The Waiting Game

The Bill Guerin situation is still very much alive, going on 40 hours since he was pulled from the lineup against the Buffalo Sabres, leading everyone and their grandmother to begin trade talks. However, after being told Saturday night that we would get an official statement from the team Sunday (yesterday) morning, we are once again left in the dark.

According to Chris Botta at islanderspointblank.com, the Islanders sent text messages out to the media saying that "there will be no news tonight", and "there is no timetable for any announcements". While this may lead many people to think that a potential trade is dead, it is more likely now that the potential trade partner, which Guerin is aware of, is playing hard ball. Since the trade is likely to either the Montreal Canadiens or the Washington Capitals, salary may need to be cut to take on the remaining $1 million of Guerin's contract.

General Manager Garth Snow has until the trade deadline, Wednesday at 3:00 p.m., to make a trade happen, and if it cannot be done, a lot will be said about the relationship between Guerin and coach Scott Gordon. You may remember Newsday's Greg Logan reporting yesterday of the rocky relationship between the two lately, mostly due to Gordon's new system, which doesn't cater well to "older" players, and the coaches commitment to playing his youngsters such as Kyle Okposo, Josh Bailey, Frans Nielson, and Blake Comeau. For more on this story, click here.

Reports of frustration from the Guerin camp have been surfacing lately, including one from TSN quoting "...Guerin has become frustrated by the ongoing uncertainty and has done nothing to complicate or stall the trade from going through." We still don't know who the mystery trade partner is, nor do we know what the return for Guerin would be, as the general consensus is that it may be less than originally expected (take that second round pick and run!), and there is only speculation about what could be holding up the deal.

What we do know, however, is that Guerin will not dress for tonight's game against the Colorado Avalanche. 21 year old Jesse Joensuu has been called up from the Islanders AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Soundtigers, to fill in for the captain in limbo. Joensuu, a 6-4 right wing from Finland has been one of the talks of the town in Bridgeport, recording 17 goals and 13 assists this season for the 'Tigers. Check back later for more updates!