The GOOD and the BAD return to the voice, and this discussion will be about making the playoffs. I know what you are thinking. How could it possibly be BAD to make the playoffs? Well read on and find out!!
THE GOOD -
1 - In order to win the Cup, you have to be IN the playoffs. Its quite obvious isn't it. Make the playoffs and the records are wiped clean. Everyone is 0-0 and has an equal shot at Lord Stanley's cup. Making the playoffs is the goal of every team in the league and history teaches us that anyone can emerge victorious from one series to the next.
2 - More revenue for the team that is bleeding cash. Charles Wang says the Islanders lose between 15 and 20 million a season. While some may dispute the validity of this claim, look around that wretched building and tell me how the team makes any money. The playoffs are a shot in the arm for any franchise and can turn a season that is in the red into a season in the black.
3 - Free Agents are more likely to come here if the team is always in the playoffs and think they can take the team to the next level. Yeah I know the team lost all those players to free agency, but they were all replaced by talented NHLers that any team would have liked to have on their team. Showing the NHL your always in the playoffs is a great to lure more talent to put us over the top.
And now the moment you have been waiting for -
THE BAD -
1 - Getting bounced early is no fun - Making the playoffs is fine, but getting your tail kicked in 5 or less games isn't. Whether its Buffalo or Ottawa or Tampa Bay it really doesn't matter. History teaches us if our going to face a top seeded team you are more likely to beat them after the 1st round. The 8 beats 1 scenario is a rarity in the NHL. Maybe is the team tanked a season and let the kids take over, and fortified with some top tier draft picks we could BE the Ottawa and Tampa Bay and kick some tail in the 1st round for a change.
2 - Making the playoffs is good...... or is it? While this is fundamentally true, it is also a reason the team has been devoid of any chance at a game breaking young gun. (Okposo is still a prospect, if he were Patrick Kane, he would be on the team already.) The team is good enough to make the playoff, but will we ever be good enough to do some damage? Finishing 8th in the conference is usually a death knell for any franchise in the 8th spot. This will be no different this season when the 8th seed will have the honor of facing the machine known as the Ottawa Senators. So which is better? To be bounced from the playoffs in the first round every single time as the 8th seed is getting really old really fast and it will not attract any talent to the team. When was the last time the Islanders drafted and kept a young player that became an impact player who name is not Rick DiPietro? Keep thinking because its gonna take a while. Its time to stop blaming Milbury and move on.
3- Getting bounced in the 1st round will get you... What? Hey I like Mike Comrie. I like Bill Guerin. I like Andy Sutton. I hope you like them to. You know what I would have loved? Chris Drury. Ryan Smyth. Sheldon Souray. If its cash its one thing and I can understand that. I do not believe the Islanders can seriously expect superstar talent to come here over anywhere else based on the chance they might finish 8th. The Isles (and rightfully so) will never hand out ridiculous contracts like the one our rivals threw at Scott Gomez. The team HAS to make itself more attractive to free agents in other ways. Maybe it is time to strip the team down take our lumps and KEEP our young players and give them a chance to prove what they can do. When a few of them prove themselves THEN add the free agent or two in. Who is going to be on this team next year with everyone on 1 year deals?
I'm sure this one will cause some discussion and the voice welcomes all opinions. Remember these opinions are not necessarily MY opinions, just opinions I have heard from the fan base. Let your voice be heard!!
FCT
6 comments:
I must disagree on one point....K.O. is going to be a STUD ..I think he is as good as patrick Kane ...and i think it is not right that you mentioned Kane with out first mentioning Jonathan Towes...he has been compared to Trotts...K.O. is the future for the islanders and the future is NOW bring him up and let him play and stop being cheap with his elligability so what if he gets a year in with a certain amont of games played if he is the future like they say he is ...bring him up now!!!!!!!!enough is enough and its time for a change!!!!
Yes, I'm not sure making the playoffs only to be bounced out after 5 games is the right thing to do either. But I think the team and the organization are still attractive to free agents if they look close enough!
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Since the Cup years & the selling of the team, players, coaches & of course owners have come & have gone. The one constant is that we do not have a plan, other than a new building. The team has a coach whose methods were lost in the 90's, the owner, is trying to hide his Millstein tendencies with a corporate mentality approach to running a hockey team.. He lost 2 good hockey
people by his 'group Board Room methods.'
Garth Snow a GM? He majored in hockey 101 in college.
With Mr. Wang, it is not about this team making money, it is about developing the land. Period.
As for signing draft picks, I look around the league & see Loungo, McCabe,Torres,Dumond, Rupp, etc & all I see is a pumped up, over rated All Star Goalie that we are stuck with for the next 10 + years.
I don't know the answers, but I am tired of seeing mediocrity on the ice on Long Island. We deserve a winning team not a team that is barely better than the Bowness teams under Milbury. That is just about where we are as a team now.
I think DiPietro is the American version of Mr. Softee, tommy Salo.
He is NOT the player we should build around.
Although I have in the past mentioned my appreciation of the fct blog, I would like to know, who connected with the Islander's reads this blog? Does Charles Wang or Garth Snow read them? Who thats part of the NY Islander's "BRAINTRUST" see's these or has any interest in them? I, like I'm sure many of your other Blogers, take time out of their very busy days, to give their very honest opinion on their very cared about hockey team. Idea's that to me make a lot of sence. Now onto your article; I often find myself asking, What are they seeing that I am not. This is a professional hockey team in the NHL, that won 4 Stanley cups. There was a time when this franchise the standard for all, the envy of all. It is trully amazing how far south this once very proud franchise has fallen. This has occured by giving empowerment to people who are clueless. The NY Islander organization needs to remember who they were and return the state of affairs to that. A "VERY PROUD WELL RUN STRUCTURED FRANCHISE, WITH RESPECT FOR TRADITION". To think some idiot could come in and change traditional uniforms the GREAT ISLANDER's wore for 23 " GO BOBBY NYSTROME #23" years is a discrace, period. Changing to anything else was wrong, but those stupid fisherman jersey's, hello! Then The Great #22 Mike Bossy states the nite they brought back, the very close version of the original, but not exactly. They didnot bring the original colors back, or the stripping on the pants. The nite they beat the Flyers, stating in front of all Islander fans, the jersey's are back and never to be changed. Now this Great franchise that was beginning to change allows someone or some group to come up with this great idea to suit up our great Islander's, in the horrible looking pajamas. I mean really. I ask you readers to take a look at the the book about the history of the Islander's' Pride and Passion. Take alook at all the great shots they show of the Islander teams through the years wearing the treditional uniforms. For you yankee fans, same uniform through their history good or bad the stayed with the great Yankee tradition. Do you honestly think The NY Yankee's would ever change these famous uniforms. It will never happen. The Detroit Redwings, The Toronto mapaleafes, I hate to say it, but the NY Ranger's, The Greenbay Packers, The Dallas Cowboy's. Non of these teams would consider changing their uniforms. They are proud of them and they are proud to ware them. Our NY Islander's should remember their greatness and keep it alive. Their treditionals just happen to not only hold tradition 4 Stanley Cups but also happen to look great. They should start with their third being the Classic Whites to be worn as often as poosible Looking like The Mitchell and Ness version, I do believe the nhl will be changing back to the whites to be worn at home. And then make both versions of the 1980's the blues and the whites the teams main jersey's. And then come out with a third thats really thought out carefully. Not like the fishermans with the rediculous waves. Or the orange third they came out with. Think about it and do somthing really special. Next, the Islander's to me don't need to rebuild, but I do agree finishing 8th and being bounced in 5 is not a lot of fun. I believe you need to draft well and keep your draft choices. Build you farm system, stock pile talent. Stop trading away your young talent. What to me would right things with the team, would be as follows #1 sign Marion Hossa
#2 sign Dion Phaneuf
The Islander's need some studs "Super Stars" they need to get very serious and do this in the off season, unless Atlanta desides to trade him early to get somthing in return, then I would go for him now. But these to would improve the Islander's dramatically. And set them on a coarse to trully being a Stanley Cup contender. And eventially winning it. Now I ask isn't that what the goal of the team and every fans is. For now I would bring up the line of Kyle Okposo, Jeff Tambellini and Frans Nielsen The NY Islander's and their fans need the Lighthouse Project to happen. For so many reasons. Most being the obvious. A place where the fans would enjoy going to. And a place that would allow the Islander's to generate the revenue they deserve and need to continue to invest in players here and players they would like to sign. The way the building is now, to me is on the top of the list, of reasons players would not want to sign. Move forward on the Lighthouse Project and this would change. There has to be away to get legeslation to allow this to happen. The way Charles Wang has drawn up the plans. To me the NY Islander Fans and the NY Islander's deserve this. And last, I do believe we have a All Star goalie, the Islander's need to give him some help. THE Team needs to get bigger, stronger, younger, and faster. thanks Mark
I have every hope that KO is going to be a good and even great player. That being said he will not play more than 9 games for the Islanders this season. Forget it, its not going to happen. If he plays more than 9 games then this season counts as the 1st year of his 3 year contract. The team has recalled Tambelini again, along with Frans Nielson and bruiser Kip Brennan. Hopefully they can bing thier offense to a starved group that sometimes looks like they can't shoot the puck into the ocean.
Mark,
Agreed the Islanders have not been run as an organization with any serious heritage but it goes way beyond the jerseys. They have treated themselves with arguably the worst ownership in the history of team sports before Mr. Wang saved the franchise. Between the embarrasment that was John Spano, The Milstein-Gluckstern disgrace and what John Pickett did or did not do during his time set this organization back to a point that it is still trying to recover from. You can blame Milbury all you want, but nobody was complaining when Yashin, Peca and Osgood were brought in. Those deals were a direct result of the team HAVING to improve and show the fan base that the team was going to make a effort to improve - to show that the Islanders were BACK as a player. The team is still recovering from those deals (and a couple others) and will still be recovering until this areana deal goes through and the team can start making money. As far as the uniforms go I think the time for the original unis has passed. Sure I would love to see the originals brought back as a 3rd jersey but 3rd jerseys are out for this season. Lets see what they come up with next season.
Thanks for reading.
FCT
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