Jersey numbers for Guerin & Co., press event planned, news links and more


Friday, July 6, 11:35 am

Is it safe to call this thing the "Free Agency Update" again? (And btw, "the new boys" is a "Slap Shot" reference).

Bill Guerin

An amazing day yesterday. Bill Guerin tells me he loved "how the Islanders went for it" in bringing Ryan Smyth at the trade deadline. Mike Comrie tells reporters how Smyth unequivocally told him Long Island would be perfect to take the next step in his career. Mike Bossy personally writes an email (I have it, if you still don’t believe me) asking fans to have patience and faith. Some fans send me emails saying they can’t believe the legend took one for the team. Same fans send me emails this morning saying they’ll never doubt Boss again. This is what makes sports so great.

None of this is to say the job is done. After a very long 5 days and nights, Garth and his staff were right back at it this morning.



While we wait for what’s next, a few notes in the wake of yesterday’s signing:

• Numbers have been assigned to the new Islanders.

 

Bill Guerin –  #13. Worn it most of his career – it’s his wife’s lucky number – and not about to change now.

Mike Comrie – Assume he’s going with #89. That’s been his number. He’s in California right now and we didn’t want to wake him up.

Jon Sim –  #16. Wore #14 with Atlanta.

Ruslan Fedotenko – Tank wanted 17, but Shawn Bates owns it. He asked if 19 and 22 were available – hey, he’s from Kiev – and those jersey numbers are not. When told by equipment manager Scott Boggs 26 was available, Tank said, "Let me think about it over the weekend. Oh, never mind. Go for it."


 

• The Islanders are planning a press conference on Monday to introduce the new players. Guerin and his family are coming in from St. Louis this weekend to begin looking at homes. Fedotenko and Sim are also confirmed for Monday’s event. Comrie will get a call in a little while. Of course, newyorkislanders.com will have coverage, but nobody does this sort of thing better than Josh Bernstein and his crew at Islanders TV.

• Mike Comrie

  Here are some links to other coverage of the Guerin-Comrie signings from yesterday:

- Greg Logan, Newsday

- Mark Everson, New York Post

- John Dellapina, NY Daily News

- Bruce Garrioch, Ottawa Sun

- Ken Warren, Ottawa Citizen

• And finally, to quote the movie critic Roger Ebert, a big thumbs WAY down to Rangers beat writer Steve Zipay of Newsday. For some reason, Zip found it necessary to take some embarrassing cheap shots at the Islanders’ signings in the midst of his Rangers Blog update on the Petr Prucha signing. We were once told by a seasoned journalist that sometimes reporters get so close to a team they unwittingly begin drinking the Kool-Aid. This seems to be happening with Zipay. And in this case, the Kool-Aid is spiked with Grey Goose.