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By Mark D, April 10, 2013 1:10 am

So with the Islanders getting closer and closer to a playoff birth, I thought it might be interesting to look around the web and see where the Isles were predicted to finish at the start of the season.

ESPN Season Starting Power Rank has them in 27th, behind Calgary and Edmonton.

SBN Season Preview the Atlantic Preview written by some hack had them in last.

CBS Sports Season Preview had the Islanders finishing dead last in the East

The Hockey News had them in dead last in the East

Puck Daddy Atlantic Preview had them in Last

NBC Pro Hockey Talk had some great quotes about the Isles:

2. Which team will finish last overall?

JB: New York Islanders. Glaring weaknesses in all areas.

MH: Columbus Blue Jackets. The Central Division is loaded; they’re going to get slaughtered.

RD: Columbus Blue Jackets. I hate being predictable, but I can’t think of anyone even remotely close to CBJ.

JY: New York Islanders. The rest of their division is a meat grinder and they’re ridiculously young.

JOB: Columbus Blue Jackets. On paper, it doesn’t get much worse.

Sports Illustrated Atlantic preview had them finishing last

And their first power rankings of the season had them in 28th

Looking back at this, the greatest irony for me is how many people mentioned Rick DiPietro’s injuries while ignoring that Nabokov is on the roster. Also they felt fine predicting a big season for the Flyers despite Bryz’s insanity.

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By Mark D, December 20, 2012 6:47 pm

And I’m sure I’m not alone. The Tebow maniacs quickly descended upon Jets fans once the trade was made, leaving the carcass of the Bronco’s alone. It shouldn’t be too surprising that a team like the Bronco’s is dominating the league right now after upgrading from Tebow to a psychically limited Peyton Manning. Last season as they won 7 of 9 games from October 20th on, they needed 3 OTs and only won one game by more then 1 TD (against the hapless Raiders). With a real QB, they have been pretty dominant for the season.

First off, there’s the hype machine. I’ve seen QBs win a ton of games and then just disappear when it came to the pros, Danny Wuerffel, Eric Couch, Colt McCoy, the list goes on. Sure some of them get a chance in the NFL, but most of them just disappear after a few seasons. I saw the great Charlie Ward decide on basketball instead of football, despite being one of the best QB’s I’ve ever seen, all because he was too short. There were people arguing that Ward might not even be drafted if he went into the NFL draft.

So what’s the difference? Well Tebow reeks of the great white hope. An outspoken christian playing for a southern team. Also don’t forget that following Tebow’s winning of the Heisman as a Sophmore (first ever) ESPN agreed to a new TV contract with the SEC. So it’s in ESPN’s best interest to hype up SEC schools as much as possible for their ratings. Other then Tom Brady, I’ve never seen someone so overhyped by the talking heads at ESPN. All for the almighty dollar and the ratings.

When Tebow doesn’t play, all you hear are excuses, excuses and more excuses. In Denver the only reason Tebow got a chance over the 2nd string Brady Quinn was because Elway was sick of his obnoxious fans. John Fox got things to work just right for them to back into the playoffs and beat a reeling Steelers team. Even after spending a first round pick on him, Tebow was never the future for the team, and nothing made it more obvious then how hard the Broncos went after Manning.

Now he’s in New York, and was really nothing more then a publicity stunt. Yet Tebow still thinks he deserves to play, because you know, he’s Tebow. Here’s a shocker for you Tebow, I’ve seen far better QBs, you know ones that could actually read an NFL Defense, never get a chance to play. Just ask Jeff Blake how that worked out for him? It also isn’t surprising your being skipped over, given your poor performances in practice.

The funny thing is, I’ve seen plenty of players on the Jets work their ass off and work their way up the depth chart. One of the most famous Jets ever, Wayne Chrebet, started training camp 12th on the Jets Depth chart. But when you show up time and time again to practice and fall to show any improvement, why do you deserve a shot to play? Because the Broncos were willing to change their whole offense last year to make up for your faults? That’s not something that’s common in the NFL.

With Tebow seemingly out of the picture, I can’t wait for him to be gone and his clueless dittoheadESPN fans to be gone too. The guy was never as good as ESPN tried to paint him as. He will never be as good as the hype. If you find yourself more a fan of Tebow then watching football, then I’m willing to bet you’ve never watched football before. The Tebow led Broncos were one of the most boring teams for 90% of the game, and then Tebow would scramble in the 4th quarter and do just enough for them to win.

It also doesn’t help that since the Jets were unwilling to play Tebow, ESPN and a lot of other talking heads who just follow suit have been mocking the team. Guess what ESPN, no matter how much you want to pressure the Jets, call them losers, mock them as a circus, you can’t tell them who to play. I’m glad the Jets stuck with Sanchez, if for no other reason then because ESPN has been screaming for him to be benched since game 4.

I hope Tebow disappears after this season. I hope he ends up in the CFL, which given how much ESPN covers the CFL it might as well be Siberia. The great irony would be if Tim Tebow goes to the CFL and ESPN starts showing highlights from CFL games. At that point you have to admit ESPN is insanely desperate to make Tebow into something bigger, and find a way to force people to think it was the coaches and not ESPN that was wrong about Tebow.

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By Mark D, November 28, 2012 7:43 pm

First off, I’m a weird fellow. For some reason I save nearly all the pics and screengrabs I use on here. Today I happened to be looking for a pic, when I stumbled upon a screengrab from an old story about BD Gallof. The great thing about it was that it accidentally contained some tweets which I was too lazy to go digging around for. So let’s get to the article.

Following the announcement (and the leaks of the announcement) that the Islanders were moving to Brooklyn, BD Gallof took to his twitter to toot his own horn that he had called it all along. He tweeted people his old stories (which were only a few months old) and said that he had been calling Brooklyn all along. Let’s say though you happened to have a few screen shots of Gallof’s timeline following the failure of the August 1st Referendum which was the last ditch attempt to keep the team on the Island. What exactly would his timeline say then? Well let’s take a look:

Not sure which one here is better, the “Operate at cap floor and sell in 2015″ or that “The onus is no longer on Wang to keep the team local” (although you can debate whether or not Brooklyn is local, of course I consider it as such).

Nah, the winner in this one is “I think all talk of Queens, Brooklyn, Suffolk all fan manufactured…”. It has since come out that Wang had been talking with Ratner about the move to Brooklyn before the August referendum.

Let’s take a look at the next page of tweets:

The key one on this page of images is the retweet by Ty Anderson. In it Gallof specifically says that Brooklyn is out and that Wang will sell to the highest bidder. Good thing Gallof has those inside sources to give him the real deal.

If Gallof was dealing with any team other then the Islanders, he’d be laughed out. It’s amazing that someone who started with Eklund, another guy who gets it painfully wrong on a regular basis, is able to get away with all this. Gallof is at nearly at the same level as Incarcerated Bob, say the most common sense thing and if that fails, flail. When you can rack up nearly 5,000 tweets in a matter of months, it’s easy to bury when you’ve been wrong.

If your going to claim to have sources inside the organization and news that no one else can get, then occasionally get it right. The tweets I had saved were originally from another post I made in which Gallof claimed Tavares wouldn’t be signed long term due to the Isles losing the referendum. If your going to post your thoughts and opinions on the team, then go ahead and do it. But don’t make up sources, because you should get called on it.

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By Mark D, July 16, 2012 9:10 am

How do you at age 30 end up with all your possessions in a box, living in a dumpy hotel room on Route 309 in Pennsylvania? Quite simply make every wrong possible choice in your life. Have the few times you actually try to help people end up backfiring on you and just about every bit of karmic retribution being leveled down on you. Every time I’ve seen the chance for a somewhat peaceful regular quiet life I’ve gone running from it with hilarious consequences.

I don’t want to get into everyone of my poor life choices, as there are those that are reading that will annoy me. But so far I’ve sort of dated or were flirting with 4 different females who in their next relationship proceeded to get married. It’s weird that I probably have some sort of fear of commitment (my longest job/time at a school/relationship etc are all 3 years) considering that my parents were together until I was 18.

It also doesn’t help that I have a relatively insane gamblers mentality in everything I do. Giving up the known for the unknown is a path I continually take, and continually regret. You’d think at some point I’d learn a lesson, but apparently not. If there anything age has done it’s improved my self filter according to a friend of mine. In the past I would speak my mind no matter what the consequences. I think a lot of people claim they have no “self filter” but they are really jerks, like I was.

I am incredibly self destructive though. I think it’s a self persecution problem. If I’m left to think by myself without any noise or anything to distract me, every horrible moment of my life continually plays in my mind. Everything that went wrong won’t just go away and be forgotten. All I can seemingly ever remember is everything that’s gone wrong, and it haunts me. Thus anything good that happens to me, I don’t think I deserve and slowly but surely I destroy everything good in my life.

It’s probably why at this point in my life I have about 3 friends who would actually help me if I needed it. Probably part of the reason I’m up late right now drinking some lemonade infused vodka and ranting about it on a blog no one will read anyway. Probably part of why I play so many different games and lose track of time. I want to lose myself in the games. I want to be the dictator making decisions, or the mighty warrior striking people down.  Probably another (among multiple) reason that I loved medieval fighting so much. It felt like I was truly alive.

Another problem is that I feel like I am a bit of a split personality. Am I a thuggish brute or an overanalyzing bookworm who likes comedy that makes you think? There are a bunch of ways that I feel like I am an opposite within myself. I’m sure there are ways that doesn’t help my personality either.

I’m rambling and it’s late, so it’s a good idea to publish this.

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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.