Brooklyn Nets could make a play for Paul Millsap of the Utah Jazz at the trade deadline, according to Sam Amico of Fox Sports.

Millsap, 27, has averaged 17.6 points and 9.1 rebounds per 36 minutes in 40 games for the Jazz so far this year. He’s becoming unhappy lately as he has lost time to Derrick Favors and, to a lesser extent, Enes Kanter. He earns $8.6 million this season and will be an unrestricted free agent in July.

With the Nets operating above the hard cap trading for him at the deadline, or even signing him as a free agent this offseason, would be tricky. It’s possible they could trade for him to acquire his “Bird Rights” in order to sign him to a long-term deal this offseason.

In a related Tweet, Peter Vecsey of the NY Post, said that it seems unlikely the Nets would be able to swap Kris Humphries for Millsap at the deadline because of Hump’s two-year, $24 million contract which the Jazz won’t go for. Eventually Vecsey Tweeted that the Nets are unlikely to make any deals this season unless they can figure out how to land Rudy Gay from the Grizzlies.

A night after the Hawks snapped their seven-game winning streak, the Brooklyn Nets battled back to beat them 94-89 in Brooklyn Friday night.

Deron Williams led the game with 24 points and seven assists while Brook Lopez had 20 and six rebounds and Joe Johnson had 18. Andray Blatche chipped in with 11 points in just over 15 minutes while coming off the bench.

TIGHT ALL THE WAY THROUGH: The Nets and Hawks were tied after each of the first three periods as the two teams changed leads 17 times and were tied 14 times. The Nets had the biggest lead during that stretch at six and the Hawks only ever led by four. It was an ugly three quarters too as the Nets turned the ball over 15 times and shot just 42.6 percent.

SECOND CHANCES: The biggest thing keeping the Nets in the game through the first three quarters was the second chances they were getting. They out rebounded the Hawks 35-25 and had 19 second chance points to Atlanta’s three.

TALE OF TWO HALVES: D-Will was easily the Nets best player in the first half. He had 18 points with three assists and just two turnovers as he shot 6-for-9 including 3-for-5 behind the arc. He completely fell apart in the second half and shot just 1-for-10.

JOE AND BROOK PICK UP THE SLACK: D-Will might have disappeared in the second half, but Lopez and Johnson picked up the slack for him. The duo combined for 30 points with six rebounds and five assists.

DE-FENCE: The Nets shot just 30.8 percent in the fourth quarter, but they managed to win the game as they held the Hawks to just 22.7 percent (5-for-22) shooting. That and the Nets got to the line 18 times in the quarter and they were able to hang on and win the game.

CAN’T FORGET REGGIE: Reggie Evans was a huge part of this game. Talk about second chance shots, Evans picked up five offensive rebounds and 20 rebounds overall in just 28:31. He only even attempted two field goals.

UP NEXT: The Nets don’t play again until they take on the Knicks in an afternoon game (3:30 p.m.) on Monday, Martin Luthur King Day. After that they host a couple of West Coast teams in the Timberwolves and Grizzlies on Wednesday and Friday at the Barclays Center.