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By Mark D, January 3, 2012 9:20 pm

(Wrote this up for LHH, but then decided to switch it over here as everyone at LHH had a “get out the anger on Snow” day)

With the Islanders on nearly the same points pace as last year, just without the one win November, fans are left trying to figure out what has gone wrong. A promising end to last season had some of us hoping for more, at the very least the team being within striking distance of a playoff appearance. Instead the Islanders are closer to the first overall pick. While that isn’t particularly bad for the future, that three years into John Tavares’ already phenomenal career the team is back where it started is worrying.

It’s currently not out of the realm of possibility that the Islanders will have less then 25 wins this season. If they do it will be the first time since the 00-01 team finished with just 21 wins. Disregarding the lockout shortened 95 season, the Islanders have finished below 25 wins a total of 6 times, with 4 of those seasons being in the early half of the Milbury regime. It shouldn’t come as a surprise then that this Islanders team shares a similar problem of those teams.

Parade Of The Retreads

With the infusion of Charles Wang’s cash, Milbury was quick to predict the 00-01 team would make the playoffs or it would be his head. Bringing in a well past his prime John Vanbreisbrouck who had struggled with a good Flyers team in front of him along with former Bruin Garry Galley did little to cover the multitude of problems with the team. Garry Galley was just one of several former Bruins Milbury had coached and brought in well past their prime for one last try at re-capturing the magic of his cup run.

While we all applaud Snow for his willingness to rebuild the team and actually see the rebuild through, the reliance on older players who can no longer get it done until the absolute last moment is worrying. Two seasons ago it was giving Brendan Witt half a season before finally packing it in. This year it’s the play of Mike Mottau, Mark Eaton, Marty Reasoner and Brian Rolston.

While the Islanders might not have a choice due to the salary floor when it comes to Rolston, and Eaton can be a passable 6/7 defenseman, Mottau and Reasoner are sticking out like sore thumbs. What’s even worse about the decision making when involved when it comes to Eaton, Mottau and Reasoner is that all 3 were given two year contracts. So despite their struggles, they were kept around while better alternatives were let go.

Right now I don’t think anyone in the NHL would take Eaton or Mottau over Jack Hillen. Despite his common position as conductor of the scrapewagon, I’m sure most Islander fans would even prefer Bruno Gervais back over Mottau or Eaton. Obviously there are a limited amount of contracts that you can have, and the Islanders had to clear space for the incoming young dmen in BP.

Which also comes to Reasoner. No, I’m not about to argue that the Islanders should have kept Zenon Konpoka over Reasoner. But that the team seemed to be unaware of how close David Ullstrom was to being an NHL player is worrying. Much like the situation with Gervais and Hillen, the team decided to go with what should have been known quantities and the safe route in Eaton and Mottau. Reasoner was the safe route going into the season, but now that he’s being outplayed by Ullstrom, the Islanders are stuck with a 2 year deal on another older player.

One of the problems the organization has had for as long as I’ve been a fan is deciding when a player is ready for the big show. During the Milbury regime the problem was that guys were thrown into the fire far too quickly, and then blamed when they struggled. Now Snow seems to be taking it to the other extreme. Instead of replacing older guys who are struggling to keep up with the game, they are given every chance to keep their job. Meanwhile this seems to be at the expense of the youth, who are only given a chance as a last resort.

Two years ago Andrew MacDonald played great in a 2 game stint as an emergency callup for Brendan Witt who was hurt. Eventually MacDonald got the callup long term to replace the struggling Witt. But had Witt not been hurt, you have to wonder if MacDonald would still be an Islander today. He was in his final season of his ELC, and might have easily been ignored by the team.

This year you have to wonder what it would take for Ty Wishart to get a look before he becomes a free agent at the end of the year. Or what more the team might expect out of Dylan Reese as a callup? He did everything that could be expected out of him and was a breath of fresh air compared to Eaton and Mottau. Even if Wishart is struggling in the AHL, the Islanders have already have experience with a player who was struggling in the AHL but turned it around in the NHL (Montoya).

Right now the team is already one of the worst in the league. It’s almost not possible for them to become any worse then they currently are. It shouldn’t be surprising that last year the team turned the corner when James Wisniewski, Eaton, Mottau and Jon Sim were all dumped in favor of youth. There is no reason then that this team should be doing worse then last year with the additions of Al Montoya and Evgeni Nabokov along with the return of Mark Streit and Kyle Okposo. Since we aren’t going to blame Cappy yet, the buck has to stop at Snow.

It’s a tough position Snow came into as GM of the team, and if you don’t believe that Wang has opened the purse strings, then it’s even tougher. It’s not his fault free agents don’t want to come to the team. Who knows what might have been if Christian Erhroff had decided to sign here. But at the same time the moves he’s made this off-season have the team somehow standing still.

As this season floats closer to being lost, there is no danger in giving some of the kids a try in the NHL. No matter how much time any of them spend in the AHL, they are going to make mistakes at the NHL level. You might as well have them up here making mistakes now, then when it really matters.

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By Mark D, October 31, 2010 5:00 am

Wow, I think I just got out of a time machine from my last Islanders game. When I got my car I started going to a bunch of Islanders games cause they sucked and people would give away free tickets. When I say they sucked, I really mean sucked. The 99-00 Campaign for the Islanders is one of the top five worst seasons they’ve had. But free tickets meant I could buy pizza at the game. The team was so cheap they wouldn’t hire ushers for the game, so when I did buy tickets I would just sneak down.

Well the Islanders got totally thrashed by the Flyers. It looked like a Stanley Cup finalist facing off against a bottom five team. But oh well, I got to try out my new Islanders cap, got to see Frans’ Backhand of Doom and got to partially see a bunch of fights. I think cheering when Gillies pushed over Briere was when the guy next to me had enough. He started yelling that the Islanders should leave and take their bum fans with them. Screw you guy, that’s just giving me more incentive to yell.

So I had a great time, thanks to my awesome awesome awesome roommate who when given a choice between games to go to purposely choose the Islanders game. Without further ado here’s my pictures from the game and two poorly done videos.

The second vid is just me taping Flyers fans who are going nuts with a minute left, the Islanders down by 5 and no chance to come back.

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By Mark D, February 7, 2010 4:51 pm

I’m going to make this somewhat short and sweet. The Islanders success last month is now a double edged sword. People were/are unwilling to admit that this was an over achieving team. Short memory also means that most people forget how bad this season started off in September/October. I’m not worried, if the team is going to get cold then its better to get cold in February then in April. Just ask last year’s Penguins how that works.

But people seem to be really down on Scott Gordon. I just wanted to say at the very least he deserves one more year if not two. First off, you can throw last year’s team away. Not only was it his first season, but everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I still wonder why on earth Dubie wasn’t brought back as a backup. This season the Islanders have been impressive for large periods of time, especially for a team that was considered by many to be the worst in the league. The other bright spot for the Islanders this year? The continued development of prized prospects Bailey, Okposo, Tavares along with the breaking out of Schremp and Moulson. Also factor in two players were considered marginal NHL replacements, MacDonald and Kohn, have played well enough to displace Witt. You memory doesn’t have to be that good to remember 10-15 years ago and all our prospects who did horrible on the Island and great elsewhere.

Another reason to keep Gordon is stability. I say the same thing about the Jets, during the time I’ve been a Jets fan it seems like every 3-4 years we get a new coach. Meanwhile the Giants have been to two Super Bowls and a contender while only hiring 3 coaches during the same period. There’s something to be said of having a coach for more then just two seasons. I think recent Islander history shows so much.

From 1972 to 1994 (22 years) the Islanders won 4 Stanley Cups, made it to Five Finals and over 200 Playoff Games (128 Playoff Wins) with 5 Coaches including Al Arbour Twice.

From 1994 to 2010 (16 years) the Islanders have made the playoffs 4 Times, played a total of 22 Playoff games and 6 Playoff wins. They also have not made it out of the first round.  During this time they have had 12 coaching changes (not including Arbour’s special game) with Lorne Henning and Mike Milbury each having two separate stints.

Gordon was the coach picked by Snow. So far they seem to be working well together.  Snows free agent signings seem to be players who will work the best in Gordon’s system. If you get rid of Gordon now your upsetting the chemistry, possibly upsetting the youth, and worst of all you might be starting from scratch. If you bring in someone and they want players A,B and C, suddenly its a whole new game plan. Quite truthfully as long as the young players continue showing improvement this is going to be a good team and Gordon is a success.

So give Gordon one more year. Let’s see if the youth keeps developing. Let’s see if DiPietro  can return to old form. Let’s see if Snow can get another Moulson/Streit/Schremp level pickup in the offseason. When Milbury was in charge during his first few years there was always signs of insanity lurking in the background. I have faith in Snow which I didn’t before this season. I think Gordon’s the right guy for what Snow is planing, and stability when it comes to coaching is a good thing.

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By admin, April 8, 2009 10:35 am

With it looking more and more likely that the Islanders will have a 50% shot at the #1 pick in the draft, there should be no arguement who the Islanders should take. Tavares should be a complete no brainer.

1. Currently the Isles are on pace to not have a 20 goal scorer this season. Okposo might, but even the previous season they only had two 20 goal scorers who have since been traded.
2. Of the last Five #1 overall picks, three of them could be considered the new face of their franchise (Kane, Crosby, Ovechkin) while Johnson has helped to lead the Blues to a surprising possible playoff birth and Stamkos has managed 43 points this season after a slow start, a number which would put him easily second on the Islanders.
3. The idea of Tavares being the new face of the franchise would help take pressure off of DiPietro and hopefully some of the attention away from his contract.
4. Defenseman, when drafted first overall they tend to turn into reliable but unspectacular defenseman. Only one Dman has been taken first overall this decade. The Islanders also tend to have problems with European draftees getting homesick.
5. Finally, the last time the Isles had the #1 overall pick they went with the surprise pick of DiPietro, passing over Heatley and Gaborik who both have 400 career points now. Lets not pass over another possible Heatley again.

Lets just hope the Islanders continue playing like they did last night against Carolina and get the first overall pick.

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By , January 22, 2009 1:25 am

So it just goes from bad to worse. MacDonald who was showing some talent for the Islanders is down for a while. They finally sign Dubie, and since he had played with KHL he had to go through waivers. Well guess what, since Pascal Leclaire is done for the season, the Bluejackets decided they needed a vetrean backup for Das Wunderkid Mason and grabbed Dubie off of waivers. Its a joke that the Islanders ever let him go. They claimed that he had showed up the previous season out of weight. Meanwhile if you compare his stats to DiPietro’s they almost had the same numbers for the season. There was no reason to let Dubie get away to begin with when you don’t have some solid rookie in the system and when your star starting goalie is coming off of back to back surgeries. Unfortunately I’m starting to get the feeling that Garth Snow might be an even worse GM then Milbury managed to be. At least Milbury had some experince. How many other teams decide that they are going to dump their backup goalie and decide to save money by moving him to the front office?

At least on the bright side, the Islanders supposedly have 15 years left on the Nassau lease, or they can’t get out of the lease till 2015, so they won’t be moving anytime soon. You really can’t blame the fans for not showing up when the starting goalie for the next month is going to be Yann Dennis. He went undrafted, and has over the years only played 6 NHL Games. How come a team like the Devils can lose Broduer and still be in it, but the Islanders lose DiPietro and suddenly they might have Dunham dress to be backup.

I believe it all comes down to this. After signing DiPietro to a 15 year contract, they didn’t want anyone to ever challenge DiP to become the starter. They let Dubie go because they were worried that he might push DiP. They haven’t drafted anyone early enough (you’d figure 4th round would be good for a backup at least) to make their way up through the ranks to become a backup. They had signed DiP, and that was it. Come hell or high water they weren’t going to sign ANYONE else to be their goalie.