news

SHOW STOPPERS - #7 JEFF TAMBELLINI

A Weekly Posting of a Sound Tiger who played for the Islanders this Season

Jun 1, 2007

As the final days of the 2006 training camp came to an end, New York Islanders head coach, Ted Nolan, informed Jeff Tambellini that he would be playing in the Islanders first regular season game. The Islanders flew to Phoenix to take on the Coyotes in their first game of the season. Tambellini was placed on the fourth line and received minimal ice-time. By the end of the trip, he was sent to Bridgeport to continue his development.

Most players, when they experience the NHL level and then are shipped to the minors, tend to let their disappointment of the demotion bleed into their game. Not Tambellini. He was paired with Frans Nielsen and Eric Boguniecki and between the three of them, they played leap-frog at the top of the team scoring leaders list. On December 16, he contributed three goals and an assist, in the Sound Tigers' 6-4 victory over the Lowell Devils.

Nolan quickly recalled him to join the Islanders stretch run for the playoffs. Tambellini centered a line of Richard Park and Andy Hilbert. In the final two games of the season, Park scored a goal in each and Tambellini assisted on both. In only 50 games with the Sound Tigers, Tambellini wound up leading the team in scoring with 30 goals and 29 assists for 59 points.

Were you excited when you were traded to the Islanders two seasons ago?
I was really happy to be joining an organization with such a winning history. At the time, the Islanders were trying to become younger by trading Brent Sopel and Mark Parrish for Denis Grebeshkov and myself. I was excited to be given the opportunity to jump right into the Islanders lineup when I arrived, because it was my chance to show the organization that I could compete at that level. Knowing that my father had won a Stanley Cup here made it a little more special because now I have the chance to follow in his footsteps.

You had a break-through season with the Sound Tigers this year, to what do you attribute that?
I played with some great players like Frans Nielsen, Eric Boguniecki and many others this season in Bridgeport. The thing that made us all connect was that we all had the goal to make it to the NHL. Many players at this level settle in and don't feel they can move up but each one of us had the drive to succeed and show the organization that we were progressing as players and deserved a shot at the NHL.

Talk about your first NHL goal and what the feeling was like.
That was such an amazing moment in my life. Before the game in New Jersey I was speaking with Chico Resch, the Devils color-analyst and former teammate of my father, and he made the comment how special it would be to score my first NHL goal against one of, if not, the best goalies in the history of the league, Martin Brodeur. Almost halfway through the first period I scored and couldn't believe it.

You were placed on a line with Viktor Kozlov and Miroslav Satan this past season and had great chemistry. What was it like playing with those two superstars?
I just did my best to feed them the puck. They are world-class finishers in the NHL so my job was to create space for them by constantly moving my feet with the puck. If the defenders were constantly thinking about me skating the puck up ice and into the zone, that would create areas of the ice that the two of them could go to where I could feed them a pass that they could finish.

As a part of the Islanders lineup for the remaining four games of the season, what was the experience like?
That was incredible knowing that each game was like a playoff game seven. It was honestly the "Dubie Show" because there is no way we would have won any of those remaining four games without him. When he made that final poke-check on Brylin in New Jersey, I knew I wanted to be the first off the bench to celebrate with him. Dubie was my roommate throughout my time with the Islanders last season so we hung out a lot. The only problem we had was he had to sleep with the TV on and I can't sleep with it on. He's the starting goalie though so obviously he got his wish.