Head coach Jack Capuano announced that Travis Hamonic will miss the rest of the regular season with a lower-body injury. Hamonic suffered the injury in the first period of last night's win against the Columbus Blue Jackets after making knee-on-knee contact with Scott Hartnell. Hamonic left early in the first period and did not return.

If there are any positives to this news is that Capuano said "regular season". The Playoffs begin April 13th and the if the playoff schedule breaks right for them they could open up on the 14th, giving Hamonic two weeks to recover. He did skate to participate in the team photo at practice today.

Capuano said that Marek Zidlicky will return tomorrow against Pittsburgh. He said that he has to evaluate defensive pairings in light of Hamonic's injury but prefers experience. As the Islanders still battle for second and third place in the Metropolitan Division, it would be an absolute nightmare to see Zidlicky and Brian Strait reunite on the third pairing. Pulock and Strait's metrics are almost identical. Pulock provides a strength over Strait on the power play with his shot. Zidlicky has done little this season on the power play and is a defensive liability. If totally hurts Pulock's development sitting in the press box. If he's not gonna play down the stretch, there's no way he will see any action in the playoffs. Sending him back to Bridgeport makes the most sense since they are in the middle of a fight for the postseason.

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Dear Isles fans,

Today is my favorite holiday of the year, April Fools' Day!! It's unfortunate that I was never allowed to make a trade on this day. But I managed to fool so many general managers into making trades with me and managed to fool the Islanders into thinking that I could be an NHL general manager.

During my tenure as GM I believed in quantity over quality. Heck I had 14 first round draft picks. It didn't matter that two of them went unsigned. I drafted a guy, J.P. Dumont, who had six 20-goal seasons and Michael Rupp, who scored the game-winning goal in Game 7 of 2003 Stanley Cup Final.

I was the star of the 1999 draft. My four first round draft picks in one of the weakest drafts was the envy of all. My picks (Tim Connolly, Taylor Pyatt, Branislav Mezei and Kristian Kudroc) played a total of 307 games with the Isles.

I put together such a good team in the 1999-2000 season that the league rewarded me with the top pick in the draft. I was home one night watching the NCAA tournament and this goaltender caught my eye. He made 77 saves in that game, a loss. Once I found out he was a fellow Massachusettsan, I knew I had to have him. We certainly didn't need Dany Heatley or Marian Gaborik. It didn't matter that I drafted a goalie, Roberto Luongo, three years earlier. So I did what anyone would do to an elderly person (21-years-old), I sent him to Florida. I got back a player with a great action movie villain name, Oleg Kvasha. I threw in Olli Jokinen (four 30-goal seasons) for their troubles.

Flash forward to 2003, I had the 15th pick in the draft. There were a lot of duds left on the board (Brent Burns, Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry). But everyone was screaming that I should take Zach Parise, whose father score some kind of important goal for the Isles I guess. So I decided to take Robert Nilsson. I had a friend named Robert once so it made the decision that much easier for me.

Of all the draft picks I made I did misfire on one, Frans Nielsen (3rd round in 2002). I hope you fans can forgive me for watching him play 600 games with the Isles.

I really made my mark in making trades, 82 in total. General Managers are still laughing at how I fleeced them. Getting Trevor Linden for next to nothing (Todd Bertuzzi and Bryan McCabe) That's a win for me!! Hell the Canucks were so upset with the deal that they brought Linden back two years later. For some reason I couldn't get Bertuzzi and McCabe back.

After selecting first in the 2000 draft, I needed to take the 2001 first round off. I also had a goofy 6'9" defenseman that I didn't see getting any better so I sent the 2nd pick (Jason Spezza) and that defenseman (Zdeno Chara) for Alexei Yashin. How can anyone fault me? I mean, have you seen Carol Alt?

In 2003, I had a feeling that Chris Osgood was becoming Osbad. He had the nerve helping the previous year's team make the playoffs. I figured I might as well get some quality AHL players (Justin Papineau and Jeremy Colliton) for him. It took Osgood five years to raise the Cup again with the Red Wings, definitely a win by me.

I'll leave you with one of my last trades. I sent Janne Niinimaa and a pick for John Erskine and a pick. I know it doesn't seem like I made out here but do you know the game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon"? I love it! He's my version of it. Lets call it "The Method of Mad Mike's Madness"

Wade Redden is traded for Bryan Berard
Berard is traded for Felix Potvin
Potvin is traded for Dave Scatchard, Bill Muckalt and Kevin Weekes
Weekes and Kudroc is traded for the fifth overal pick in 2000 (Raffi Torres)
Marty McInnis is traded for Robert Reichel
Reichel is traded for Brad Isbister
Which brings us to Niinimaa, who I got for Isbister and Torres.

I could go on, but I will leave you wanting more.

Happy April Fools' Day!

"Mad Mike"

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