By EVAN GROSSMAN

October 5, 2006 -- The Islanders may be a lot of things, but with the new season beginning tonight in Phoenix, one thing Ted Nolan's team most certainly will be is a motivated bunch.

The Islanders will be motivated for different reasons. The coach is motivated to prove he shouldn't have been banished from the league since 1997, goalie Rick DiPietro is out to prove he's worth a 15-year contract, and owner Charles Wang is just out to prove the world wrong after an embarrassing summer for the franchise.

But one player in particular, Alexei Yashin, is out to prove he can be motivated at all. While he's shown no reason to believe Yashin can be counted on to help lead the Isles out of the wilderness (again), No. 79 appears to have a chip on his shoulder going into the regular season. For the first time as an Islander, he recently admitted what's going to personally drive him this year.

"My motivation is to make the playoffs again," Yashin said in sharp contrast to his vanilla, team-oriented answers. "To make the fans cheer again, instead of booing. It's a great motivation. There's a lot of history here on Long Island, so hopefully we can turn things around and get fans back on our side again, because we're not going anywhere without them. We need their support."