Headed for disaster again?
Posted 11:46 AM ET | Comments 0
I am not going to sit here and bash the hell out of Rick DiPietro, because it's not his fault.
But is it any coincidence that this team took a strong turn for the worse when Wang and Kumar took ownership of this team? With the mandate of "making the playoffs" from ownership taking place, a lot of bad things happened to this team.
In 1999-2000, not much was expected of this team at all. We were expected to finish out of the playoffs once again. And finish out of the playoffs, we did. In fact, we were so bad that we were in a position to win the 1st pick in the 2000 draft with a lottery win. We won the lottery and moved up four spots to have rights to the 1st pick.
With the likes of Brad Isbister, Tim Connolly, Taylor Pyatt, Roberto Luongo, Eric Brewer, Olli Jokinen, and Zdeno Chara in place, it seemed clear in April of 2000 that we'd be looking at either Dany Heatley, Marian Gaborik, or trading the pick for immediate assetts. A few weeks later, Rick DiPietro decided that he was going to opt-in to this draft. Enter crazytown. With the mandate in place, Milbury had to do things crazier than usual. He traded Kevin Weekes, who had a fairly decent season with us in 99-00. So it's clear that Luongo is the guy and the decision will be to select Gaborik or Heatley, right? No, actually it's not right... because moments later, we learned that Luongo was traded. That put a dagger in many hearts of Islander fans. At that very moment, the foundation of this team was shaken. We had guys who were budding stars, and we had a chance to add to that stable, at rather than add to it, Milbury's purge began. Wang and Kumar are crooks, Wang could be joining Kumar in the pen after this investigation, but shame on MIlbury for being such a puss.
In 2001, the ugly got uglier. It was bad enough that we traded the best young goaltender in hockey the year prior in Roberto Luongo, but now we're about to trade a highly sought after young center, who has franchise center potential, for a disassoiciate named Alexei Yashin. Yashin came with plenty of baggage due to his holdouts with Ottawa. So Wang and co. solve this problem by doing the abusrd; throwing a junkload of money at him for about half a generation. From the get-go, I didn't like this trade because we had something really promising going here, and we threw it all away because people who knew nothing about hockey were making the decisions. The irony is that Jason Spezza (who was traded for Yashin) and Heatley are one of the deadliest tandems in hockey today. I'm of the belief that if Wang and Kumar did not get their dirty hands into this operation, they'd both be Islanders. True, MIlbury probably would have traded them anyway, but that's because Milbury's a puss. If you want to argue that Wang is the reason why the Islanders are still on Long Island, well that's true to a point, because after he is forced to sell this team either due to prison or liquidated damages, I can gaurantee you that the next buyer will move this team into that new building in Kansas City. It's just sitting there waiting for an occupant and the Islanders are potential suiters.
In 2003, yes, the Robert Nilsson over Zack Parise looks pretty disasterous. Going into the draft, I wanted NIlsson, but I had no idea that 14 teams would pass on Parise. I would say that the only teams who are cringing over not taking Parise are the Columbus Blue Jackets who talk a mal-content headcase in Nikolai Zherdev, the New York Rangers who took a bust in Hugh Jessiman, and the Islanders who took Robert Nilsson. All the other teams got pretty good players who are playing regularly in the NHL now. Anders Kallur has blood on his hands for that pick. Mike Milbury does for listening.
Now we're at a pivotal point in Islanders history. There are a lot of questions, including weather or not this team will be known as the New York Islanders in a few years. Wang is in hot water, and may be forced to sell. Until then, Yashin probably will not be bought out. That can be looked at one of two ways, or both ways; Wang is foolishly proud and will never admit to a mistake. Also, Wang is in love with Yashin personally, and will not hack a bud due to a personal relationship. If Yashin is here, I have to believe that Ryan Smyth won't be. There are things that Smyth is justifiably not happy aobut. If the idea were to have a solid hockey team, Ryan Smyth would be signed, Yashin would be gone, and Smyth would be captain. Chances are that Smyth will walk and Wang will say that, "the idea of the trade was to get us into the playoffs, and we did. Therefore, it was a successful trade. That's the kind of hogwash that we're going to hear. Yashin's presence will have Smyth playing for another team in October of 2007.
So if Smyth goes, Blake will probably go to, we are in for some starvation years. Like dead last starvation years, because I don't knwo what kind of free agents can be attracted if Ryan Smyth goes. Now you're answer is going to be, "Ted Nolan is here". If Smyth does in deed go, then why wasn't Nolan's presence enough to keep Smyth around? So Ted Nolan's influence will have quite little to do with anyone wanting to come here. Nolan is a great coach, there's no denying that. If this organization chooses Yashin over Smyth, the New York Islanders will maintain their stigmatic horse and pony show identity. We have a chance at credability by maintaining Ryan Smyth, and I think we're going to blow it because of Wang's blind and stupid loyalty to Alexei Yashin.
But is it any coincidence that this team took a strong turn for the worse when Wang and Kumar took ownership of this team? With the mandate of "making the playoffs" from ownership taking place, a lot of bad things happened to this team.
In 1999-2000, not much was expected of this team at all. We were expected to finish out of the playoffs once again. And finish out of the playoffs, we did. In fact, we were so bad that we were in a position to win the 1st pick in the 2000 draft with a lottery win. We won the lottery and moved up four spots to have rights to the 1st pick.
With the likes of Brad Isbister, Tim Connolly, Taylor Pyatt, Roberto Luongo, Eric Brewer, Olli Jokinen, and Zdeno Chara in place, it seemed clear in April of 2000 that we'd be looking at either Dany Heatley, Marian Gaborik, or trading the pick for immediate assetts. A few weeks later, Rick DiPietro decided that he was going to opt-in to this draft. Enter crazytown. With the mandate in place, Milbury had to do things crazier than usual. He traded Kevin Weekes, who had a fairly decent season with us in 99-00. So it's clear that Luongo is the guy and the decision will be to select Gaborik or Heatley, right? No, actually it's not right... because moments later, we learned that Luongo was traded. That put a dagger in many hearts of Islander fans. At that very moment, the foundation of this team was shaken. We had guys who were budding stars, and we had a chance to add to that stable, at rather than add to it, Milbury's purge began. Wang and Kumar are crooks, Wang could be joining Kumar in the pen after this investigation, but shame on MIlbury for being such a puss.
In 2001, the ugly got uglier. It was bad enough that we traded the best young goaltender in hockey the year prior in Roberto Luongo, but now we're about to trade a highly sought after young center, who has franchise center potential, for a disassoiciate named Alexei Yashin. Yashin came with plenty of baggage due to his holdouts with Ottawa. So Wang and co. solve this problem by doing the abusrd; throwing a junkload of money at him for about half a generation. From the get-go, I didn't like this trade because we had something really promising going here, and we threw it all away because people who knew nothing about hockey were making the decisions. The irony is that Jason Spezza (who was traded for Yashin) and Heatley are one of the deadliest tandems in hockey today. I'm of the belief that if Wang and Kumar did not get their dirty hands into this operation, they'd both be Islanders. True, MIlbury probably would have traded them anyway, but that's because Milbury's a puss. If you want to argue that Wang is the reason why the Islanders are still on Long Island, well that's true to a point, because after he is forced to sell this team either due to prison or liquidated damages, I can gaurantee you that the next buyer will move this team into that new building in Kansas City. It's just sitting there waiting for an occupant and the Islanders are potential suiters.
In 2003, yes, the Robert Nilsson over Zack Parise looks pretty disasterous. Going into the draft, I wanted NIlsson, but I had no idea that 14 teams would pass on Parise. I would say that the only teams who are cringing over not taking Parise are the Columbus Blue Jackets who talk a mal-content headcase in Nikolai Zherdev, the New York Rangers who took a bust in Hugh Jessiman, and the Islanders who took Robert Nilsson. All the other teams got pretty good players who are playing regularly in the NHL now. Anders Kallur has blood on his hands for that pick. Mike Milbury does for listening.
Now we're at a pivotal point in Islanders history. There are a lot of questions, including weather or not this team will be known as the New York Islanders in a few years. Wang is in hot water, and may be forced to sell. Until then, Yashin probably will not be bought out. That can be looked at one of two ways, or both ways; Wang is foolishly proud and will never admit to a mistake. Also, Wang is in love with Yashin personally, and will not hack a bud due to a personal relationship. If Yashin is here, I have to believe that Ryan Smyth won't be. There are things that Smyth is justifiably not happy aobut. If the idea were to have a solid hockey team, Ryan Smyth would be signed, Yashin would be gone, and Smyth would be captain. Chances are that Smyth will walk and Wang will say that, "the idea of the trade was to get us into the playoffs, and we did. Therefore, it was a successful trade. That's the kind of hogwash that we're going to hear. Yashin's presence will have Smyth playing for another team in October of 2007.
So if Smyth goes, Blake will probably go to, we are in for some starvation years. Like dead last starvation years, because I don't knwo what kind of free agents can be attracted if Ryan Smyth goes. Now you're answer is going to be, "Ted Nolan is here". If Smyth does in deed go, then why wasn't Nolan's presence enough to keep Smyth around? So Ted Nolan's influence will have quite little to do with anyone wanting to come here. Nolan is a great coach, there's no denying that. If this organization chooses Yashin over Smyth, the New York Islanders will maintain their stigmatic horse and pony show identity. We have a chance at credability by maintaining Ryan Smyth, and I think we're going to blow it because of Wang's blind and stupid loyalty to Alexei Yashin.