After both groups skated a grueling program at Islanders Iceworks in Syosset today, Islanders head coach Jack Capuano spoke to the media.

"I thought the first day went well," Capuano said. "Both groups went and out and skated hard and did exactly what we wanted them to do. We did what we wanted to do today as a coaching staff...I was pleased with the first day."

The days' activities mostly consisted of a skating intensive drills.

"This camp is going to be physically demanding right from the start," Capuano said.  "It will seperate the men from the boys as we figure out who is going to be in our lineup October 8."

With all the players on the ice for the first time, Capuano said he did not look at individual players.

"It's day-by-day," Capuano said. "Once we give them a little bit of the structure we want, as we get into the exhibition games, we'll learn more about the guys.

He also provided an update on some injuries:
Mark Katic has a left dislocated shoulder and will have surgery.
Rhett Rakhshani is out indefinitely with a concussion.
Marty Reasoner did not skate today due to a knee strain.

Islanders fans most likely know forward Jay Pandolfo for his outstanding two-way play with the New Jersey Devils.

After accepting an invitation to Islanders training camp last week, the 13-year veteran of the NHL, two-time Stanley Cup champion, and 2006-2007 Selke finalist is looking to bring his experience and veteran leadership to the Islanders young team.

 “It’s great. I am excited,” Pandolfo said. “(The Islanders) have a great group of young guys. They have a lot of character guys too, which is nice.”

For Pandolfo, there are a few familiar faces on the ice. Former Devils teammates Mike Mottau and Brian Rolston for starters.

“I know Marty Reasoner pretty well, and Ricky, too,” Pandolfo said. “To have those guys around, it makes me feel a little more comfortable. So far it’s just been skating with these guys for a week before camp and getting to know them. It’s been a great experience so far.”

The Winchester, MA natives says his former Devils teammates didn’t really get in his ear about accepting an invite to camp. Mottau, who Pandolfo sees in Boston, told him he was happy to hear about the possibility.

“He (Mottau) said that he is excited about the team and that there is a really good team here,” Pandolfo said. “From what I’ve seen so far, I expect the team to do really well this year.”

As for what he expects from camp: “My agent talked to Garth a little bit and it’s no promises, no guarantees, just come in and see what you can do. That’s really all I can ask for.” 

Players take the ice this morning for their first day for on ice activities. The players have been broken down in to groups as follows:

Group A
Comeau-Reasoner-Wallace
Grabner-Nielsen-Okposo
Pandolfo-Frischmon-Colliton
Martin-Strome-Kabanov
Marcinko-Gillies

Eaton-Jurcina
Wishart-Reese
Donovan-de Haan

Goalies
DiPietro
Montoya
Koskinen

Group B
Moulson-Tavares-Niederreiter
Rolston-Bailey-Parenteau
McNeely-Cizikas-Backman
DiBenedetto-Ullstrom-Haley
Gallant-Romano

Streit-Mottau
Ness-Hamonic
Olson-Klementyev
MacDonald

Goalies
Nabokov
Poulin
Nilsson

Group A is on the ice first at 10:00 a.m. Group B is on at 12. There are off-ice workouts following each on-ice session. 

Notes: Added to the roster last night was veteran d-man Steve Staios, who has agreed to attend New York Islanders training camp on a tryout. He will not be here at Iceworks today, but will join the team tomorrow. Here is the press release. Check out his career stats here.

Updates all morning long on Twitter @NYIslanders. Follow us here.

Training Camp opened bright and early this wonderfully chill fall morning. It's hard to believe just two days ago it was bright and 80 degrees, when today’s walk across the street from the Long Island Marriott to the Coliseum was about half of that.

No one likes the seven a.m. arrival time, but everyone was anxious to start training camp. They had a series of different fitness tests, mandatory physicals and then some exhilarating (or not so much) picture and video shoots for the upcoming season.

We all love those videos of the players from last season, where Josh Bailey wore chains and Matt Moulson talked about his dream of playing the NHL, being cut from teams time and again, and never giving up.



This year, the players were in full gear for their video shoots with the Islanders game-operations crew. I won’t completely spoil the videos, which will debut on opening night, but if they’re anything like last year’s they should be classics.

Here are a few pictures from the shoot:


The players’ least favorite part of the morning was their merchandising photo shoot. Each player had to model 10 different articles of clothing from hats, sweatshirts, t-shirts and jackets. Thankfully, a couple guys helped the camera guy (Mike Stobe from Getty Images) make the shots look good.

Matt Moulson was the most photogenic and had some pretty great poses for the camera:

    

Mark Streit and Josh Bailey made some Isles swag look good:


But the modeling wasn’t quite over. One last photo shoot took place before they were finished with the morning’s work. Every year, the players get their headshots taken for the media guide and the website.

Kyle Okposo looked extremely stoic:

Matt Martin decided to go for a new look, he's growing out his facial hair:

Micheal Haley looks tough:

In other news, Islanders Assistant Coach Scott Allen did well doing his best "American Chopper" impression.

Today, the Islanders look to get one back from the Bruins rookies. Islanders head coach Jack Capuano chalked last night's 8-5 loss up to sloppy play on special teams. Check out the recap here. Post game video here.

There was no morning skate, but goalies worked out again with coaches on the ice. Capuano announced that Anders Nilsson would be the starter in goal.

Rhett Rakhshani suffered a concussion in the first period and is being reevaluated today.

Tickets are still available. Click here to get yours now. The game will be streamed on newyorkislanders.com. MSG.com will also carry the stream. Live updates and breaking news will be posted, as always on Twitter @NYIslanders.

If you are coming to the game, there will be an #IslesMeetup on the lower concourse outside of Doolin's. RSVP here.

Here are the rosters for tonight's game:

New York Islanders

#    Pos  Player                          2010-11 TEAM
1    G      Mikko Koskinen         Bridgeport (AHL)
45  G      Anders Nilsson         Lulea (SEL)
60  G      Kevin Poulin               Bridgeport (AHL)
8    C      Ryan Strome              Niagara (OHL)
24  D      Calvin de Haan         Oshawa (OHL)
25  LW   Nino Niederreiter      Portland (WHL)
33  D      Benn Olson               Cincinnati (ECHL)
41  C      David Ullstrom          Bridgeport (AHL)
46  D      Matt Donovan            U. Denver (NCAA)
48  D      Anton Klementyev     Bridgeport (AHL)
53  C      Casey Cizikas           Mississauga (OHL)
54  C      Tony Romano            Bridgeport (AHL)
55  D      Aaron Ness               Minnesota (NCAA)
56  LW   John Persson           Red Deer (WHL)
58  D      Brenden Kichton      Spokane (WHL)
59  LW   Brett Gallant              Bridgeport (AHL)
61  LW   Mitchell Theoret        Niagara (OHL)
62  RW   Tyler McNeely           Northeastern (NCAA)
63  D      Art Bidlevskii              Regina (WHL)
64  D      Andrey Pedan            Guelph (OHL)
71  D      Mark Katic                   Bridgeport (AHL)
77  LW   Kirill Kabanov             Lewiston (QMJHL)
81  C      Justin DiBenedetto   Bridgeport (AHL)


Boston Bruins
#    Pos  Player                                    2010-11 TEAM
70  G      Michael Hitchinson             Providence (AHL)
71  G      Jared DeMichiel                  S. Carolina (ECHL)
48  D      Zach McKelvie                     Army (NCAA)
50  RW   Jared Knight                        London (OHL)
51  C      Ryan Spooner                      Kingston/PBO (OHL)
53  D      Dougie Hamilton                Niagara (OHL)
56  D      Marc Cantin                         Mississauga (OHL)
57  RW   Yannick Riendeau             Reading (ECHL)
58  F      Carter Camper                    Miami-Ohio (NCAA)
61  LW   Craig Cunningham            Portland/Van (WHL)
66  RW   Tyler Randell                       Kitchener (OHL)
75  LW   Anthony Camara                 Saginaw (OHL)
76  C      Alexander Khokhlachev     Windsor (OHL)
78  D      Ryan Button                         Seattle (WHL)
79  D      David Warsofsky                 Boston U (NCAA)
80  C      Dylan Hood                          Moose Jaw (WHL)
81  C      Kyle MacKinnon                  Providence (NCAA)
82  C      Adam Presizniuk                Union (NCAA)
83  F      Calle Ridderwall                 Notre Dame (NCAA)
84  LW   Conor Stokes                      Kingston (OHL)
85  D      Charlie Dodero                   Sudbury (OHL)
86  D      Kevan Miller                         Vermont (NCAA)

Keeping with the schedule of the last two days, goalies took the ice first at 9 a.m. at the Coliseum. The full team joined them at 10:10. Islanders Head Coach Jack Capuano watched practice while tonight's coaches, Brent Thompson and Eric Boguniecki were on the ice with the players. Eric Cairns was also on the ice.

Capuano said that Mikko Koskinen will play tonight. He's expected to play the full 60 minutes. Coaches will announce Tuesday's goalie after the morning skate.

Lines remained the same for the third straight day.

Forwards: Rhett Rakhshani-David Ullstrom-Justin DiBenedetto; Nino Niederreiter-Ryan Strome-Tyler McNeely; Kirill Kabanov-Casey Cizikas-John Persson; Brett Gallant-Tony Romano-Mitchell Theoret

D-pairings: Mark Katic-Calvin de Haan; Matt Donovan-Aaron Ness; Andrey Pedan-Art Bidlevskii; Brenden Kichton-Benn Olson.

Notes: Tonight's game will be streamed live on newyorkislanders.com and on MSG.com. The Islanders live blog will also be up and running with the Reporter and the Rookie eager to bring fans this early dose of hockey. Join the conversation here at 6:30 p.m.

Updates all day and during the game on Twitter. Follow @NYIslanders.

It's Day 3 of Rookie Camp and these guys are getting some serious game action already. Tonight at 7 p.m., the Islanders rookies will take on the Bruins rookies. The game will be streamed on newyorkislanders.com. MSG.com will also carry the stream. Live updates and breaking news from the morning skate will be posted, as always on Twitter @NYIslanders.

Here are the rosters for tonight's game:

New York Islanders

#    Pos  Player                          2010-11 TEAM
1    G      Mikko Koskinen         Bridgeport (AHL)
45  G      Anders Nilsson         Lulea (SEL)
60  G      Kevin Poulin               Bridgeport (AHL)
8    C      Ryan Strome              Niagara (OHL)
24  D      Calvin de Haan         Oshawa (OHL)
25  LW   Nino Niederreiter      Portland (WHL)
33  D      Benn Olson               Cincinnati (ECHL)
41  C      David Ullstrom          Bridgeport (AHL)
46  D      Matt Donovan            U. Denver (NCAA)
48  D      Anton Klementyev     Bridgeport (AHL)
49  RW   Rhett Rakhshani      Bridgeport (AHL)
53  C      Casey Cizikas           Mississauga (OHL)
54  C      Tony Romano            Bridgeport (AHL)
55  D      Aaron Ness               Minnesota (NCAA)
56  LW   John Persson           Red Deer (WHL)
58  D      Brenden Kichton      Spokane (WHL)
59  LW   Brett Gallant              Bridgeport (AHL)
61  LW   Mitchell Theoret        Niagara (OHL)
62  RW   Tyler McNeely           Northeastern (NCAA)
63  D      Art Bidlevskii              Regina (WHL)
64  D      Andrey Pedan            Guelph (OHL)
71  D      Mark Katic                   Bridgeport (AHL)
77  LW   Kirill Kabanov             Lewiston (QMJHL)
81  C      Justin DiBenedetto   Bridgeport (AHL)


Boston Bruins
#    Pos  Player                                    2010-11 TEAM
70  G      Michael Hitchinson             Providence (AHL)
71  G      Jared DeMichiel                  S. Carolina (ECHL)
48  D      Zach McKelvie                     Army (NCAA)
50  RW   Jared Knight                        London (OHL)
51  C      Ryan Spooner                      Kingston/PBO (OHL)
53  D      Dougie Hamilton                Niagara (OHL)
56  D      Marc Cantin                         Mississauga (OHL)
57  RW   Yannick Riendeau             Reading (ECHL)
58  F      Carter Camper                    Miami-Ohio (NCAA)
61  LW   Craig Cunningham            Portland/Van (WHL)
66  RW   Tyler Randell                       Kitchener (OHL)
75  LW   Anthony Camara                 Saginaw (OHL)
76  C      Alexander Khokhlachev     Windsor (OHL)
78  D      Ryan Button                         Seattle (WHL)
79  D      David Warsofsky                 Boston U (NCAA)
80  C      Dylan Hood                          Moose Jaw (WHL)
81  C      Kyle MacKinnon                  Providence (NCAA)
82  C      Adam Presizniuk                Union (NCAA)
83  F      Calle Ridderwall                 Notre Dame (NCAA)
84  LW   Conor Stokes                      Kingston (OHL)
85  D      Charlie Dodero                   Sudbury (OHL)
86  D      Kevan Miller                         Vermont (NCAA)

Saturday, Islanders Head Coach Jack Capuano told the media it’s time for the more experienced prospects to “step it up” if they want a chance to make the team. He reiterated that same message on Day Two of Islanders Rookie Camp.

“I’m expecting those (experienced) guys to challenge for a spot on this hockey team no different than the way Matt Moulson did a couple of years back,” Capuano said. “I think that they realize they don’t want to be in the minors, they spent their time there and they want an opportunity. If they play well, they are going to get that opportunity.”

Rhett Rakhshani, Justin DiBenedetto and Mark Katic are some of those so called “experienced” prospects. Each of them has attended rookie camp at least three times. And over the last few years, all have become staple players for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

All of them were honored to be in the same category as Moulson.

“It shows that they are willing to take a young guy on the team,” Katic said. “Moulson came out of nowhere and scored 30 goals. I think there are a lot of guys in this room capable of having a breakout year like that. It’s just a matter of who has a better camp and gets that advantage and takes that opportunity.”

Rakhshani said, “It’s definitely a good thing for us. They’ve definitely shown that they give the young guys an opportunity and it’s just a matter of grasping it. Someone’s got to do it so hopefully the young guys start stepping up. I’m definitely hoping that I can be one of the guys that can do that this camp.”

DiBenedetto said, “He (Capuano) should be expecting a lot from the older guys (at camp). Personally, I’m going on my third year pro and I expect big things out of myself, too. So I’m going to go out and work hard.”

Rakhshani, a skilled winger, led the Sound Tigers in goals (24), assists (38) and points (62) last season as a rookie. DiBenedetto, a scrappy and pesky winger, ranked second on the Sound Tigers in goals scored with 19. Lastly, Katic, a smooth puck-moving blue-liner, led all Sound Tigers defensemen in scoring (30 points).

What these three players have in common is their NHL experience. All received call-ups from the Islanders last season, but all were returned to the Sound Tigers after a few short games. While they may not have stuck last year, each of them are hoping to implement what they’ve learned.

“Just being up with the NHL for those eleven games, it made me realize I can play at this level,” Katic said. “I just have to fine-tune a few things. It gives me more confidence on the ice, knowing I played in the NHL.”

He added, “You just have to reassure yourself that you can do it. The mental aspect of the game is 90 per cent of it. I’ve been trying to tell myself that I’m ready all summer so hopefully it works out.”

Rakhshani knows the mental aspect all too well.

“I think I've been my biggest enemy in some of the recent years because, for myself, I know what I can do, but sometimes I hold myself back from playing to my full potential,” Rakhshani said. “I want to go out there and play to my full potential and not be restricted by anything.”

Rakhshani’s time with the big club was limited to two games due to a concussion. He still took a lot from the experience.

“Now I know what to expect, and that it’s not too overwhelming,” Rakhshani said. “I’m good enough to play at the NHL level. Guys are a little faster and stronger (than in the AHL), but I’m definitely at that level and can play with any of them. It’s just a matter of going out and doing it.”

Even a physical player like DiBenedetto learned a few things.

“When I was up last year, I noticed how strong the defensemen were in front of the net compared to the AHL,” DiBenedetto said. “It’s something I wanted to focus on and I think I did that.”

These exhibition games against the Bruins will give all the prospects ample time to prove to management that they are worth a second look. For the more experienced players, it’s hopefully where they shed the “rookie” status.

“First impressions are important,” Katic said. “It’ll be great to make a good first impression if I play well, so I’m looking forward to it. I’m coming in here with an open mind. Obviously I want to make the team, that’s the ultimate goal. But if I get sent down, I want to be called up at some point in the year and stick and become a full-time NHLer.”

DiBenedetto and Rakhshani shared the same sentiment and put it plainly, “My goal is to make the New York Islanders.”

There’s no doubt these guys are talented. They were all drafted for a reason. But now is the time for each of them to break out and show why they deserve a spot on the Islanders roster.