Nabby snubbing his new club

Nabby wanted to play for Detroit so bad that he won't even speak to his new manager.  Nor will he make use of the airplane tickets which the Isles, as GM Garth Snow put it, "have waiting for him."

"Snow said when he identified himself on the phone, Nabokov immediately hung up. Snow finally talked to Nabokov on [the following day] and was told that Nabokov didn't realize who he was speaking to when abruptly ending the call.

Nabokov failed to report to the Islanders, clearly disappointed that he won't be joining the Stanley Cup-contending Red Wings. Instead he is now under contract with the Islanders, who are far out of the Eastern Conference playoff race. He was officially listed among the scratches for Sunday's game. Whether Nabokov will ever join the Islanders remains to be seen.

Islanders owner Charles Wang hinted that the Islanders aren't likely to just cut ties with Nabokov and allow him to go back on the waiver wire.

Nabokov told ESPN.com on Sunday that his decision to spurn the Islanders is not personal. He merely intended to hook on with a title-contending team and not an also-ran club such as the Islanders, who own the third-fewest points in the NHL.

'I think I'm going to stay home for now, I'm sticking with my decision,' Nabokov said Sunday. 'It's nothing against the Islanders and their organization. It's nothing to do with that. It's just that I'm at the point in my career where I want to help a team win in the playoffs. I don't see how I could help the Islanders or what I could do for them. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. And I hope they understand that. I was surprised they picked me up. I was like, 'Wow, what's the point?'

'I understand the rules,' Nabokov told ESPN.com. 'We're not stupid. We knew what was going on before we made the decision. But I made this decision because the goal was to play with Detroit.'

Snow insists he isn't angry and would still welcome Nabokov into the organization.

'It might be his anniversary, it could be his birthday, maybe he has dinner plans tonight,' Snow said. 'So if it takes until tomorrow to get him here, that's fine, too." -- from Yahoo! Sports, courtesy of The AP

I can't see how Nabby could end up in Detroit any time soon, myself.  We have a goaltending situation which needs to be taken care of relatively quickly and this Nabby/Isles situation seems to be a pretty complicated affair.  Too bad for Nabby, but we're going to have to move on.  Thomas Mccollum was just sent back to GR with a healing finger and Joey MacDonald is now backing up Howey who returned from injury against The Blues on Jan. 20th.  Ozzy is gone for the season.  Are we really going to stick with MacDonald as backup?  I somehow doubt it.  I'm going to look over our possible goaltending options and will re-post with my projections.  'Till then, snub on Nabby!