Game On!

• Make no mistake; Garth Snow's moves in the past months have produced an astonishingly upbeat ambiance around the Islanders and Nassau Veterans' Memorial Coliseum.
  
  Even longtime employees feel regenerated by the John Tavares acquisition, not to mention the underplayed goaltending addition, Dwayne Roloson.

• One of the more interesting puzzles confronting Jacques Lemaire will be his choice of back-up goalie to Martin Brodeur. Yann Danis showed big-league promise last season with the Isles and appears to be the favorite as Brodeur's understudy. Yet Jeff Frazee has impressed with Lowell (AHL). Still to be decided – if Frazee stars in training camp – is whether it would be more beneficial for him to play another full season in the minors or ride an NHL bench for most of the upcoming season. Then, there's the issue of whether Lou Lamoriello will find a spot for Kevin Weekes on the Devils – or Lowell – roster.

• After Rangers prospect Alexei Cherepanov collapsed and died during a KHL game in October, guilt-fingers were pointed in every direction. But last week the Investigative Committee cleared the medics.
  
  "Avangard team doctors not only could not have diagnosed Cherepanov with chronic myocarditis while he was living," says the IC report, "but could not have even suspected it."
  
  One unconfirmed suspicion is that Cherepanov did not want to be pulled from games. As a result, he MAY have avoided reporting feeling ill.

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