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By Mark D, October 24, 2012 5:30 pm

(I started writing this over the summer and had been meaning to finish it. It’s not done, but given Today’s News, I transferred it here from LHH since it never would have been published.)

It’s easy to say that the leaders of the Town of Hempstead, specifically Kate Murray, have acted as though the Islanders are hostages to the towns whims. Even with the threat of the team moving, and plenty of areas across North America more then willing to embrace a hockey team, the idea seems foreign to these people. Even more, they just seem indifferent to what a professional sports team brings to an area. Let’s speak truthfully, if the Islanders do move, Long Island will never see another major sports team in the area.

With the lockout taking out the pre-season, and so far threatening to take out more of the season, maybe these politicians can finally wake up. I was under the impression that although the lockout was cancelling games, the Coliseum and surrounding area would still have other events. But I was informed on twitter by a few area bartenders that their best customers were Islander fans showing up before and after games. Also a look at the events currently scheduled at the Coliseum, there are 5 events between now and February. This is not going to help cover the gap for the lockout, this is the closest to a taste of the team moving Hempstead will get.

The Islanders were next to last in average attendance last season at 13,191. That comes to almost 550,000 people. Of course since attendance is calculated by tickets sold and not the actual at game attendance, that number is a bit inflated. Even so, let’s say 7,000 on average truly came to a game last season. Without even figuring out the amount of money those people might spend in the Coliseum and lost taxes, let’s just say they spend on average 5 dollars in the area. That’s 35,000 dollars lost to local business a night. Over the course of a season that would be almost a million and a half dollars lost to local business.

At this point it should be mentioned that Nassau County had it’s finances taken over by the state. This is not a county that can afford to be losing any money at this point. I’m sure my rough calculations don’t come close to the true amount that is going to be lost to the area.

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By Mark D, September 9, 2012 7:34 am

The latest incarnation of Madden saw the absolute gutting of one of the most popular features, franchise mode. That EA would destroy something considered one of the core aspects of the Madden game, shouldn’t surprise anyone who has been following the series. The reality is that Madden doesn’t like giving you the ability to edit rosters, or play multiple seasons on the same copy. They want you to sim and re-sim the one season they give you, and that’s it.  Otherwise you might not have a reason to pick up the next years roster update version of the game.

Madden had to be dragged kicking and screaming to add a franchise mode to the game. Since at the time they were actually trying to get PC sales of the game too, they had to respond to the success/critical acclaim of Dynamix’s Front Page Sports Football.  The game had not just a franchise mode, but allowed you to edit just about everything you could think of. It would allow you to setup anything from a 4 to 32 team league.  That there are still people playing FPS Football online today should tell you of the high esteem it’s held in.

But that’s part of the problem for EA. If people like a version of a game and can edit stuff, why are they going to buy the next edition? It doesn’t matter that for some reason people are sheep and buy Madden year after year. Seemingly with the game making hardly any year to year changes. You would think that Madden losing a monopoly lawsuit would turn them off to some people, but the Madden series is able to just keep trucking.

The sad thing is that as long as EA controls the rights to the NFL, there’s not much anyone can do about it. Most people agree that NFL 2K5 (Sega’s last release) was better then Madden at a cheaper launch price. The last 3-4 years though it seems there is something that upsets fans of the Madden series. Big changes that are relatively hidden under good PR from EA. Stuff that will be forgotten next year when the “latest and greatest” from the Madden series comes out. All the reviewers will give it huge ratings and promise you that THIS is the Madden that will solve all the previous problems.

Just talking about it makes me want to download Front Page Sports and give it another run through. It’s been years, but I remember how much fun I had printing out all the player ratings (and this was before the Overall Stat) and debating what was better to add to my roster. I would sim games instead of coaching them, so I had to draft well. It’s probably sad on some level that some of my favorite childhood memories are from the video games I played.

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By Mark D, August 10, 2012 2:23 pm

Let me say, I’ve never liked Gary Bettman. I hated the changes he made to both the playoffs and the renaming of the conferences and divisions. Most of all he’s the only commissioner who has presided over two work stoppages, and is now on the verge of the hat trick of lock outs. After the last lockout the NHL was supposed to be dead in the water. It took a few years, but the league is finally back on track and stronger then ever. Yet despite this, Bettman has said without a new CBA deal the owners will lock out.

Look, the NHL doesn’t make nearly as much as the NFL, but even they were able to agree that making money > lock out. This CBA has been good for the league for the most part (don’t get me started on the constantly rising salary cap/floor), and it shouldn’t be insane to think that the owners can’t work under the current CBA while negotiating a new one. What is really so hard about this deal? Didn’t the league get set back enough by losing a whole season? I realize this time they have the NHL on NBC deal, unlike the in the air ESPN deal, but it’s ridiculous.

Play the game, make bundles of money, and then figure out how to fix the CBA. It’s not a crazy idea. The worst thing is most of the proposals I hear are rules to keep the owners from shooting themselves in the foot. For example the not longer then 5 year contracts. It’s not because there are contracts out there circumventing the cap, but instead because a lot of these players quickly become dead weight while just a few years into the contract. There’s ways to fix the cap circumventing without limiting contracts to 5 years. If long term deals are that bad, the owners should just stop giving them out.

Bettman already has a mixed history, among other things the constant moving around of teams. The lockouts, destruction of history, moving around small town franchises and the Coyotes are all part of an amazing journey.  I can not possibly think of something worse for the NHL today then another lockout.  If they really are planning to go into a lockout, there are probably accounting students in community colleges that could explain to Bettman why that’s a bad idea.

Oh hockey, I love you, but why do you taunt me so? I’m an Islanders fan and have gotten 20 years of insanity for one good run to the conference finals. You then gave me back to back years of the Red Wings and Penguins, two teams I could not hate more. It seems like every team I cheer for in the playoffs gets beaten. Then you let the Rangers add Rick Nash to their roster, without having a huge injury to one of their other stars. Hockey, you are a cruel mistress.

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By Mark D, July 21, 2012 9:54 pm

Growing up as a fan of the New York Mets, and eventually becoming a fan of the Jets, Knicks and Islanders, I was used to a shitty decade sports wise. The 90s were pretty bad for 3 of the 4 teams. The Knicks were the exception, especially once Jordan retired for a bit to try Basketball. Knicks fans will always be haunted by John Starks inability to sink a basket in Game 6 of the Finals against the Rockets. We don’t talk about his Game 7.

The Knicks seemed to be going downhill in 99 when they went on one of the most incredible runs, taking down the hated Miami Heat as an 8th Seed, then taking out the Pacers to reach the Finals. Sure they were taken out by the Spurs in 5 games in the finals, but the future looked bright. Then the team was mismanaged by GM Layden, only to be taken over by the even more grossly incompetent Isiah Thomas.

There are not enough words to describe what Thomas did to the Knicks. Not only was he a bad GM and a bad Coach, but he embarrassed the organization with a sex scandal. But even that wasn’t enough to get him fired and finally NBA Commissioner David Stern stepped in and forced Owner James Dolan to replace Thomas with the amazing Donnie Walsh. Walsh finally slowly but surely cleared the Knicks of crappy contracts, hoping to eventually bring in LeBron James.

This hope though fell short, but the Knicks became a better team and managed to pick up Amare Stouduamire and were looking like a possible playoff team under Mike D’Antonio and a bunch of promising youngsters. But this wasn’t enough for Dolan, who wanted his shiny new toy. He forced the team to gut itself in order to trade for Carmelo Anthony who was going to be a free agent anyway.  The Knicks went 13-13 after the trade, following a 28-26 start without him. The Nuggets went 17-7 without Carmelo.

This season Carmelo openly argued with Coach D’Antoni as the team went 29-36 with him in the lineup. Eventually everything between Anthony and D’Antoni came to a head, and D’Antoni said it was either him or Anthony. So now D’Antoni, one of the better coaches the team has had who has worked the team back to respectability is gone. Walsh eventually left because he never wanted to make the Carmelo deal.

Finally a Miracle falls into the Knicks laps in the name of Jeremy Lin. Injuries force him to start, and he ends up being one of the best stories of the year. It got to the point that he got Knicks fans more excited about the team then they have been in years. The stocks for MSG shoot up for the first time in years. The Knicks went 20-15 before Lin went down to an injury, and were 4-4 in games in which he played less then 10 minutes.

Now Lin was going to become a Restricted Free Agent, but what’s that matter to Dolan who was spending hand over fist for the last Decade and paying for all of Isiah Thomas’ mistakes while keeping him around? Apparently everything. The Knicks decided to let him go out and get offers from other teams to figure out “His Value” and then are somehow shocked when he goes out and signs an offer from another team.

But hey, that shouldn’t matter, the Knicks have a chance to match that offer. Money has never been a thing for Dolan. But apparently not this one time. Nope, obviously at this point Dolan considers the fans someone he can piss all over and ignore. It’s his toy and he’s going to play with it how he wants to play with it. Celebrities and corporations don’t help things when they pay for insanely overpriced seats that keep Dolan rolling in the money.

It makes me sick that it seems like the Islanders, a good organization that seems to try to do right gets pissed all over. But the Knicks are the Knicks and apparently free for the most part from greater scrutiny. Not signing Lin is one of the worst moves the Knicks have made and they don’t even have a real excuse for doing it.

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By Mark D, July 2, 2012 4:41 pm

1996 was during that time when Quebec Goaltenders were the hottest thing going. Everyone was looking for the next Roy. Unfortunately in the 96 draft they pretty much got everything but Roy. How bad was it? After talking with Keith, we both considered Steve Valliquette the second best goalie taken in the draft. So who were the goalies taken and what did they do? Let’s take a look.

Round 1, 23rd Overall
Craig Hillier
He played a total of 47 games across 2 seasons in the AHL, with a save percentage of .871. Went on to play for 4 different ECHL teams during which time he posted an even worse SV%.  Played in the UHL and CHL in 03-04 before leaving hockey.

Round 2, 44th Overall
Mathieu Garon
Well I mentioned Big Valley was the 2nd best goalie taken in the draft. Garon is easily the best goalie taken, considering he has 323 NHL games played . It took almost 10 years for him to make the NHL, but he has mostly been a backup or splitting starts with someone since then. He also got a Cup Ring playing with the Penguins.

Round 2, 50th Overall
Francis Larivee
After finishing his career in the QMJHL, he played 47 games across 3 seasons in the AHL, mostly posting a sub .900 SV%.  Played another 50 games in the ECHL across 2 seasons before ending his career after the 00-01 season.

Round 2, 52nd Overall
Aren Miller
After leaving the OHL, Miller proceeded to play 60ish games for the AHL, ECHL and IHL across 3 seasons. His one game in the IHL was promising, but otherwise he continued with a sub .900 SV% like he had during his time in the OHL. Called it quits after 2 seasons in the CHL.

Round 3, 55th Overall
Terry Friesen
Played a total of 8 AHL games, largely bouncing around the WCHL, ECHL, SPHL and UHL. Although he had a .909 SV% during his final 7 game AHL stint, he regressed the following year in the WCHL with an .879 SV%. In 04 and 05 he improved to an above 900 SV% in each season before leaving hockey. Interesting Footnote, he was drafted one pick before Zdeno Chara.

Round 3, 74th Overall
David Weninger
After graduating from college, Weninger played with Hillier at Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton the Penguins affiliate.  He played 25 games with a .879 SV%. He also played 6 ECHL games that year, before leaving hockey. He was goalie coach for a season at St Cloud State in 04-05.

Round 4, 83rd Overall
Tyrone Garner
He played 3 NHL games for the Flames as an emergency callup from his OHL team. He was sent back to the AHL the following season, played 19 games with an .874 SV%. He bounced around a few ECHL teams, played one more AHL game before going to Europe for a year, and then 2 years in the SPHL.

Round 4, 107th Overall
Randy Petruk
Played 1 AHL game after Jrs in 98-99. Proceeded to bounce around the ECHL and IHL between 98-99 and 01-02. Finally got a chance in 02-03 playing 30 AHL games and a .917 SV%, but never got back up to those heights and finished his career in the ECHL.

Round 5, 124th Overall
Per-Ragnar Berqkvist
Never came to North America. Played 30 games in his draft year and then played a total of 34 games over the next 3 years.

Round 5, 135th Overall
Michal Pdolka
Played 3 years in Jrs. Played in the UHL and CHL for 3 seasons before returning to Europe and playing there for 2 seasons in the Czech league.

Round 6, 137th Overall
Michel Larocque
Another player who ended up playing on the WB/S Penguins with Wenninger and Hillier. He made the NHL the following season as a member of the Blackhawks and most likely an emergency callup as he played 3 games with an .847 SV%. Played 35 games the following season in the AHL before retiring.

Round 6, 139th Overall
Robert Esche
Okay, when I originally looked over the draft I must have missed Esche, who actually won the William Jennings trophy along with Roman Chechmanek in 02-03. In 8 seasons he played a total of 186 NHL games though. I apologize to Esche who obviously had a better career then Valiquette.

Round 6, 143rd Overall
Aaron Baker
After finishing his Jrs career, he went back to school. Never played Pro hockey.

Round 6, 147th Overall
Nolan McDonald
Was drafted after playing 2 games in college. Left college to go to Juniors. Barely played in Jrs. Bounced around the lower leagues (ECHL) before finding a long term home in the German Leagues. Last played in the DEL in 08-09 for 3 games.

Round 6, 149th Overall
Blaine Russel
After Jrs he played for 3 ECHL teams in a season, along with 20 games in the AHL. He got one more 2 game stint in the AHL before mostly being relegated to the ECHL, CHL and SEHL. His career mostly consists of sub .900 SV%.

Round 6, 159th Overall
Stephen Wagner
After graduating from the University of Denver, he largely spent his career in the CHL playing 53 games before retiring.  Never had a sv% above .900.

Round 6, 160th Overall
Kai Fischer
European who never came over to North America.

Round 7, 165th Overall
J.R. Prestifilippo
After graduating from Harvard, never played above the ECHL level. Out of hockey after 01-02.

Round 7, 166th Overall
Eoin McInerney
After Jrs  he bounced around the minor minor leagues till 05-06. Never even reached the ECHL level.

Round 8, 190th Overall
Steve Valiquette
Got a taste of the NHL level with a .949 SV% after graduating JRs and playing a year in the ECHL. He wouldn’t become an NHL backup until another decade later, during a 4 year stint with the Rangers backing up the Queen.

Round 8, 209th Overall
Denis Khlopotnov
In 98-99 he played 30 games in the UHL with an .890 SV%. Returned to Russia after that.

Round 9, 221st Overall
John Hultberg
After leaving Jrs, played 2 ECHL games and mostly played in the CHL. Out of hockey after 99-00.

Round 9, 222nd Overall
Scott Buhler
After leaving Jrs, played 28 pro games in the ECHL and CHL, out of hockey after 99-00.

So that’s 23 goalies drafted, 6 played in the NHL. Two of them basically had emergency callup stints (Garner, Larocque) and only 2 of them could be considered starters at some point in their career (Esche and Garon). Of course this goalie close does have a Jennings trophy winner and a Stanley Cup Ring. But this easily has to be one of the worst draft classes ever.