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By Mark D, February 15, 2010 2:57 am

The Golden Milbury

That’s right, its time to give away an award. The Golden Milbury will be given to the team that makes the dumbest move (or moves) during the season. Now I need your help since I mostly follow the Islanders. There will eventually be a poll to choose the winner (or if no one votes, a judge will decide) of The Golden Milbury. My personal choices?

Carolina Waives Leighton

Following the horrible injury to Cam Ward, the Canes decided to dust off Manny Legace of all people and call him in ahead of Leighton who had been their long term backup. When Cam Ward returned, the Canes waived Leighton and the Flyers (coached by former Canes coach Lavoilette) desperate for a backup picked him up. Not only has he started in the premiere game of the regular season, but the Canes are playing half his salary AND Legace is their backup. For comparison’s sake.

GP W  L OTL   GAA SV%
Micheal Leighton 18 12  3     1     2.19 .920
Ray Emery              29 16 11    1     2.64 .910
Manny Legace        19   7  6    3     3.05 .900

Toronto Signs Kessel

Brian Burke. That’s all you really have to say. The argument about whether he’s good or he inherited good positions could go on forever. In his attempt to turn around Toronto he signed the talented Phil Kessel, whose rights cost him a first and second rounder in the 2010 draft and a first in the 2011 draft. Now the hope might have been to improve Toronto enough that the draft pick was a high one. Unfortunately despite Kessel leading the team in goals, Toronto has struggled all year and this years picks look like they might be a top five pick. Also of note is that any pick of the top 4 could possibly become a first overall pick due to the lottery.

Kings let Moulson go

It isn’t so much that they let him go, but they didn’t really try to re-sign him. A rebuilding Kings team could only give Moulson (a former 9th round pick) 29 games over two seasons in the NHL and only 10 points in those games. The Islanders after drafting John Tavares (an old linemate of Moulson’s) decided to sign him. He impressed from camp and just kept rolling from there. He’s the Islanders first twenty goal scorer in a few seasons and the Kings are kicking themselves for missing out on him.

Flyers Sign Emery

After making a big splash by trading for Pronger and showing they wanted to win now, the Flyers decided to go with enigmatic goaltender Ray Emery to lead them to the Cup. Now Emery does have a run to the Stanley Cup finales on his resume. But that was with a very good Senators team in front of him. Ottawa soured on him so quickly (due to off ice incidents) that the following year they bought out his contract. He did have an impressive run in the KHL last year, he still had off ice issues and arguments with the team. Although quiet off the ice, he has suffered injuries and his play left the door open for Boucher and Leighton to take over the starting job. In fact it wouldn’t be surprising if the playoffs started today and Emery was healthy if Lieghton was starter still. The cap is also another consideration in his deal, but in the end former Flyer Goalie Martin Biron could have been signed for nearly the same amount. Also former backup Nittymaki has been outstanding for Tampa Bay this year

Now that’s my four favorites, but bookmark this page. As the trading deadline passes I want to know what you think is one of the worst moves this year. Comment on this blog or email me (located at bottom of page) via the contact form. I want to make the vote for The Golden Milbury that much more fun.

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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.