The geniuses at EA Sports, makers of the outstanding NHL series of video games, have made a major announcement about their upcoming version of the popular game. NHL 12 will feature nine hockey legends: Mario Lemieux, Gordie Howe, Wayne Gretzky, Ray Bourque, Jeremy Roenick, Borje Salming, Patrick Roy, Steve Yzerman, and Chris Chelios.

It would certainly be nice if EA included legends such as Bobby Orr in the game, but there was probably some sort of licensing issue that EA couldn’t get around in order to have him in the game. Still, it’s a pretty cool set of players.

Some people may complain about Chris Chelios and Jeremy Roenick, two players who only recently retired and sort of feel out-of-place among the other legends. I can't really explain Chelios, but Roenick’s addition to the game might be due more to his status as a video game legend, rather than an actual NHL legend.

Hat tip to my friend Mike for the excellent Photoshop.

With an uncertain future on Long Island, the Islanders, and owner Charles Wang, are looking at all available options to keep the once-great franchise in the greater New York area. It’s almost certain that the Islanders will leave Nassau Coliseum when their lease expires in 2015 because it is a horribly outdated excuse for an arena that resembles a poorly lit barn.

There are preliminary discussions between another Long Island county, Suffolk, and Charles Wang to determine if the Isles could fit there. Others suggest that the Islanders could move to either Queens or Brooklyn. I don’t know anything about Queens, except that Kevin James drives a mail route there, so I can’t vouch for its viability, but I do know that Brooklyn is absolutely perfect for the Islanders – at least culturally.

Cross another name off the list of potential free agents in 2012. The Chicago Blackhawks locked up all-purpose forward Patrick Sharp to a five-year contract with an annual cap hit of $5.9 million per season.

The two premier free agents remaining – assuming they make it to July 1st, which is, admittedly, a total unknown – are Alexander Semin and Zach Parise. Both are high scoring wingers who are capable of topping 40 goals a season. Both will also be only 28-years-old by the start of next season. To suggest they will be highly sought after is an understatement.

After Parise and Semin, the second-tier of forwards consists of Dustin Penner, Ales Hemsky, R.J. Umberger, Brad Boyes, and Mikhail Grabovski – the latter being the only real quality top-6 centre option available.

A large crowd by Islanders' standards

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. The once proud New York Islanders franchise that was dynastic during the early 1980s is now skating on thin ice. The team has been consistently terrible on the ice for a number of years and the attendance figures at the Nassau Coliseum reflect that: the Islanders drew an average of just over 11,000 fans for home games last season, a figure lower than the number that show up in Phoenix.