All action, no talk

Maybe we should be more like the NBA, where a Quentin Richardson can pop off about the Big Three of the Celtics not impressing him and get tons of press for it. Q is having trouble shooting the ball in the basket, but he's 1-for-1 when aiming at his own foot.

With the Islanders playing Atlanta today on the heels of getting smoked by the Thrashers at home just a few days ago, think of all the possibilties.

Guerin could say the Thrashers are nothing and the Islanders owe them one. Andy Sutton could talk about how glad he is to be out of Atlanta. Ricky D could fire up the troops with some classic trash-talking. Don Waddell could make up a story to the press about how the Islanders disrespected them on Saturday by not giving the winners any credit.

But alas, none of that was to be found this morning at the rink. When the Thrashers' skate was ending, their assistant coach (and possible head coach next season) Brad "Beast" McCrimmon skated over to our bench and told me how his team better be ready tonight because they have so much respect for Ted Nolan and the Islanders. McCrimmon has been around long enough to understand Atlanta will see a different team than the one at the Coliseum on Saturday.

And that was it, one of the many reasons why I love this league. No garbage, no talk. The Islanders and Thrashers know all that matters is what happens when the puck drops tonight at 7:05.


Notes:

Looks like Berard and the Fantastic IVth are the scratches tonight.

Ruslan Fedotenko was asked by the press what it was like to be back with Guerin and Comrie - again - and, bless him, Tank tried really, really hard to come up with a good answer.

Ted Nolan is so under the weather, he asked if it was okay for Gerard Gallant to do the post-skate media scrum this morning. Here's hoping when you see Ted on the FSN post-game tonight, an Islanders victory has contributed to bringing some of the color back to his face.

Saw an amazing John Fogarty concert last night in a 2,000-seat palace about ten miles outside of downtown Atlanta. I have fond memories of the (North Fork) Westbury Music Fair, but like a transformed Coliseum, Long Island could use a joint like that.