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By Mark D, June 23, 2011 10:21 pm

Well, the end of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the awards have been announced and the draft is a few days away. Then it’s going to be time to start scraping the bottom of the barrel for anything to do with hockey news. For Islander fans it’s been “Is It October Yet” since the second week of April. I don’t think any team is entering the season with more excitement and hope then the Islanders. Finally there are 2 scoring lines, another very promising line and a competent 4th line. Plus the Big Cubano in Net, and hopefully a competent injury defense core, who wouldn’t be excited?

It’s funny, cause I was watching this video that made fun of the Islanders made by a Ranger fan. One of the things he mentioned was how long it had been since the Isles made the playoffs. But I think the reality of the situation is I’d rather be the Islanders missing the playoffs then the Rangers barely making it. The last three years they’ve barely been able to scratch their way into playoff contention. The two years they did make it, they lost to the Capitals. Infamously they are the only team to lose to an Ovechkin team.

That’s as good as the Rangers are going to be these next few years. They’ll probably continue bringing in overpaid stars to keep the ship afloat. But they will never be considered Cup Contenders, unless something crazy happens. Meanwhile the end point for the Islanders isn’t just making the playoffs. It isn’t just about patting themselves on the back for slipping into the playoffs. It’s about winning the Cup and being a Cup Contender. That’s why I don’t mind the struggles and the growing pains because at the end of the day it will all be worth it.

Truthfully I can’t think of the last time when a team spent a ton of money to win a championship and it worked. This isn’t just talking about Hockey either. With the exception of Baseball (and even then there are surprises) it seems like going out and spending money hand over fist is just asking for things to go wrong. Obviously it has gone wrong time and again for the Rangers, who have to move Drury, hide Redden’s contract, and now have to hope that Gabornik returns to form. That doesn’t sound like a good bunch of things to hope for.

Meanwhile the Islanders have a bunch of young kids who just have to continue getting better, and the playoffs shouldn’t be a reach. That’s why I’m excited about the future, because every season is going to be about how much better can these kids get?

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By Mark D, May 21, 2011 9:49 pm

I consider myself a connoisseur of bad NHL trades. Especially with the time I have spent breaking down Milbury trades. Now in my opinion, nothing was worse then the Olli Jokinen/Roberto Luongo for Mark Parrish/Oleg Kvasha. Jokinen and Luongo both became All-Stars, while Parrish and Kvasha did almost nothing. But the standing notion is that the worst NHL trade in history is the Lindros trade to the Flyers for Forsberg  and a handful of prospects/picks. The common stance is that while the Avs became an elite team and won Multiple Cups, the Flyers only made the Stanley Cup Finals once and were swept by the Red Wings.

I think this is horribly slanting things against the Flyers. Lindros made them an elite team and had some great seasons. Unfortunately the failing of the Flyers was the always changing situation in Net. While the Sabres had Dominik Hasek, the Rangers had Richter, The Pens had Barasso, the Caps had Kolzig, the Panthers had Beezer, the Devils had Brodeur, the Leafs had Potvin and Joseph, and so on. While the east seemed to be overflowing with elite goalies, the Flyers were alone in not having a really great goalie. Now while Hextall was good, his time had passed. At the same time Snow, Boucher and the other Flyers goalies were good but not that good. It’s not surprising that in a period of time in which the league seemed to rely on clutch and grab and top goaltending, that the Flyers struggled.

But the Flyers still managed to make a good run of things. Meanwhile the Avs managed to fleece Patrick Roy, widely considered the best goalie in the league, who became the cornerstone of their runs to the Cup. One can only imagine what might have happened if Roy was playing for the Flyers instead of Snow for the season they made it to the Finals.

How do the two teams line up? It’s time for a breakdown of their standings from 92-93 to 99-00

92-93
Nordiques 47-27-10 104 .619 Lost in Round 1
Flyers 36-37-11 83 .494 out of playoffs

93-94
Nordiques 34-42-8 76 .452 Out of Playoffs
Flyers 35-39-10 80 .476 Out Of Playoffs

95
Nordiques 30-13-5 65 .677 Lost in Round 1
Flyers 28-16-4 60 .625 Lost in Round 3

95-96
Nordiques 47-25-10 104 .634 Won Cup
Flyers 45-24-13 107 .628 Lost in Round 2

96-97
Avalanche 49-24-9 107 .652 Lost in Round 3
Flyers 45-24-13 103 .628 Lost in Finals

97-98
Avalanche 39-26-17 95 .579 Lost in Round 1
Flyers 42-29-11 95 .579 Lost in Round 1

98-99
Avalanche 44-28-10 98 .598 Lost in Round 3
Flyers 37-26-19 94 .567 Lost in Round 1

99-00
Avalanche 42-28-11-1 96 .585 Lost in Round 3
Flyers 45-22-12-3 105 .640 Lost in Round 3

For much of Lindros’ time with the Flyers they were pretty much on an even footing with the Avs. But the goaltending struggles is obviously the difference here. For an Example, here’s Patrick Roy’s save percentages in the playoffs for the Avs: .921 .932 .906 .920 .928

In Comparison here’s Hextall’s playoff save percentages:
.904 .915 .892
Boucher’s:
.917
Snow’s
.892
Beezer:
.938

Look, if you put Roy on the Flyers, they are probably just as dominate as the Avs were. The thought that the Lindros to the Flyers trade is “One of the worst” in NHL History is overblown. Both teams joined the elite of their conference not too long after the trade. The rise of the Nordiques was long in coming as they were bad for years before. It ignores all their drafts (including the addition of Joe Sakic) and movements of their own to get better.  The Lindros deal in the end was basically Forseberg for Lindros. There were a lot of spare pieces, and the draft picks became Fiset and Baumgartner.

For a trade to be truly bad, it should dam near destroy one team and make another a powerhouse. Head to Head the Flyers matched the Avs/Nords almost every season. The difference was Roy in net. Had the Flyers ever had an answer to the struggles in net they probably would have won at least 1 Cup. There’s nothing in this trade that says if the Flyers don’t trade for Lindros they win the Cup instead. If anything they might have finished even worse then they did.

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By Mark D, December 8, 2010 10:52 am

It was almost exactly a decade since the last time I saw an Islanders home game. I got to see Kevin Weekes backstop the Isles to an overtime loss on Martin Luther King Day back in 2000. It was great to see all the banners and to see the old barn at least one more time before it possibly gets torn down. Thanks to Dom from LHH for the tickets, we were almost close enough that we could taunt Boucher.

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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, June 7, 2010 4:35 pm

So I’ve been a fan of the Islanders since the 93 season (When I was all of 12 years old).  To this point it’s still the highlight of my following the Islanders.  When I moved in with my current roomie, it was during the Flyers run behind Biron to the Conference Finals. It was amazing, as the Flyers basically turned around one of the worst teams in the league the season before to one of the final four. It’s amazing that teams like the Devils and the Red Wings have been good for so long. The Blackhawks took one shot at rebuilding (once their penny pinching owner died) and managed to make a cup contender. Yet since 93 there have been quite a few rebuilding efforts by the Islanders.

Rebuilding #1

GM: Don Maloney
Began: When Maloney traded for Kirk Muller, trading popular center Pierre Turregon. He proclaimed that the league was heading towards a period of Defense first, and that defensive forward Muller was an improvement over recently hurt Pierre.
Ended: When Maloney was fired because Muller refused to play for the Islanders.
Pros: We did get Eric Fichaud
Cons: Everything else about Maloney. Also this opened the door for mental midget Mike Milbury

Rebuilding #2

GM: Mike Milbury
Began: When Milbury was promoted to replace Maloney. He promised a five year plan which would have us in Cup Contention by 00/01.
Ended: When Milbury ran out of patience and traded Bertuzzi and McCabe for Trevor Linden to “Win Now”. He also fired Rick Bowness and put himself behind the bench. The team proceeded to collapse and miss the playoffs.
Pros: Nothing wrong term. Anyone from this rebuilding/period was traded or dumped.
Cons: The win now mentality also included the trade of Berard for Potvin and other short term deals.

Rebuilding #3

GM: Mike Milbury
Began: The trading of Linden for a 1st round pick in 99, the first of 3 such picks added to the Islanders pick that year.
Ended: Take your pick, either the deal of Conolly and Pyatt for Micheal Peca or Chara and a first rounder for Yashin.
Pros: We did get 4 first rounders in 99, considered one of the all time weakest drafts.
Cons: Once again Milbury lost patience and dealt a bunch of youth for Vets who were just good enough to win a handful of playoff games. Worst of all the Isles are still paying for Yashin.

Rebuilding #4

GM: Garth Snow
Began: When Nolan was replaced with Scott Gordon, DiPietro couldn’t recover and Ryan Smyth decided to go elsewhere.
Ended: Not yet
Pros: Garth has shown patience so far and the ability to find surprising FAs. Home growns Kyle Okposo, Josh Bailey and John Tavares, along with surprise pickups Matt Moulson, Mark Streit and Rob Schremp have show potential.
Cons: None yet

So in 17 years of watching the Islanders, they’ve announced rebuilding 4 separate times. That means on average every 4 years there’s a fresh group of players who are finally supposed to lead us to the promised land. This might almost be more re buildings then every team in NY during the same time line combined. Although the Mets with their “Generation K” might come close. Here’s to next year!