Big day for Nolan Family

EDITI apologize for bad reporting. I misread the article in Newsday and I initially wrote that Ted Nolan would skip Saturday's game against the Capitals in order to watch Brandon Nolan's NHL debut. He'll be behind the Isles bench, but the rest of the family will be in Tampa.

On Saturday, the Islanders will be hosting the Capitals. Their coach, Ted Nolan, won't be there. Instead, he'll be While Ted Nolan is behind the Isles bench, the rest of the family will be in Tampa, rooting for his son Brandon, who will be making his NHL debut with the Hurricanes.
Chad LaRose has been placed on the IR with a concussion and Justin Williams will be out for at least four months with reconstructive knee surgery. This paved the way for the 24-year old Nolan to make his NHL debut.

He will be the second son of an NHL coach to make his NHL debut this season. Earlier this season, Brady Murray (son of St. Louis coach Andy Murray) made his debut with the Kings.

At some point in the not too distant future, another son of an NHL coach will make his debut wearing a Hurricanes sweater. Probably sometime in the 2008-09 season, Brandon Sutter, son of Devils coach Brent Sutter, will play his first game in the NHL. At that point, Carolina will have the unusual distinction of having two sons of NHL coaches on their team.

Ted Nolan told Newsday:

"Now you have a sense of what fathers feel like when their sons play for the first time in the National Hockey League. Fathers are very proud, and I'm no different. My wife [Sandra] and younger son will be flying down to Tampa to watch him play tomorrow night, and we'll all get together for a Christmas celebration."

full story

Ted Nolan is a good man. Putting his son before himself.

One interesting tidbit from that article: Brandon isn't afraid to drop the gloves, and not that it's something the Canes are looking for, but he has a bit of a boxing pedigree:

Brandon Nolan is a tough player, who has been known to get into a few scraps. Recently, he got into a fight with Islanders prospect Jeremy Colliton in an AHL game. Nolan said he doesn’t encourage his son to fight, but he knows his son is prepared when the time comes to drop the gloves.

“We’re from a boxing family,” Nolan said. “Brandon has had boxing lessons at home all his life. My brother was a pro boxer, and my two cousins were pro boxers. Fisticuffs is something we don’t shy away from, but you don’t want them to fight more so than [play hockey].”

Chris Simon at it again

On Saturday, Islanders bad guy Chris Simon was given a match penalty for stomping on the leg of Penguins winger Jarkku Ruutu. It's likely that Simon will see a very lengthy suspension after the league reviews the incident.

The video shows that Simon goes to the bench area, gives Ruutu a slew-foot, knocking him to the ice, then deliberately stomps on the foot/ankle/leg of the prone player.


Last season, Simon received a 25-game suspension for his baseball-like swing at the head of Rangers' winger Ryan Hollweg. The 25 game ban spanned the remainder of the 2006-07 season, the playoffs and the first five games of this season. In his career, he had five other suspensions totaling 10 games.

When the Hollweg incident occurred, there was a lot of noise being made by hockey fans looking for a life ban on the Simon. Most people assumed that it would work out that way anyway because Simon became a free agent over the summer. Because of his advanced age, his minimal skill set, his propensity for injuries and his bad reputation, we all assumed that nobody would pick up a contract on him. The Islanders proved us all wrong.

When Simon was re-signed by the Islanders, I guessed that it was a favor extended to him by coach Ted Nolan, who is a fellow First Nationer. Nolan has been a long-time surrogate father to the troubled Simon.

This latest transgression is completely undefendable. There will be no "he was just finishing his check". There will be no "Ruutu helped himself into the ice" or "it only looks bad because of the slow motion".

I think the league needs to really bear down on this and give him another "very long" suspension. 20 games. Ted Nolan, who did Simon a huge favor, should be embarrassed about sticking his neck out and he should be furious with Simon. This is unbecoming of a hockey player, and for all the trouble Nolan has gone to on Simon's behalf, this is unbecoming of a First Nationer. Not that I would know, mind you.

Simon refused to comment after the game, and Nolan will wait until he has "reviewed the situation" to make comment.

Simon suspended minimum 25 games, featured in "feel good" story on HBO

Earlier today, Colin Campbell meted out his punishment on Chris Simon. A minimum of 25 games. Simon will miss the remainder of this season and the playoffs. He will not be reinstated at any point if the Islanders make a deep playoff run. If the Islanders fail to qualify or get eliminated early from the playoffs, the balance of the 25 games will be served in the 2007-08 season.

In an ironic twist, Chris Simon was part of a "feel good" story on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. The segment was about Islanders coach Ted Nolan, and his relationship with Simon was part of that story. Nolan is full-blood First Nation Ojibwa and first met Chris Simon, who is half-Ojibwa while coaching the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in 1991. Simon was a rambunctious kid who had problems with discipline and with alcohol. Nolan himself had had alcohol problems as a kid, and took Simon under his wing. He got Simon to settle down, and that was a defining moment in Simon's career, but soon Nolan and Simon would part ways.

Nolan became an assistant coach with the Whalers, then a head coaching job with the Sabres. He walked away from his job with the Sabres when he was insulted by a one-year contract extension after winning the division title in 1997. He was out of hockey entirely for ten years, turning down occasional offers, most notably with the Lightning.

Somehow, Nolan found his way back into a head coaching job with the Islanders this season, and one of the first things he wanted to do was to get Chris Simon. The two were reunited. This is the spin that the HBO story took. The touchy-feely element.

This story was obviously filmed, and first aired before the "Simon incident", because it mentioned nothing of it. In fact, the story said that Simon was repaying Nolan for his faith in him by playing well and playing in every game this season.

Irony.

After the decision was handed down, obviously people began to debate. Some say it's way too harsh, some say it's way too soft. He got exactly what I expected him to get, but I actually think it might be a bit too soft. Given his track record, which includes a history of suspensions stemming from stick fouls, the book had to be thrown at him. The fact that it wasn't premeditated and the fact that Hollweg wasn't seriously injured should not be considered as mitigating factors. I've said that before, and I'll stand by it.

One thing that puzzles me is what Simon had to say yesterday. Brett Hull already chimed in on this, and I'm with him. Simon said, in part of a prepared statement:

I want to apologize to Ryan Hollweg. I was grateful to learn that Ryan is okay and that he returned to the game. My hope is to reach out to him in the near future.

Geez, Chris. How hard is it to pick up the phone? I know the Islanders doctors have invented those "concussion symptoms" to try to soften this whole thing, but even if your head's a little cloudy, you could at least make a few phone calls. Don't be Brooks Orpik and make the call three months down the road. Do it now. Ted Nolan will tell you that a written statement on the Islanders website isn't good enough. Go talk to him about this. Then go talk to Ryan Hollweg.