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 (0)

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.