As you may notice from reading Dave Starman's notebook from the Providence-Michigan game, there's still plenty of talk going on about the New York Islanders' signing of Kyle Okposo (and that's your garden variety entry-level contract, by the way).

Isles coach Ted Nolan had an interesting comment on Okposo, saying, "I was asked the other day to compare him to Jarome Iginla or other power forwards in the NHL. My response is that it's our responsibility to develop him and see that Kyle Okposo makes a name for himself."

I'm just saying, is all.

In all seriousness, I think that by now Garth Snow thinks he made a mistake in his choice of words, but there's obviously some concern about the business of signing a player at mid-season, so I caught up Clarkson head coach George Roll to get his take. Roll has a pair of Islanders prospects on his team in Tyrell Mason and Shea Guthrie, and was certainly diplomatic in expressing his views.

"Obviously, it's not good for college hockey," Roll said, "and some of the statements that were made, I don't think are fair, but they've been said. As far as our guys go, they know how I feel. If the team comes calling, and they feel they're ready, I'm never going to hold them back. As far as the Islanders, they've watched our guys. They haven't been in contact with us as far as either one of them leaving early, but that's a decision that the individual players and families make."

In other NHL-related news, legendary coach Scotty Bowman was spotted in attendance tonight (although not necessarily in his capacity as a scouting consultant for the Detroit Red Wings) along with Hockey Hall of Famer Ron Francis (quite possibly in his capacity as Assistant General Manager and Director of Player Development for the Carolina Hurricanes, who hold the draft rights to Clarkson star Nick Dodge).

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Florida, if you look back to my report from last night's Tampa Bay-Montreal game, you'll note that I spoke with Big Red alum and Canadiens defenseman Ryan O'Byrne. By way of introduction, I reminded him that Tanner Glass - who was a freshman at Dartmouth when I was a senior - had introduced us after a Dartmouth-Cornell game at Lynah Rink a couple of seasons ago. My choice of words: "You're friends with Tanner Glass, right?" His response: "Yeah, I know Tanner."

Well, the two old buddies got together and exchanged pleasantries in tonight's 5-1 Montreal win over the Panthers down in Sunrise.

Speaking of Sunrise, there's not that much time left before the sunrise in Florida, so I'd better get back to the hotel and get a good night's sleep...but not before one more observation:

Big time kudos to Yale's Broc Little, who scored an real-life, honest-to-goodness, old-school natural hat trick in the third period to lift the Bulldogs past Nebraska-Omaha on Friday. There's something you don't see every day.

OK, that's it for now...see you tomorrow from Tampa over at Power Plays, where you can currently read my updates from tonight's games.

Have a good night.