Barring freak injury that one should never rule out with this club, it sounds all but certain that Rick DiPietro will get his first NHL start since Jan. 2, 2009, either tonight in Dallas or tomorrow in Phoenix . We'll find out when the tea leaves are properly examined this morning, or else when the Islanders decide to give it a proper announcement (Ha!).

What follows are things that have happened since DiPietro's last NHL start, a loss in Phoenix in which he allowed five goals, saved 28 of 33 (that's good for .848), and physically if not verbally told us that something was still wrong:

The U.S. inaugurated a black president (no, really!), whose first order of business was putting a tourniquet on a financial mess so bad, it might prevent the NHL salary cap from going up next season. (Perish the thought. Now sell us your cap problems for cheap.)

Playing for the two blue and orange NHL franchises who dominated the 1980s (and showed me what hockey at Heaven's Bourne would be like), Dwayne Roloson has gone a combined 40-25-12. He's also turned 40, while looking 33.

Martin Biron has won 19 games, two of them against the Islanders and two of them while playing for them.

"Dexter" awed and stunned fans with its season finale. "Lost" probably did something, but that show jumped the shark in seasons 2-3, so I don't know. (Did that one guy and that one girl ever kiss or something? Did the creators change the rules a twelfth and thirteenth time?)



The Islanders drafted an 18-year-old #1 overall, and signed his 26-year-old family friend. Each of them has 16 goals and 12 assists in his first 44 games as an Islander, putting them in a three-way tie for the team points lead with...

Kyle Okposo, who since that DiPietro start has scored 21 of his 27 NHL goals and 35 of his 45 NHL assists.

Frans Nielsen is plus-11 in that time.

Jay Leno got bumped, started a new show that didn't do so hot, and is now already angling to get his old slot back. Does Mike Milbury run NBC?



The Lighthouse Project has gone from idea waiting for Town of Hempstead review to ... wait, no, I'm just not going there. Not now.



Josh Bailey, who scored his first NHL goal in DiPietro's last start, has scored all 16 goals and 17 of his 26 NHL assists.

Former Isles assistant Dan Bylsma was named an NHL coach, and won Sidney Crosby's first Stanley Cup. Fellow Islanders alumni Bill Guerin, Ruslan Fedotenko and Miro Satan won that Cup, too.

Doug Weight has played 32 NHL games, scoring 3 goals and 12 assists.

The "King of Pop" died (curious: is that a title you'd want?), but anywhere from three to 15 future Islanders were born.

This little site went from somewhere over 2,000 unique visits a month to somewhere over 1,000 a day, at least according to one nebulous version of Web stats. I've never mentioned traffic numbers here before and probably won't but once a year because I've never much cared about the traffic of any site I visit, nor the copies printed of a book I read, nor the album sales of music I like. I just dig what I dig. But I thought I'd share because I appreciate all of you, from those who actively contribute to those just lurking along for the ride.

The point is having fun with Islanders hockey. DiPietro's pending return -- that sure counts as fun, no?