NYI Top Post-Lockout Moments #10-6

Back with moments 10 through 6 of the Isles' post-lockout countdown. Isn't it funny how Zach's Rangers list is full of games, whereas the Islanders list is all stuff that happened off the ice? This is what happens when your team has won one playoff game in the past six years.

10) Snow Job

July 18, 2006

That the hiring of Garth Snow even qualifies for this list is a testament to the job Snow has done as Islanders' GM. For a very long time, July 18, 2006 was a very dark day in Islanders history.

I can still remember the day like it was yesterday. I remember seeing the headline on TSN... my head hitting my desk shortly after... thinking it was an April Fool's joke in the middle of July... none of my friends believing me when I told them... Mike and the Mad Dog tearing Charles Wang apart during an interview... being teased incessantly by pretty much everyone. It wasn't fun. I even wrote this blog on my MySpace page from back in the day.

Thankfully, things have improved since then. The way the Islanders handled the move still doesn't make sense four years later, but time has proved that Snow was the right hire. At a time when general managers were still trying to figure out the "new NHL", the Islanders brought in someone who actually played under the revised rules. They hired someone who was completely reared on the new CBA and therefore had no preconceived notions about what he was "supposed" to do.

The results have been pretty spectacular. Snow managed to get into the playoffs in his first year, but saw that he couldn't rely on giving veterans one-year contracts forever. His ability to blow up the Islanders and rebuild them in his likeness shows that he has the support of Charles Wang and will be here for the foreseeable future. Of all the moves Snow has made, the only move that would be classified as bad is the Rick DiPietro contract, and that was Wang's call. So, while the move initially drew ire from the Islanders faithful, it's hard to argue that the move didn't pay dividends.

9) Islanders Sign Mark Streit

July 1, 2008

As the Islanders entered the start of free agency in 2008, nobody was quite sure what they'd do. They had made mention of their desire to rebuild and go with young players, but they didn't actually have any young assets outside of Kyle Okposo to build around. They had plenty of cap room to make any number of signings, but we all knew better than that. Most Islanders fans assumed that Snow wouldn't do anything on July 1; I joked on this site that Snow didn't even bother to show up for work that day.

Turns out he did.

As is customary, the big names flew off the board in exchange for big-money contracts. One of the biggest names, Brian Campbell, took seven years and $56 million to sign with Chicago. Wade Redden, as we all know, received $39 million over six years from the Rangers. At the time of these two deals, Mark Streit was still available. He was the one guy I thought the Islanders should throw big money at and, much to my surprise, they did.

Five years and $20 million later, Streit was a New York Islander. Zach, our Rangers writer, was furious that the Rangers had dumped so much money into an aging Redden while the Islanders got Streit - who had only played three NHL seasons - for far less. When asked why he signed with the Islanders, Streit replied that he wanted to be a true #1 defenseman, something that was never going to happen in Montreal. Streit did not disappoint in his first season on the Island, netting 56 points and earning some legitimate Norris Trophy consideration. His numbers have dipped a bit this year, but Streit remains one of the team's leaders and a potential future captain of the Islanders.

8) Islanders Hire Scott Gordon

August 12, 2008

After the shock firing/resignation of Ted Nolan, the future of the Islanders in terms of their next coach was unclear. It was a very important hire - the Islanders would be rebuilding and needed someone who would stay over the long haul. The big-name veterans like Joel Quenneville and John Tortorella weren't interested and passed on the Islanders' overtures, which came as no surprise to any real Islanders fan. As is the Islanders' custom, they went the road less traveled and brought in an unknown coach.

Scott Gordon, much like Peter Laviolette seven years earlier, came to the Islanders from the AHL's Providence Bruins. Like Laviolette, Gordon had turned the fortunes of the Bruins completely, taking a losing team and turning them into one of the league's best. Gordon had youth on his side, not to mention a reputation for mentoring young players, and his "overspeed" philosophy won over fans right away.

More than anything else, though, the Gordon hire was further proof that the Islanders were serious about rebuilding. Garth Snow easily could have brought in a big-name retread coach, but that would have been the safe maneuver. By bringing in Gordon, the Islanders effectively told their fanbase that the team wouldn't be good for a while, but they could get used to this core group because it'd be there for years to come. Fans have criticized Gordon's system, particularly when it has helped contribute to blown third-period leads, but when they're firing at all cylinders, the Islanders are one of the NHL's most exciting teams. This is one call Garth Snow knocked out of the park.

7) Al Arbour Night

Nassau Coliseum - November 3, 2007

I'll be the first to admit that I was a bit skeptical when Al Arbour Night was first announced. Did Ted Nolan really want to round off Al Arbour's career total, or did Islanders brass coerce Nolan into stepping aside for one night? Was this just another gimmick to bring Islanders alumni back and get a cheap sellout? Given the history of the Islanders, I was right to have my doubts. But on this night, they didn't really matter.

Prior to November 3, 2007, Al Arbour hadn't coached a NHL game since 1994. However, whatever he had lost in terms of X's and O's was more than compensated for by the desire of the Islanders to win the game for Arbour, the only coach of the Islanders that has won a playoff series. In many ways, the game itself was typical of the Islanders at that point in time insofar as the Islanders came from behind to win, Miroslav Satan scored the tying and game-winning goals, and Wade Dubielewicz came up huge in relief of the injured Rick DiPietro.

As good as the game was, it was almost secondary to the postgame celebration, which saw many Islanders legends paying their respects to their former coach. And it wasn't just the usual guys, either. The Islanders brought back some real fan favorites, including Benoit Hogue, Pat LaFontaine, and Steve Webb. I have to say, I was bawling while watching a replay of the ceremony. (Full disclosure - I was pretty hammered.) It was a great night and a great sendoff for Arbour, who doesn't get nearly enough credit for his work with the Islanders.

There's only one thing that bothered me about Al Arbour Night. The original Arbour banner read "739", referring to his number of career wins. When they replaced it with a new banner that night, it wasn't a "740" banner. Instead, it simply read "1500". As in, the Islanders had such little faith in Arbour's ability to produce a victory that they only had a banner made to commemorate his number of games, not his number of wins. The Islanders said they'd get a new banner made; nearly two and a half years later, "1500", not "740", hangs from the Coliseum rafters.

6) Islanders Win 2009 Draft Lottery

April 14, 2009

As the Islanders sucked their way through the 2008-09 season, we all hoped it'd be for a reason. In fact, the only way the 2008-09 season would have been successful would have been if they landed the first overall draft pick. After all, while there was a chance Tampa Bay or Colorado would have passed on John Tavares, there were no guarantees.

The Islanders clinched the league's worst record in late March, a distinction that brought with it a 48 percent chance that the Islanders would win the draft lottery. As the date of the draft lottery neared, Islanders fans feared the worst. Everyone figured that they'd get screwed out of the chance to draft a generational talent like John Tavares or Victor Hedman. Why should the Islanders get the chance to be successful, right? Besides, since the lockout, the team with the worst record had lost the draft lottery more often than not.

Thankfully, this was not one of those times. The Islanders won the draft lottery, and Islander Country breathed the world's largest sigh of relief. For the Islanders faithful, as sad as it is to admit, it was almost like winning the Stanley Cup. Finally, the focus was going to be on our team, even if only for the week between the Stanley Cup Final and the NHL Draft, and we were going to make the most of this extra attention.

Unfortunately, Garth Snow felt the same way. When asked who he was leaning towards on the draft lottery show, he admitted nothing, something that would become a trend over the next two months. While we were ecstatic about winning the draft lottery, little did we know that these two months would become some of the most stressful times Islanders fans have had in recent memory.

Beauty And The Moulson

It was only a matter of time before the Matt Moulson puff piece was written. This actually came out about a week and a half ago, but it was so horrendous I had to share it. No, there are no Molson Canadian beer puns in this one... but fear not, as some awful wordplay still awaits you! By the way, sorry if the font jumps around in size a bit - you can blame ESPN.com's cracked web staff for that.

ST. LOUIS --

Ooh, look at me! I get to write an article from the road, and YOU don't!

At the risk of offending Linda Hamilton and the entire Moulson family and that furry guy in the old television series (Ron Perlman)

Anyone have any idea what this means? Me either. But I'm sure it'd make sense if I were like 30 years older.

and maybe even John Tavares, there is more than a little beauty-and-beast action with the New York Islanders' dynamic duo of top rookie Tavares and out-of-nowhere winger Matt Moulson.

Beauty-and-beast? Dynamic duo? Asinine alliteration? The books I read my 19-month-old daughter feature more clever wordplay.

But put it this way: Moulson, the hitherto anonymous 26-year-old winger who quickly has become the cheese to Tavares' macaroni through the first quarter of this surprising season for the Islanders, was drafted in the ninth round of the 2003 draft, 263rd overall.

There are 43 words in this sentence. I'll sum them up in four - Matt Moulson was unheralded.

They don't even have a ninth round anymore. GMs figured it was better to pack up early and go golfing or head to a bar than stick around and draft players in the ninth round.

Or, the eighth and ninth rounds of the draft were lopped off after the lockout because GMs had like a week to prepare for the draft once the lockout ended. Or the owners didn't to be stuck paying two extra draft picks. Either way, I'm sure it had nothing to do with golfing or drinking. By the way, Mark Streit was a 9th round selection of Montreal in 2004, meaning the Islanders probably have more 9th round draft picks on their active roster than any other team in history.

Does Moulson, who has 18 points, including five multipoint efforts, through the Islanders' first 23 games, get tired of being treated like the hockey guy who fell to Earth?

He laughed.

"It doesn't really bother me," he told ESPN.com. "I'm here now in the NHL. I guess I have an interesting story to tell. It's always interesting for people to find out things like that and maybe a good story for some younger kids."

See, this is why we don't go the route of some of our Blog Box colleagues and actually talk to the players. They do a good job with it. We can't. Why? Because hockey players are BORING. Sorry to say it, but it's true. What was Moulson supposed to say here? "I'm tired of being treated like the hockey guy who fell to Earth"? Furthermore, what does that even mean? Did Moulson arrive in a UFO? My head hurts now.

Indeed, an apprehensive Moulson was in regular touch with agent Wade Arnott as the July free-agency period approached and his contract with the Los Angeles Kings expired. "I was bugging him every day, 'Where do you think I'm going to end up?'" Moulson said.

I'm sure Wade Arnott was like, "Who's this Moulson guy who keeps calling me every day?".

Tavares was among the first people Moulson called when his deal was completed during that first week of free agency.

"I was right on the phone to Johnny, and it was a pretty good moment," Moulson said. "I still didn't know what was going to come of it, but I was excited."

I distinctly recall reading about the Moulson signing and loudly exclaiming the following words - "Who the hell is Matt Moulson?". So did every single Islanders fan out there - even the ones who *knew* he'd work out from the moment he signed the contract.

"Matt was a guy that I knew from my days in Providence when he was playing in Manchester. I thought he had the ability to score. But I went back and I watched some of the goals in the NHL, which were goal scorer-type goals, and as it turned out through exhibition, he was our leading goal scorer," Gordon told ESPN.com.

Yes, because scoring goals in exhibition games guarantees success in the regular season. You know who led the league in points during the pre-season? Former Islander Mike Comrie, he of the eight points in 16 regular season games. But I'm sure he'll rebound in plenty of time to win the Hart and Art Ross Trophies, even if he's got mono right now.

"The thing that's good about Matt is if he's not scoring from the tops of the circle, he's scoring from the front of the net. That ability to score from two different places, you're talking about two different types of players. Some guys don't like to go into traffic. But the fact he was willing to do that, I thought it would be a good complement for John."

Truer words have never been spoken. And by "truer words", I mean "cliches that apply to virtually every forward in the NHL".

And?

"We didn't have a lot of options," Gordon added.

That's more like it.

"Actually, when people kept cutting down my skating, cutting down my skating, Mike O'Connell, when he was with L.A., he told me to look at a player named Andrew Brunette," Moulson said, crediting the former Bruins GM who is now with the Kings' player-development staff.

"I used to tape all his games and watch them and watch what he did," Moulson said. "[Brunette] may not be the fastest guy out there, but he's great at protecting the puck and making plays around the net and getting to the net. He was up and down in the AHL as well starting his career, and he's made a pretty good player of himself and pretty good name for himself in this league. He's someone I followed closely."
Okay, this is actually something useful. This is something I didn't know and is nice to hear. It makes infinitely more sense to emulate a guy like Brunette than a superstar. But nobody does it, because you never see the grinders on SportsCenter. Oh, wait, you never see the superstars of the NHL on SportsCenter, either.

This week Moulson met his guide, who of course had no idea he'd had any impact whatsoever on his career.

"He gave me a stick last night," Moulson said happily.

You mean Brunette stuck him, as in speared him?
ZOMG! ROFLMAO!

"No, no, he signed a stick and gave it to me last night. I got it this morning," Moulson said.
Oh. See, hockey players ARE boring.

"I got it this morning, and I had a grin from ear to ear. I told him he was one of my favorite players."
I'm sure Andrew Brunette has never been referred to as "one of my favorite players" by anybody outside of the Brunette family and Matt Moulson.

"I told him when he made the team out of camp, 'Treat every day like it's your last, because you don't know,'" Gordon said. "'You battled high odds to make the team, but that doesn't mean tomorrow won't be a different day. You have to prove everybody right that we made the right decision every single day.'"

That's right, Scott Gordon. Matt Moulson's singular focus over his first 27 games has been to prove to everybody that Garth Snow is a genius. As opposed to, you know, proving that he's actually a pretty good player. Moulson, that is, not Snow. We all know Snow could never make it in the post-lockout NHL.

"It seems funny from where I started from until now. I get two goals against Boston [Monday night], and I'm upset because I wanted a third one. I'm not disappointed but wanting more after that. Coming from where I came from, I never thought I'd be wanting more after a two-goal game in the NHL."
If I had a two-goal game in the NHL, I'd be wanting more. But it'd probably involve sexual favors, as opposed to a third goal.

Beautiful.
The first few times I read this, I thought to myself, "That's an odd way to end this piece." Eventually, I realized it was a play on the copious beauty-and-the-beast analogies found in the article, many of which I edited out for the benefit of your sanity. I still have no proof of any beast-like tendencies in Matt Moulson, or Andrew Brunette, for that matter. So, you know, hooray for Matt Moulson and all that.

Reinventing The Islanders

Last weekend, I attended my ten-year high school reunion. I haven't spent much time over the past decade thinking about high school, but I was happy to attend. Though Facebook took away a good chunk of the surprise and small talk, it was great to see some people I hadn't seen since graduation day.

What I didn't expect was to be left with a bunch of blanks to fill in. Ten years ago, we all parted ways on relatively even ground. Today, we are all in different areas of life. How did we get to where we are? It's fascinating, really; all of the small choices we've made in our lives have added up and, for the first time, we're able to gauge our progress against our peers. To use a high school analogy, it's like getting a first quarter report card - an early indication of where we stand.

Because these things intrigue me way more than they should, I was far more interested in what people didn't say. For example, Bob lives in the city, where he works as a real estate broker. How did he end up there? Why did he choose to move to the city, and why has he chosen to stay there? Has he had any serious relationships? This person is the exact same person as he was ten years ago, but his experiences have changed him permanently. He's the same, but different.

Personally, I was a pretty big dork in high school, and I didn't have a ton of friends. Today, I'm still a dork without many friends. In high school, I appeared disheveled because I didn't care how I looked. At my reunion, I may have appeared disheveled because I was too busy attending to my two children and working two jobs to even have a chance to change my clothes, let alone shower or do anything else. Once again, same, but different. I wasn't particularly proud of the fact that I had no money and couldn't afford the open bar that night, but I was one of the few in attendance with children. So I reluctantly became The Guy With Kids - I've always detested The Guy With Kids - but I suppose it's a step above The Guy Who Doesn't Talk To Anybody, The Guy Who Can't Keep A Job, The Guy Who Has Drug Problems, or any other labels that may be out there.

I saw this reunion as a chance to reconnect with some old buddies and even make new friends. An old friend of mine once said that meeting people from high school was great because it's like meeting a complete stranger, but you have an automatic "in" with that person. And even though most of the old cliques remained intact, I was able to have a great time with many people, some expected, some totally unexpected. Things may have gotten a little sloppy at the end, but I felt I played my cards pretty well. My life is far from perfect, but I'm not the timid loser I was in high school. Maybe I screwed up some of the last ten years of my life, but I have a plan for the next ten, and my behavior reflected that. It was a nice moral victory, one that hopefully leads to some lasting friendships with some old classmates.

As I thought about the relative success of my reunion, I began to compare it to hockey. Surprising, I know. In my senior year of high school, the 1998-99 NHL season, the league was in the throes of the Dead Puck Era. Only one team (Toronto) averaged more than six total goals per game. Today, thirteen teams average more than six total goals. In fact, Detroit's 5.76 total goals per game ranks 20th in 2009-10, but would have placed second ten years ago. It's a different game... and yet, it isn't. The Red Wings have struggled this year, but have been on top of the league for the past decade. The Devils have been up there for ten years as well. The Sharks barely qualified for the playoffs in 1998-99, but they've been great for much of the 2000s. The Rangers are still chasing after big-name free agents, yet are still looking to get past the second round of the playoffs. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) And yes, the Islanders are still in last place in the Atlantic Division.

Islanders fans will talk until your ears bleed about how the Islanders are having a great year and how they're .500. Too bad they're sitting at 11th in the East, and too bad their 10-10-7 record would be 10-17 in any other sport. This isn't to demean the Islanders, it's just to illustrate the facts. For all of the progress the Islanders have made in 2009-10, they're still perceived as a second-rate franchise - and rightfully so. Over the past decade, the Islanders have had exactly one good season. They've won a total of six playoff games. Yes, they've made the playoffs four times in the past nine seasons, but three of those appearances came in the sacrificial role of the eighth seed. In short, there hasn't been much to cheer about. And yet, there's hope.

In 1998-99, the Islanders finished with 58 points. Their leading scorer was Robert Reichel. Players like Barry Richter and David Harlock saw significant ice time. Of the 41 players who wore an Islanders sweater in 1998-99, just eight of them had a plus rating; none of these players dressed in more than twelve games. How bad were the 1998-99 Islanders? In NHL 99, the Islanders' top rated player was Mats Lindgren. Not only was this team horrendous, but there was no plan for the future - aside, of course, from saving money. 1998-99 was Zigmund Palffy's final year on the Island; the same was true of Tommy Salo, Bryan Berard and Bryan Smolinski. The Islanders had acquired a nice group of talented prospects, but these players were being sold off rapidly.

Since 1998-99, the Islanders have transformed themselves on more than one occasion. After years of dumping the league's best prospects for pennies on the dollar, the Islanders finally figured things out in 2001-02, taking the Maple Leafs to the brink in perhaps the best first-round series of the decade. The Isles stuck with that core for a few years, albeit with much less success, until the lockout necessitated changes. When the initial post-lockout group didn't work, Garth Snow retooled the Islanders by bringing in spurned veterans on one-year contracts. While this method got the Islanders into the playoffs in 2006-07, it wouldn't work over the long haul, so Snow and the Islanders committed to a true rebuild. That's the Islanders team we see today.

Since Ted Nolan took over the coaching reins in 2006, the team has had the reputation of an extremely hard-working team, if not an overly talented one. Now that Scott Gordon is here, that hasn't changed. Evgeni Malkin of the Penguins has cited the Islanders as the team he hates to play the most, and for good reason. The Islanders give opposing teams routine fits, and now that the team is being rebuilt the correct way, they can continue to build around this identity - their identity. How many other NHL teams actually stand for something?

It's taken a while, but the Islanders are finally on the right track. Just the same as we might seem like we're doing the same old things ten years later in life, it's also possible that we're much further along than people realize. That's where the Islanders are right now. To the uninitiated observer, they're the same sad-sack team they've always been. Those of us who follow the team, though, know better. We know anyone who spends time with this team will be impressed and will be motivated to follow them regularly, just as I tried to use my reunion to show my old classmates that I'd made some progress over the past ten years. At the end of the day, it might not mean more wins for the Islanders or more money in my pocket, but success of any kind - even if it can't be quantified - is surely welcome.

Injuries

I've been thinking a lot about injuries lately. Namely, the paradox that exists in sports today. Players are in better shape than ever. They train harder in the off-season than they do during the regular season. Teams employ nutritionists to help players stay on specific diets. The players of today are not only bigger than ever, but faster than ever. And yet, despite all of this, players get hurt today more than ever before.

There are a number of theories attempting to explain this, the obvious one being steroids. That explains why a 38-year-old slugger breaks down in record time, but it doesn't explain why both the Islanders and Mets have had literally more than half their team on the DL at any given point in 2009. A more plausible theory states that the collisions caused when two large, fast athletes run into each other creates a far more severe impact than in the past. We'll come back to this in a little bit. Another theory would be that doctors know more about the after-effects of injuries and prevent athletes from returning from injuries too soon. And, of course, the final theory is that modern players are pampered babies who only care about their paychecks. What's the answer? I don't know.

In the end, it would seem that a lot of this is luck. The Mets were relatively healthy, Pedro Martinez notwithstanding, for much of the past three seasons. This season, they more than made up for their good fortune. While the Mets put $90 million of their payroll on the DL, the Yankees have had virtually no injury troubles this year outside of Alex Rodriguez and Xavier Nady. That's life, especially in baseball, where injuries are almost always incurred outside of person-to-person contact.

But what about hockey? Can you really separate the fact that the Islanders lost over 500 man games to injury in 2008-09 from the fact that they had zero toughness in the lineup on most nights? And can we ignore the fact that the Anaheim Ducks, who routinely lead the league in fighting majors, are the NHL's third-least injured team since the lockout? Yes, luck does play a role, and the top teams usually do a good job of avoiding injuries. But that doesn't mean a team shouldn't use any and all means available to them to avoid injuries. And if avoiding injuries means dressing a goon that actually plays more than two minutes a night, then that's a chance Scott Gordon should consider taking.

Here's the other thing. If we can agree that injuries are getting more frequent, and we can agree that injuries are getting more serious, and we can also agree that injuries in the NHL are preventable on some level, then we can go so far as to state that teams who don't do everything possible to avoid serious injuries are being negligent in protecting their players. Let's face it, hockey is a violent game. Always has been, always will be. And if you watch a game from fifteen or so years ago, you'll see a lot of open ice. That open ice hasn't been taken up by huge pads, it's been taken up by huge players who move a lot faster than they used to and hit a lot harder than they used to. The team that doesn't protect itself takes a serious chance, not only of injury, but of something far more serious than that.

***

If you saw last year's AFC Championship Game between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers, odds are good you remember the hit Willis McGahee took at the end of that game. We had people over that day, and some of us were convinced that he actually died after that hit. Turns out he's fine. But he's been demoted to Baltimore's second string and it doesn't even bother him - he's just glad to be healthy. That's not the point. Cincinnati quarterback Carson Palmer was quoted as saying he believes someone will die as the result of a hit during an NFL game. This is a conclusion I have come to myself, and an on-ice fatality in the NHL isn't as far off as people think.

Over the past five years, we've had the Steve Moore incident and the Richard Zednik incident. We've also had Don Sanderson, who died during a fight, but not in the NHL. Despite all this, NHL players refuse to take even the simplest measures to protect themselves. Players wear their helmet chin straps as loose as possible, don't bother to wear face shields, and choose not to wear neck guards, all in the name of masculinity and "The Code", whatever that means. And that's a shame. We all know the NHL will turn a blind eye to all of this until it's too late. And it'd be nice if the Player's Association could get its head out of its ass long enough to ensure the safety of its players, but that won't happen either. Of course, the one player who takes a stand will be mocked for doing so, just as baseball players, writers and fans alike mocked David Wright for wearing a large, but safe, batting helmet last week.

***

The point is, this injury epidemic is manifesting itself with random injuries that might seem insignificant, but seem to be building toward larger problems. These are problems nobody seems interested in solving right now. And it seems hypocritical to say that the solution to injuries is to bring in goons, but if that stops even one opposing player from taking a run at your star player, then that's one less injury you have to worry about. Those who argue against the instigator rule are on the right track. More fighting certainly isn't the answer, but at least then the violence is limited to the willing. We don't need tough guys injuring skill players anymore. Hockey has made great strides since the lockout. Let's ensure that the next time the NHL makes big news, it isn't because someone got blindsided and is seriously injured - or worse.

The Guerin Trade

So the Internet is abuzz about this supposedly "done deal" that has Bill Guerin going to an Eastern Conference playoff contender. And as is always the case when details aren't finalized, speculation comes to the forefront and people go crazy trying to figure things out. We're not going to be doing that. Sorry.

I actually missed tonight's game so I could take my wife out to dinner. When I got home, my mom told me Guerin warmed up, but didn't play. She's not as well-versed in NHL business as I, so while she was a bit confused, I immediately knew it had something to do with a trade. After all, he had agreed to waive his no-trade clause earlier this week. The story now is that he's going somewhere for at least a second round draft pick, if not more. Not bad for a team who is only really losing 20 or so games out of a player in a season that is going nowhere.

Now, when I told my mom about all of this, she responded with something like, "Oh, well if he really cared about the Islanders, he wouldn't agree to waive his no-trade clause." That's not true. If anything, I'm sure it was Garth Snow who initiated such a discussion. Besides, nothing is stopping Guerin from coming right back here next year. Remember when Guerin's buddy Doug Weight got traded from St. Louis to Carolina, won a Stanley Cup, then re-signed with St. Louis? It's not totally out of the realm of possibility. As Zach likes to say, Long Island is awesome for those who have the money to really enjoy it.

Most fans wouldn't mind Guerin and Weight re-signing with the Islanders next year. After all, this team isn't ready to become a youth-driven one, and it never hurts to have guys who want to play for the Islanders. But tomorrow's Newsday promises to be a fun one, as Greg Logan states his article will be about some veterans who have shaky relationships with coach Scott Gordon. It's hard to see Weight, who was enjoying a tremendous resurgence before being injured, being among the players who are tuning Gordon out. Guerin is on pace to at least match last year's totals despite playing with less offensive talent. This article will have huge repercussions with fans, especially since we all know players talk to each other and anyone who's not a Gordon fan will tell any prospective free agent not to come to Long Island. We can only hope for the best here.

In short, there's a lot in the air in Islanders Country right now. Tomorrow morning, we'll have a lot more closure. My only question is how the Islanders can possibly trade Guerin for only a draft pick and stay above the salary floor. I guess this is another question that will be answered tomorrow.

D-Day

Let's be honest - this isn't a good time to be an Islanders fan.

You have one legitimate All-Star in Mark Streit, followed by a number of question marks. Your coach has implemented a system that many veterans on the team do not care for. Your franchise goaltender has been MIA for the past two weeks, this despite the team acknowledging that he is medically cleared to play. Your captain is starting to show signs of weariness as the ship sinks deeper underwater. And, to top it all off, your top offensive player is injured, just the latest in the endless string of Islanders to land on the IR this season.

Here's the reality for those of us who bleed orange and blue. D-Day for the 2008-09 Islanders season comes on June 20, 2009. If Charles Wang, Garth Snow, Bryan Trottier, Mike Bossy, and the rest of the Islanders' brass walks up to the podium at the Bell Centre in Montreal and says, "With the first pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, the New York Islanders select John Tavares, center, London Knights," everything we're going through will be worth it. The agony of seeing our entire team hurt, of having no idea of the status of Rick DiPietro, it will all be worthwhile. Tavares, you see, represents the future for the New York Islanders. Because John Tavares is the kind of player who can help keep the Islanders on Long Island. 

With all due respect to Victor Hedman, there is nobody else who can save this team the way John Tavares can. The Islanders can't draw a big-name free agent. They don't have the bargaining chips to swing a big trade. The Lighthouse Project, tied up in political battle, is going nowhere. The only thing the Islanders can do is draft John Tavares and hope he turns it around sufficiently enough that the Islanders can stay put while the Lighthouse Project is straightened out.

I know we're not supposed to think about these things. As fans, we're supposed to be loyal to the bitter end, not worry about the draft, not worry about our team moving, so on and so forth. But this is not a typical situation. Most fans aren't blatantly lied to by their own team regarding the injury status of their 15-year goaltender. Furthermore, most fans aren't slammed with propaganda regarding a massive arena renovation that nobody has any proof will ever happen. Those of us who are still left, the real Islanders fans, have given plenty to this team and we deserve something a little better in return. And if daydreaming of John Tavares in an Islanders uniform gets us through these dark days, I think that's a hell of a lot better than the alternative. When Pittsburgh drafted Sidney Crosby, we saw how one player can completely change a team's fortunes. Islanders fans deserve the same chance to watch our team rise from these dire straits.

And if we don't land Tavares? That's a discussion for another day. But I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the absolute worst.

Saturday Night At The Coliseum

It's kind of late news now, but I wanted to share my thoughts about the Islanders-Thrashers "game" on Saturday. I put the word "game" in quotes because it was anything but; by the time the evening was over, the Islanders were getting blown out and found themselves resorting to taking cheap shots and instigating fights.

I'm a pretty big fan of what Scott Gordon has done so far in his tenure as Islanders head coach. But Saturday was one of those nights where I scratched my head, wondering if he was really as good as the press says he is. First, he went with Joey MacDonald. MacDonald, in case you haven't noticed, has started sixteen straight games for the Islanders. In the last five of those sixteen, he's allowed five, five, two, four, and five goals. Gee, you think he might be tired? You can't just take a career backup and throw him out there for a consecutive month of games. And yet, that's exactly what Gordon has done. Wasn't this the same franchise who swore they were going to rotate the goalies better this year? Or did that all go out the window when Rick DiPietro went down? Yann Danis has played exactly one game this year. It's hard to expect much from a backup when he never, ever plays.

Getting back to Saturday night, the Isles came out firing on all cylinders, playing much of the first period very well. We had ourselves a nice, physical hockey game. There weren't a ton of goals; there didn't need to be. It was a defensive-minded hockey game that had its share of big hits and good chances. However, once Ilya Kovalchuk scored in the second period, the Islanders stopped playing their game. Suddenly, they were trying to make the perfect play, which is something they don't do very well. Worse than that, though, they stopped hitting. Blake Comeau threw some nice checks, but that was about it. This was in stark comparison to the first period, when the Islanders hit everything that moved.

Then, in the third, everything devolved. The Islanders became completely unglued and started trying to hurt people. Or do you suppose it's a coincidence that Gordon threw Nate Thompson, Tim Jackman, Andy Sutton, and Brendan Witt out there as a four-man penalty kill unit? It seemed like Jackman was tapping an opposing player on the shins with his stick every other second. Witt was going after players with reckless abandon. Even Joey MacDonald came out to the f'ing blue line to play a puck down four goals in a game the Islanders had no chance of winning. All in all, it was an embarrassing display, one that has no place in hockey.

This isn't a seven-game series. This is a regular season game between two teams in the league's basement. What message are you trying to send? I'm sure the players were frustrated, which is fine, but it's no excuse to send your goons out there and try to start fights. But then again, discipline wasn't exactly the Islanders' strong suit on this night. At one point, Tim Jackman engaged Chris Thorburn in a fight while the Islanders were in the Thrashers' zone. Someone had actually just taken a shot on goal a second before the fight started.

What's more important - scoring goals or starting fights? Apparently, Gordon went with the latter; he himself got a bench minor for abuse of official. And even that didn't stop him from sending his goons out there to start something. This, despite barely playing Mitch Fritz when he was on the team, especially after the Frans Nielsen-Mike Mottau incident. You'd think Gordon, who came from the more physical AHL, would know the right time to start a fight. Apparently, you'd be wrong.

It's sad when you can't beat the Atlanta Thrashers at home on a Saturday night. But it's even more sad when you completely stop trying to win and just try to beat people up instead. And with four games coming up this week, now would be a good time for the Islanders to remember what worked for them in November. It wasn't passive play followed by thuggery. It was solid play and great goaltending. Maybe - just maybe - it's time to sit MacDonald and let Yann Danis have a chance to play. But that's probably too much to ask.

The Reason I Don't Hate the Islanders...

Last year, I'll admit it, I hated the Islanders. They also beat the Rangers in a few games I was at (including a stinker at the Coliseum in the beginning of the year and a shootout in the Rangers last home game of the season), while this year I haven't been to any Rivalry games yet. They also had Ted Nolan, Chris Simon, Sean Hill, and Rick DiPietro. 

This year, all 3 are gone. Their replacements are first-time NHL coach Scott "Flash" Gordon (anyone see that video of him from Boston College in 1985?), Rangers cast-off Mitch Fritz (I mean, I guess he's the enforcer of the team, right?), someone who actually belongs in the NHL as a defenseman, and Joey MacDonald.

You can't really hate any of those guys. And to be honest, I never hated Nolan, but he did annoy me a lot, and I do like Gordon a lot better.

MacDonald is the main reason I don't hate them this year. He comes out to play every game, except that Boston game where he just collapsed. He also never complained about playing time in Boston or Detroit and he never complained about being stuck in the AHL last year because of the waiver wire.

Kudos to the NHL for giving him 3rd star of November. Although he might not have deserved it with his stats alone - the NHL curiously only lists his games played, shots faced, and minutes played and not his save percentage or goals against average - he definitely has the heart and he's a hell of a team player.

However, while he might be the reason I don't hate the Islanders this year, that all might go down the drain if I see Andy Sutton take a run at Brandon Dubinsky or if Brandon Witt cheap shots Henrik Lundqvist or if DiPietro returns or if some stupid fan passes out photocopies of the hooker who someone said was bought by Sean Avery. If Avery can sleep with Kim Bauer (Elisha Cuthbert) or Catherine Keener, he doesn't have to pay.

Quote Of The Night

Our Quote of the Night comes from who else but that master of the Interwebs himself, Stan Fischler...

"I liked the honesty of the coach. He said something about, 'Mind over matter, you can't use tired as an excuse.' Now, I was tired coming in here, and I was gonna use it as an excuse. Then I got a hot chocolate and I wasn't tired anymore. See, you can't use tired as an excuse."

Well, when you put it that way... it still doesn't make any sense.

Islanders win tonight. Devils lose big to Pittsburgh. Rangers play Florida tomorrow at 1. Looks like it'll go in the books as a successful Thanksgiving weekend in the New York hockey world.

EDIT: Oh, I forgot to give an honorable mention to Howie Rose for his rather cryptic remark about seeing the third jerseys as the everyday jerseys "sooner rather than later". Could this be in the works? I guess time will tell.

The Rivalry: Game 2

Leave it to the NHL to schedule one of the biggest draws of either local team on a night when nobody will be paying attention.

Tonight's Islanders-Rangers clash will take a back seat to another battle; of course, that would be the battle for the White House. And even though New York will be a blue state pretty much no matter what, focus on the Blueshirts might be limited, even at the Garden. And that's a shame. Because the Islanders are playing their best hockey of the season, which means they should give the Rangers a pretty good run for their money. The Rangers, in spite of blowing a two-goal lead in remarkable fashion on Saturday, still have the league's best record and the second-best penalty kill.

What to expect tonight? Hard to say. Both of these teams have experience in blowing leads lately, with the Islanders losing three-goal leads in each of their last two games. This may mean a decrease in the rough stuff, as neither Tom Renney nor Scott Gordon is going to want their players taking dumb penalties. That said, look for Mitch Fritz to dress for the Islanders and for him or Nate Thompson to be involved in at least one fight, probably with Colton Orr. It should be an exciting game, one that both teams will get up for.

And for my prediction? 5-2 Rangers. The Islanders will come out strong, but fade as the effect of playing on back-to-back nights starts to kick in. The Rangers, having learned their lesson from Saturday night, will stay all over the Islanders until the final buzzer. The score won't really do the game much justice, as the Islanders will put up their best fight in the third; however, they're just not good enough to compete with a well-rested Rangers team.

Enjoy the game.

New Banner, Same Old Islanders

Our friend Kristine came through once again with a new banner. This time, we didn't even have to ask for it. The old banner, which prominently featured Sean Avery, unfortunately became outdated on July 2nd. Not only is this one current, but it also looks even better than the old one did. We would like to publicly thank her for her efforts, as well as for putting up with hours of hockey talk she probably couldn't care less about.

As for the Islanders. Last night, I told Zach he could bet on the Islanders with confidence. After all, they were playing a horrible team in Florida. Rick DiPietro returned. What could possibly go wrong?

Quite a bit, apparently.

I know the statsheet says that the Islanders lost by only two goals and were outshot by only five. But that was quite the egg they laid last night. It didn't seem like they were ever a threat to an awful Panthers team who let up six goals to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night. You could say that the Panthers were "up" for the Islanders, but that doesn't tell the whole story. Despite being down by two goals, the Islanders managed just six shots in the third period. It's also worth noting that Florida only had seven. Now, some might say that's good, because it meant the Panthers weren't scoring again. But to me, it shows a stubborn refusal to open the game up when it needs to be opened up. That one's on the coaches.

If you're looking for positives, there were a few to be had. DiPietro seemed pretty solid in net and recovered well from letting up a goal in the first minute of the game. That's hard to do. Also, for those of us who worried about the young players not getting any playing time, everyone's playing for this team. With the exception of Nate Thompson, every player played between 11 and 21 minutes. Not bad. But when these are the things you try to reassure yourself with, that's a bad sign.

Still, look at it like this. Five games, four points. Most of us would have taken that before the season started. And even more of us would have taken that if they knew DiPietro would miss the first four games of the season. The truth is, this is the first game the Islanders have lost against a team that's on their level. You can take the losses against New Jersey and Buffalo because those are better teams. It's the games against Florida that you have to win. These are the games where you learn what you're all about so that when the Devils and Sabres come back to town, you can show you've improved. That's what this 2008-09 Islanders season is all about. It's not about winning the Stanley Cup or getting 92 points. It's about learning and about consistent improvement. This is a game where I thought we'd see more than we did. It happens.

Now, the Islanders get a nice five-day break between games to figure out what went wrong. They also get a wonderful test inthe Dallas Stars, a team that many have earmarked for great things this year. Let's hope they learn something in these next four days. This could be the first game I do from the Blog Box, and I'm not really sure what that means, but we should have something fun in store if things go as planned.

New York Islanders 2008-09 Preview

The Islanders' season starts tomorrow, and yet everybody is convinced that it's already over. Are they right?

Sort of.

I've gotten a fair amount of crap from people for being too hard on my own team. Hey, it's a defense mechanism. You root for teams like the Islanders, the Jets, the Mets, and Newcastle United and you start to accept losing. You don't want to get your hopes up because you know you'll just hurt that much more when the other shoe drops. I don't think any Islander fan ever expects to see a winning team, just that they really, really want one.

So, as the NHL Network would say, is this the year? In terms of scoring points, no. In terms of cracking the top eight, no. In terms of being a pushover? Absolutely not. These Islanders do have a few things going for them... and here they are.

- Nobody knows them yet. Scott Gordon is new to the NHL, and most opposing coaches are not sure what to expect. We've all heard about the Isles rebuilding themselves as a "speed" team, but with so many veterans in the lineup, who really knows for sure how they'll look? Even if it's out of necessity, that the Islanders can give opponents a number of different looks does work in their favor.

- They never quit. One thing you have to say about the Islanders is that they don't give up, even when they're playing for nothing and they're down four goals. Just because Ted Nolan's gone doesn't mean the team is going to go soft. Gordon might not be the disciplinarian Nolan was, but word is that Gordon's a very vocal coach, meaning he's not going to tolerate lazy play.

- They'll have support. People love to dump on the Islanders and their fanbase. Some of the criticism is justified, but a lot of it isn't. Hockey fans on Long Island are dying for a team they can be proud of. They might not have that yet, but with the Islanders' aggressive marketing and ticket promotions, they'll be looking at crowds of at least 12,000 on the worst of nights. Compared with where we've been, that's not bad.

- The young players will only get better. Josh Bailey is likely to play nine games in an Islander uniform this year. That's a great head start for an 18-year-old. But the other young players who just signed one-way contracts, like Frans Nielsen and Bruno Gervais, will have a full season to not only get acclimated to the NHL, but start to get extremely comfortable. There's a decent chance this team gels by March or so and starts to play a pretty good spoiler role. Even if it doesn't happen, at least next year's team will have a full year of NHL experience.

Now, those of us who have followed the Islanders for a long time can pretty much tell how this season is going to play out. They know because the same thing happens pretty much every year. The Islanders are going to start out doing well, ending October in the East's top eight. Over November and December, they're going to have ups and downs, but will steady out and remain in the top ten. They'll crap out on the West Coast, like they always do, and come home and get those points back. At the All-Star Break, they'll be within six points of a playoff spot. Sounds familiar? It should.

The key to any Islanders season is mid February through early March. This is where the team has to figure out if it's a buyer or a seller. It's been hard to tell lately. In 2005-06, they waived the white flag and dumped off Mark Parrish and Brent Sopel. In 2006-07, they sold the farm to get Ryan Smyth. Last year, they did nothing and collapsed in March. This year? Although they'll be situated fairly well in the standings, Garth Snow will see the opportunity to improve his team over the long haul by dumping off some veterans. And unlike last year, he'll take advantage of the opportunity. As the veterans leave and the not-quite-ready Sound Tigers fill in the gaps, the Islanders will slip. They'll play well, but will lose lots of close games after which the other team will say things like, "They've got a lot of energy," and "They've got a lot of good young talent over there."

Will it be enough to land in the draft lottery? Islander fans don't want to admit it, but they sure hope so. But be careful what you wish for, Islander Country. As Scotty Hockey ominously predicted, the NHL could very well decide to screw the Islanders to ensure John Tavares goes to Toronto. Could you script a worse ending? Ugh.

So let's forget that scenario. Let's not look at this season as an investment into our future. Let's enjoy it for what it is - the chance to watch our boys play hard for 82 games. If they do great, that's great. If they're awful, so be it. Me, I'm just thankful hockey is back.

Islanders Win Preseason Opener

The Islanders started their preseason on a positive note, beating the Bruins 2-1 in overtime. While it doesn't really mean anything, it never hurts to see the young guys playing well and beating another team, even if both teams were about a 50/50 split between NHL and AHL players.

Of course, since the game wasn't on TV last night - we wouldn't want anything to get in the way of the 2007 boxing match MSG Plus showed instead - we didn't get to watch this one. However, The Rivalry has come through with the real scoop on what happened last night. And away we go!

- The Islanders are back to their old tricks again, putting 38 shots on goal but only scoring twice. You have to applaud the effort that yields 38 shots, though you'd like to see more goals scored, especially against the likes of Tuuka Rask and Kevin Regan.

- The Islanders' winning tally was scored by Trevor Smith, which is all well and good. However, the Islanders have given him #77 for training camp. With all due respect to Mr. Smith, that number will always belong to Pierre Turgeon. Fun Fact: The last Islander to wear #77 was Cliff Ronning in 2003-04. Yes, I'd forgotten all about him as well.

- Jon Sim, the Isles' big catch on the first day of the 2007 free agent signing period, scored a power play goal. Everyone's already forgotten about Sim, but he should be able to do some pretty neat things on the Island. Sim also wore an A last night, apparently because there was nobody else better to wear it.

- New coach Scott Gordon claims he was expecting a "laundry list" of problems, but was pleasantly surprised. On one hand, so am I; on the other, it's a preseason game against the Bruins. It's not going to hold much water when they play real teams. Still, a nice starting point to be sure.

- New signee Yann Danis - remember that name - posted a clean sheet (or, as they say in America, a shutout) for the half of the game he played. Something tells me Danis is going to be on the big club before long. He's absolutely sick in NHL 09; in my Be A Pro season, his GAA is less than 1.

So, a quality opener for the Islanders, who could use a solid preseason to show their fans that the season isn't over before it starts. The Isles play again tomorrow night against the Flyers in London, Ontario. Again, no TV for this one, as the NetJets Showdown between Pete Sampras and Roger Federer is simply a must-see.

Back to the Real World...

I'm back from Las Vegas, and I'm in the black. Or in the red. Whichever one means I lost money. Little to nothing from my wish list of Things to Happen While I Was Away happened, except that the Islanders made a personnel move by hiring Scott Gordon. However, Mats Sundin, Brendan Shanahan, Teemu Selanne, and Joe Sakic are all still unemployed, not to mention hovering around age 40.

Did Glen Sather do anything whilst I was away? With limited cap

space and way too many forwards, he appears to be fishing down in South Carolina on Mark Messier's boat.

While I was gone, ESPN added the Jets to their upper-echelon of sports teams receiving non-stop coverage, joining the Red Sox, the Yankees, and the Patriots. For this week, Michael Phelps will also be in on the action - and deservingly so. He won a race by .01 of a second. That's a fingernail of a difference. That means he grew out his fingernails last week while the person he lost to had an ill-advised nail-biting session the day before the event, probably brought on by the stress of having to face Michael Phelps in an Olympic race.

I guess the big news that I missed while I was gone was Mike and the Mad Dog breaking up. This impacts Ranger and Islander fans in no way at all. I believe hockey got a total of 3 minutes a week on their show, while 3 out of every 5 minutes were dedicated to Alex Rodriguez. Now, I did like them, but I just never listened to them once I got XM Radio, complete with its own hockey channel, Home Ice 204. I think they did know their hockey well, but their audience always wanted to talk about ignorant morons like Stephon Marbury, Michael Strahan, and Archie Manning. (For the record, Marbury is one of the dumbest human beings ever born. In a Georgia Tech press conference declaring his intent to join the NBA, he was verbally-illiterate, meaning he couldn't even speak he was so stupid. Watch this please, and if you get bored of his linguistic fouls, fast forward to 57 seconds in.) Whenever they interviewed a hockey person, they knew their stuff, but it was very rare that they would have a Ted Nolan, Brian Leetch, or Neil Smith on the show.

I thought I had more to say, to be honest. Now that my Vegas vacation is over (I couldn't capitalize the word "vacation" because Chevy Chase wasn't on my trip with me), I have little to look forward to until training camp. Man, August really is a slow hockey month.

I hate summer. Give me winter any day.

View of my hotel, the MGM Grand, from the bridge

connected to New York, New York. MGM Grand will be holding a pre-season game in September, Avs vs. Kings.

They Didn't Screw It Up!

I'm almost shocked.

The Islanders actually did the right thing. And quite frankly, we fans deserve the right to say that.

Is Scott Gordon an upgrade over Ted Nolan? That remains to be seen. But at this point, it would certainly seem that Gordon is a better fit for this group of players. I guess that's all you can ask for in a coach. The Islanders got that, and perhaps much more.

We can gather that the Islanders will end up paying Gordon less than they would have paid Paul Maurice or Bob Hartley. We can also assume that Gordon has more to prove than any other coach they could have hired. In other words, we don't have to hear about how so-and-so won at some other city. Instead, we get to watch a coach show us he's earned the right to be the head coach of the New York Islanders. A hungry team combined with a hungry coach.

What does that mean? There's a great chance he'll do a better job than any of the other candidates would have.

I can now say that I'm officially excited about this upcoming season for the Islanders. I know it's going to be pretty brutal - we'll be adding the phrase "growing pains" to our Islanders drinking game this season. But there's an optimism now that hasn't been here in some time. We're not staring at a perpetual chase for the eighth seed. We can now look toward the future as a tangible entity, not just the catalyst for more bad trades and rebuilding projects. That does a lot for the fanbase. It'll still take some work to get the casual fans back into the building, but as time progresses, the job will become easier.

It was so important that the Islanders did this right, which is why so many of us have tried to joke about it. Notice how Sparky The Dragon is the leading vote-getter in our poll for who would become the next Islanders' coach. As I've said to anyone who would listen, I'd sooner they went into December with an interim coach and gotten this right than have them hire a retread coach that they'd fire two years from now. This would qualify as getting it right.

Now, the work begins for Mr. Scott Gordon. The Islanders don't like to talk about this one too much, but it's true - with the exception of Al Arbour, no Islander coach has ever made it more than two consecutive seasons without being canned. Is Gordon the guy to change that trend? Let's hope so.

The Final Three

We take a break from Gretzky Week to report - get this - actual, real NHL news.

As per the only person who actually reports on the Islanders, Greg Logan at Newsday, Garth Snow has narrowed down his list of coaching candidates to three. The lucky three are Bob Hartley, Paul Maurice, and Scott Gordon. While the first two are hardly surprising, the inclusion of Gordon on that list is the wild card. Something tells me he's the one with the best shot at the job.

This is the way I see it. While Hartley has won a Stanley Cup and Maurice brought Carolina to the Cup Finals, both of them have faltered on less-talented teams. I'd wager that this year's Islander team won't be as good as Hartley's Thrasher teams or the teams Maurice had in Carolina and Toronto. Do you really want to be stuck with someone who has proven that he can't win without talent?

Sure, whoever takes over this team is coaching with at least one eye on the future. But a competitive team in the short-term is important to keep fan interest alive on Long Island. I'd hardly call a Southeast title in 2007 for Hartley evidence of his ability to help this team win now. Nor would I overlook the fact that Maurice hasn't won a playoff series outside of his 2002 run to the Finals. If we can all agree that we can do without mediocrity (or, at least, the potential for mediocrity), we can also agree that there's a better answer out there.

Enter Scott Gordon.

Islander fans may recall the last time they plucked an unproven coach from the Providence Bruins of the AHL. That was when they hired Peter Laviolette. He's probably the best coach, with the obvious exception of Al Arbour, that this team has ever had. (Hard to believe, right? Look it up.) Now, the Islanders are looking to his roots to find their successor. And, quite frankly, they could do much worse.

Scott Gordon is the reigning AHL Coach Of The Year. His teams have steadily improved over the years he's been coach; while the point totals remained relatively modest until this past season, the Bruins' goal differential has either remained constant or increased each year. He's developed a number of youngsters that were a part of Boston's resurgent season in 2007-08. And while his playoff record isn't all that impressive, it's worth noting that his best performance was an appearance in the AHL Conference Finals in the lockout year of 2004-05, when every team was stacked. (Fun Fact: Guess who the leading scorer in Providence was that year? Andy Hilbert.)

I know that there's a bit of doubt about Gordon, as there is (and should be) about any coach without NHL experience. There are also those who will say that we're better off with that which we do know than that which we don't. But I disagree with that line of thinking. Besides, think about what we do know about Hartley; namely, that he's been fired twice and couldn't win in an awful division with Ilya Kovalchuk and Marian Hossa at his disposal. What do we know about Maurice? That he, like Hartley, has been fired twice and couldn't compete in the crappy Southeast. Do we want a coach that can't win with 25% of their season played against the likes of Florida? Jeez.

That's why I say Gordon's the answer. Considering the alternatives, he pretty much has to be.

Now, let me stress that the Islanders absolutely cannot screw up this chance. I'd sooner they go into the season with an interim coach, then hire the right coach in November. They can't be in a spot when they're firing their coach right at the time when the young guys are ready to hit the big-time. Get it right now, and deal with the fall-out this season. In all honesty, it's not going to be anything to write home about anyway.

All this said, I could deal with any of the three on Snow's final list. But the Islanders are fooling themselves if they think Hartley or Maurice can turn them into a winner any sooner than Gordon. And since Gordon is the better developer of young talent, it's pretty clear that he should be the guy.