Comments (0)

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.

Comments (0)

By Mark D, December 22, 2010 6:04 am

It was a decade ago that the Islanders had their second worst team point wise. During that offseason the Islanders (well Milbury) went on a spending spree to make the Islanders a contender. Gone were a boatload of prospects and young promising players. For one season the Islanders had finally seemed to turn it all around, a 40+ point turn around and the toast of the town.

It was a mirage. The team never returned to those same heights again, and nearly every youngster traded has proven to be worth more then that 1 good season. The Islanders prospect system was stripped so bare that almost nothing remains from the Islanders draftees of those days. They are not only back to square one, but worse off then when they started.

Yet to hear Islander fans talk, you would think they’d give up everything to be competitive for just one season again. Is Mediocrity that great?

There seems to be a misunderstanding of how the NHL works. Despite the Rangers having the leagues highest payroll year in and out while they failed spectacularly, everyone in NY seems to think you can buy a winner in the NHL. For this I blame the Yankees and Mets especially, but the Knicks too.  For whatever reason though, it just doesn’t work like that in hockey. Actually on a regular basis teams that have tried to buy a contender have had it completely backfire nearly every time.

Yet it seems that Islander fans are living in a fantasy world in which a new owner with deep pockets is going to show up, start throwing around money left and right, sign every big name on the FA Market and start winning. Let’s not even get into whether or not players will come to the Isles instead of a contender, or that the new owner would be more then willing to just start spending.

I don’t know anymore. Everyone screams about Parenteau and how the Islanders should have spent more on a winger. Yet one of the wingers who the Islanders could have signed, Frolov, is having a near identical season to Parenteau. Meanwhile Parenteau is making 3 million less.

It seems like everything that has to do with the Islanders now suddenly becomes some crazy conspiracy theory.

Did you hear about Cody Rosen’s dad having something to do with his drafting?

Did you hear that Wang prefers the team to be bad so he has a writeoff?

Or that Wang refuses to spend above the cap floor?

Look, it was one thing when the string of horrible owners were cutting costs in the mid 90s. But now it seems like all these myths could be busted if you took a logical look at the situation. I almost feel like a broken record at this point, but to believe that Wang or Snow want to purposely hurt the Islanders is just silly.

It’s gotten to the point that I want to tell some people to just back away from their computers. Go outside, get a breath of fresh air. Anything to get your mind off of this.

Look, I was critical of Don Maloney, I was critical of Mike Milbury, but did I ever believe they had anything but the best intentions for the team? No. I can sit down and look at a majority of the Milbury trades and put a positive spin on at least what he was trying to accomplish.

The real litmus test will be this offseason. They have to keep Moulson and the other RFAs who are important to the future of the team. There’s almost no reason I can think of for Moulson to leave the Island, unless they offer him an insulting contract. If that happens, and the Islanders struggle to sign Bailey/Okposo, then I’ll admit that I was wrong all along.

But it should be obvious that the future for the Islanders involves Okposo and Bailey and Moulson and Schremp and a few others. The Islanders have the space under the cap to sign them, and Snow has repeatedly said he is given free reign to spend. We’ll find out this offseason who was right.

Comments (2)

By Mark D, November 18, 2010 12:53 pm

I’m actually writing one of my few posts over here on the Islanders because I don’t want to start a flame war anywhere else and I feel like this is marginal news at best. But on some sites you’d think it was the end of the world and part of a huge conspiracy to silence any critics of the Isles. Look, if Scientology which has a whole special organization to chase down it’s critics can’t silence them, I’m pretty sure the Islanders can’t silence critics.

The Islanders pulled Chris Botta’s press creds. Chris Botta is also the man behind Islanderspointblank.com. He had the press creds not for point blank, but for AOL Fanhouse and SNY. The Islanders reasoning behind this from a spokesman who talked to Newsday:

The reasons behind the action are not entirely clear. Team spokesman Kimber Auerbach said, “We funded his blog for the first year. When that changed he went from reporting the news to making the news.”

Auerbach added, “We have not stopped his blog. There are lots of bloggers out there who write from their homes, their couch, outside the arena. He just won’t have access.”

Anyone anywhere can start a blog writing about the Islanders. There are plenty of good Islanders bloggers who don’t have press creds that are able to get along just fine. This reeks more of “I’m going to take my ball and go home” of a six year old. He also knew exactly how some of the more crazy elements of the Islanders fanbase would react. In their minds, behind the scenes Wang and Snow somehow had Islanders Point Blank stopped and it’s part of the grand conspiracy which saw Jaffe get fired for being “too critical” A reason which makes almost no sense, and with the Islanders releasing no reason on why. Newsday claimed that MSG (who broadcasts Islanders games) had a multi-year contract but the Isles have final say and blocked it. The Islanders of course never released any official announcement, and the only source of this rumor is from Newsday (which is owned by the Dolans, who own MSG, the Knicks and Rangers).

Look, if in the long run it comes out that the Islanders had a hand in shutting down IPB and got rid of Jaffe because he was critical, shame on them on a multitude of levels. I just tend not to believe Rumors and Sources when no one is willing to put a name on it. Also the always interesting position of Newsday in all of this, which is owned by the Dolans who own MSG and the Knicks and the Rangers is a bit worrisome. Considering that MSG does almost nothing to advertise the Islander games and seems to find every reason to black them out, why should any Islander fan trust anything coming from Newsday?

The whole situation is a mess. Botta doesn’t exactly help himself when a number of people have seen him steer the comments on the blog via moderation. He might claim to not have control over what people say in his comments, but I’ve talked to plenty of people who are intelligent Islanders fans who see their comment eternally in moderation while the crazier commentators are allowed to run wild. Don’t forget that Botta is a PR Guy at heart, he knows how to play that game.

Update: Botta has re-opened Islanderspointblank.com. Of course one might point out that since the website never came down, it was never really “closed”. Either way, when you look at the situation, it’s a strange series of moves by Botta. He cryptically announces that he has to close IPB and that it’s beyond his control. He then leaves a message at Islandersmania.com about the situation. But Islandersmania has closed registration, meaning if you weren’t signed up for an account there you couldn’t see the post first hand. Now why that post on IM couldn’t have been point on IPB or his Fanhouse page which requires no registration is odd. It means that the story left itself to be twisted as people heard it from secondary sources. On top of it all, during his “Press Tour” Botta admitted as much that he didn’t NEED the Press Credentials to blog on IPB, which is something people (including me) pointed out earlier in this mess.

I’m sorry, but even if the Islanders are wrong, the whole thing comes off as Botta playing up for a story. He goes from well known among the Islanders with some national presence among hockey followers, to a full story on Puck Daddy, a long segment with the big name NYC Sports talker Mike Franseca, an Appearance on the VS show OverTime tonight and he was talked about with Bettman today on the NHL Hour show. He handled it and worked the situation in such a way as to fully benefit himself, without regard to anyone else. To purposely rile up the Islanders fanbase on what is a minor issue and to only serve your own ego is shameful.

There’s one other thing I want to talk about, the Islanders rebuild. With the recent team struggles a lot of people are down about it. But people are missing how badly Mike Milbury left the Islanders prospect wise and how long it takes a prospect to mature.

The Islanders had 42 Draft picks between 2001 and 2005. The most successful picks? Frans Nielsen (3rd Round 2002) Blake Comeau (2nd Round 2004) Chris Campoli (7th Round 2004) and Bruno Gervais (6th Round 2003). It’s not looking good for Comeau right now, or Campoli and Bruno for that matter to have long term NHL careers. All three are struggling currently.

Every single first rounder could be considered a Bust or a Bust for the Islanders. The best of the batch is Sean Bergenheim (2002) who the Islanders let go but managed to catch on with Tampa this year. The other picks? Robert Nilsson (now in Europe), Petteri Nokelaine (in Europe now) Ryan O’Marra (Can’t make the Oilers roster).

So the whole first half of this decade was almost a complete throw away draft wise.

Starting with 2006 (the first post Milbury draft) there was a definite move away from European player and towards High School and young North American prospects. While this has lead to a lot more players in the system, it does take longer to see the results from a draft class.

For reference, only 1 player remains with the Islanders from the 2005 class, Dustin Kohn. O’Marra was part of the Ryan Smyth trade, while the rest were busts.

But the 2006 draft of 13 picks currently has Kyle Okposo and Andrew MacDonald at the NHL level. Jesse Joensuu, Robin Figern, Rhett Rakshani, Tomas Marcinko on the AHL level and Brian Day and Shane Sims are both promising College Seniors.

So while the prospects have been stocked, it’s still going to take more time until a lot of them are ready to play in the NHL full time. Looking at two teams who have recently rebuilt, the Kings and Blackhawks, the drafts of the early 00s definitely helped them.

For example the Kings only have the following players on their roster from drafts starting with 2006:
Jonathon Bernier (backup goalie) (2006 1st Round)
Wayne Simmonds (2007 2nd Round)
Drew Doughty (2008 1st Round)

But from 2001-2005 theres
Jonathon Quick
Dustin Brown
Anze Kopitar
And the Kings were able to deal some of their picks for other pieces.

With the Blackhawks, the only players on the team from 06 and beyond are Kane and Toews. Not exactly chopped meat. But the core of the roster is from the 2001 – 2005 drafts, I’m not going to list every single successful draftee. But it once again shows the amount of time that your facing between drafting players and seeing their effect on an NHL team unless you get a Crosby or Ovechkin.

If your an Islanders fan and your worried about the rebuild, the youngsters are just about on the verge of getting there. There’s obvious talent on the team in Tavares, Okposo, Bailey, Moulson, Streit and Wisniewski. If the Islanders can keep them together while adding the kids from the 06-07-08 draft, the team will turn it around. But you can’t say that this rebuild is a fail already two years in, before the long term prospects start hitting the team.

Milbury destroyed the Islanders. If you look at the team and the prospects he was given, what he did to the team is horrible. The Islanders have had to build up from the ground floor prospect wise. One or two successful drafts would make a world of difference with the team today.

Comments (0)

By Mark D, November 16, 2010 7:51 pm

(This was written for Lighthouse Hockey but got pushed back a bit, and with recent news is no longer topical/useful. So it’s posted here for prosperity.)

With the book closed on the first month of the new season, this year’s Islander team finds itself in the nearly same position as last year. Floating around .500 (though this losing streak is pushing .500 further away), some nights they look like David the Giant Slayer, and other nights they look like the Brave Tailor before he got stepped on. No one can come up with a single answer for what might be ailing the team. It seems every aspect, from Goaltending to Fowards to Defenseman, is getting argued over and picked over with a fine comb.

Historically, when you’re a bad or struggling team, making a big trade usually doesn’t fix anything. For those that follow football, the whole Randy Moss episode this last week is a shining example. When something’s not working right, throwing someone new into the mix rarely improves things. Just look to the Islanders’ past and the acquisitions of Trevor Linden, Felix Potvin, Ron Hextall, Kirk Muller and Ryan Smyth: All short-term fixes which hurt us in the long run.

As the Islanders roster stands today, there’s not going to be much movement. The roster is made of players tied to Garth. Since the Smyth trade Snow has really been quiet on that front. The only time he’s traded NHL’ers was in order to stockpile picks. To suddenly believe that he is going to wake up one day this week, clap his hands, call another GM and make a trade that dramatically changes the team is unrealistic. It goes against everything he has been doing the last two years.

It’s not just trades though. The answer to the Isles woes is not going to be found at Bridgeport either. Yes, Matt Martin is a likable guy, especially when he’s throwing his body around in complete disregard for tomorrow. But asking/expecting a 21 year old in his first NHL season to turn the boat around might be a tad unrealistic. The same could be said of asking most any of the youngsters to make a big splash in the NHL now.

As of right now there’s 35 players that are 20 and under who have played at least one game this season. That means there’s barely more then a player per team who is under 20. Even looking at players aged 21 to 23 there’s only 102 of them in the league. 48 23 year olds, 26 22 year olds and 27 21 year olds. That’s why borderline players seem to hang around the league so long. Teams would rather play a grizzled veteran then have a youngster skating with the sharks. It’s especially easy to point to the Islanders past to see what happens when young guys are thrown into the NHL.

If this is going to be a lost season because of the injuries, then let Rick DiPietro play it out. If your hoping for next season to possibly be a playoff year (as many of you voted) then the Isles need to figure out the future in net. If it’s not going to be DP, better to know that now. Let Micheal Grabner, Rob Schremp and PA Parenteau play to see if they are part of the solution. Let David Ullstrom, Travis Hamonic, Rhett Rakhshani and Calvin De Haan go through their growing pains outside of the NHL.

Be it through trades or callups, the Islanders aren’t going to be fixed overnight. Players will get better and stragglers on the development curve will be left behind, but the team isn’t going to change overnight. There’s no magic involved except for patience. In twenty years as a fan, this feels like the fourth or fifth time I’ve got to put my hopes in the GM that he is making the right moves for tomorrow.If we’ve gotten to this point with Garth, we have to believe in his vision that tomorrow will be brighter. Going by his track record there’s no reason to predict a big splashy trade or a sudden rush of youngsters being called up. In the end the Islanders will be better for that, and the future will be brighter.

Comments (0)

By Mark D, July 24, 2010 4:34 am

I love the Islanders and about 90% of their fans. It’s the 10% that are really Ranger fans looking to get a rise out of Islander fans that I find annoying. I couldn’t think of where to put this, so I figured I’d just post it here so it doesn’t cause any trouble.
During the season:
The team needs to be tougher!

After the season:
Who are all these large no names the team is signing?

During the season:
Anyone but Gervais!

After the season:
We signed Eaton? We might as well have given Bruno a raise!

During the season:
Haha look at the Rangers with all their large contracts and no cap space!

After the season:
We didn’t sign one big name free agent!

During the season:
We need to get rid of our older grinders for some youth!

After the season:
We’re letting go of my favorite guy so some unknown prospect can have a spot!

During the season:
Wow the team is coming along, they’ve improved on last year and there’s a raft of great prospects.

After the season:
OMG They Fired the _____ This is a Mickey Mouse organaztion!

During the season:
Rick DiPietro is hurt still?

After the season:
Rick DiPietro is hurt still?

For those that follow this blog and are wondering where my occasional Islanders posts are, I’m writing for one of my favorite sites and one of the best Islanders sites around now. Lighthouse Hockey is where you can find about 95% Of my Islanders posts from now on. Don’t worry, Milbury related posts will always have a spot here.