Because I don’t like bondage, I’m not an Islanders fan. Okay, that’s a lie. I like bondage, but not in a sports-sense.
However, even as a street-wise, book-smart Ranger fan, I’m not happy with the Ted Nolan firing. To be honest, it doesn’t change my life dramatically, but I think it’s a pretty crappy move on back-up GM Garth Snow’s part.
He had to have known this was going to happen. Hell, former Isles Media VP Chris Botta went on XM’s Home Ice 204 last month and said this was going to happen.
Yet Snow dilly-dallied around the situation, blowing off reports, “No comment”-ing when asked about it, and basically made it seem like the tension was a false report. However, he did it anyway, and he did it so late into the offseason that he completely screwed Ted Nolan. Between Tampa Bay, Atlanta, San Jose, Toronto, and Ottawa, he could have at least interviewed for a job there. Now, all those positions are filled, and the only other vacancy is in Los Angeles.
Did this all really begin with Nolan’s decision to start Wade Dubielewicz over Rick DiPietro against the Rangers? Dubie, unlike a certain backup goaltender who went 4-13 with a .886 save percentage in 2005-06, was capable of playing with the big boys.
A text received from an Islander fan friend of mine from Los Angeles while I was at work: “No more Ted Nolan. Garth really wants that Tavares fella next year.”
For the record, Johnny Tavares is a center with the Oshawa Generals who broke Wayne Gretzky’s OHL record when he scored 72 goals in 2006-07 (he dropped to 40 goals last season, but is right now still considered the consensus #1 overall draft pick next year).
You can bet the “John Ta-va-res” chants next March will be louder than the “Ste-ven Stam-kos” chants were this April at the Coliseum.
That's the one thing I can't get past with this whole thing. Did it really start because Ted Nolan wanted to play Wade Dubielewicz against the Rangers? You could point to that game as the game when the Islanders were essentially eliminated from the playoffs (they were only three points out beforehand), but it was hardly a crisis point. If the whole Dubielewicz fiasco is really what set this thing off, then there's something seriously wrong with this organization.
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