This was the year the Islanders were supposed to take a step forward. Instead, they have taken 2 steps back. Maybe 3.
Granted no one can predict injury but what has happened this season is like a kick in the rear after someone burned your house down and shot your dog.
The Injury Train has decimated the Islanders starting with Streit and Okposo and has not stopped even to blink plowing through every defenseman on the team except James Wisniewski.
I dont care what team you are that is going to kill your chances at being competitive.
I stated in my last article that the Islanders had to go 10-4 in December to save the season. They have started the month 0-6 and have found ways to lose games ranging from the bizarre against Atlanta to blowouts like the one suffered against Nashville.
The season is most probably lost. The Islanders record is 5-18-5 and they have 15 points. the only team even close to them in futility is remarkably the New Jersey Devils with 18 points.
Being 21 points out of a playoff spot before Christmas is simply unfathomable to think about turning the season around and making a run at the playoffs.
Is it impossible? No.
Is it probable? No.
So where do we go from here?
It is to early to think about who the Islanders could draft this off season but the Islanders will add another top prospect to their roster on the upcoming off season.
That is not going to help matters much.
Just when you think it can't get any worse it does. Every fan base has a breaking point and the Islander fans have reached theirs. Very few people want to go see the team at this point and barring a remarkable mid season turn around the Islanders have another 25 plus home games to try and sell seats to.
New York is a hard market as it is and if you don't win it gets harder.
Add to the mix just how awful the team's record is to this point and you have a perfect storm of negativity.
Winning would solve most of the teams problems and most around the team believed this was the season it would happen but that is something that the Islanders just cannot seem to do with any regularity.
It has been said that if new coach Jack Capuano could not wave a magic wand and heal the injured that Garth Snow should be the next to go.
In firing a coach the GM basically says its your fault we are losing to the outgoing coach. When the incoming coach does no better the blame falls squarely on the GM.
Assuming a house cleaning is coming, and that is a big assumption what established NHL executive would want to come on in and run this franchise? The worst move would be to fire Snow and then hire another unproven NHL executive.
I do not think Garth Snow has done a bad job. I think he has been hit with more bad luck than most other GM's but SOMEONE has to be held accountable for the teams current record.
The last time the Islanders hired an established NHL executive he was fired in 40 days for disagreeing with ownership on Rick Dipietro's 15 year contract.
I will not state the obvious and tell you who was right about that one.
That would make any established GM think twice about wanting to work for Charles Wang.
I am a Charles Wang fan. What he has done is nothing short of saving this team and has invested tens of - probably hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money into trying to turn the team around as well as develop the area around the Coliseum.
It has not worked. The reins of this team need to be handed to someone who has a pedigree in the NHL and experience of building a winner - quickly.
Who that could possibly be is anyones guess.
No one on this island deserves a winning successful Islanders franchise than its current owner after what he has invested and what he continues to invest.
Do you think Garth Snow should get the pass he didn't give Scott Gordon and get the benefit of the doubt because of the teams injury woes?
Please place your thoughts below.
1 comment:
Like you said, you can't predict injuries. On paper the Islanders did everything they could to improve the team. The offense was relatively untouched, but last season the team managed as many goals as the Devils and Rangers. It was obvious the defense needed improvement. Unfortunately Eaton and Mottau have been underwhelming, Wisniewski is a loose cannon, and when you start the season with 8 Dmen and STILL have to call up Dylan Reese your going to be in trouble.
When Ryan Smyth didn't sign, Snow looked at the Islanders and realized the team at the time had No Future. Not only that, but Mike Milbury's drafts from 2000 to 2005 were so bad that there was nothing in the prospect cupboard.
Snow has done a great job restocking the cupboard, but the Islanders are only just starting to see the results of the last few years of drafts (EG: MacDonald is from 2006, Hamonic and Martin are from 2008)
You can argue about the roster moves Snow could have made, but in his years here he hasn't made any Milbury level mistakes. Getting rid of Snow now would only set the team as a whole back.
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