Hockey Night on LI, Isles Notables

New York Islander Fan Central | 5/24/2008 04:30:00 PM | | | |


Just finished up Hockey Night on LI with Alex & Steve who as usual did a great job as we talked about several Islander subjects (draft, media coverage, fan meetings) as well as the NHL final. They always make it a pleasure for me to appear.

For those wishing to listen to the show it is posted on the sidebar of the blog as is the links to their website to follow their upcoming/past programs.
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On other fronts Mr Botta in his Point Blank blog Saturday gave his thoughts on the Islanders efforts for New York to land the outdoor game again here and points to Larry Brooks article in the NY Post today here where he makes his point Dick Ebersol/Sam Flood do not want the a New York Islanders (or Devils) vs Rangers at Yankee Stadium.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Other than Mr Botta's insights, the only value here is what the Yankee rep said on the subject. I'm kind of talked out on Mr Ebersol/NBC's long friendly association with Msg to where the Garden is promoted by NBC sports at all costs and have had a vested stake in the past with the Garden. The poor ratings the Rangers have produced when featured during the regular season & the playoffs the last three seasons on national television say all we need to know about the hockey market in the city and it's marginal impact on a national level.

Pittsburgh, Buffalo carry the Eastern Conference ratings.

If the New York Islanders are not part of the game I encourage our fans not to attend or watch. I encourage the Islanders to schedule a game themselves at the same time if possible.

All I can add beyond that is Mr Brooks speculates on a decision being made in two weeks. That reads well but a year ago nothing was officially announced until training camp opened and unofficial confirmation did not hit the Pittsburgh papers until August 25th according to Rob Rossi in the Tribune Review here.

I suppose anything can happen in that regard but it seems off-base for anyone to claim something must be done within two weeks if that was not the case a year ago.

Updated:
Gary Bettman in his finals press conference intends to announce the teams and venue for the winter clasic shortly here.

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Islanders website: Release it's best of 2007-08 with a feature of Al Arbour night.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I do not want to be the bad guy here but perhaps given the calander says 5/24 the club could have done something on the 1980 team and held that for another day?

In the poll for the Isles website I gave them a B and it would have been an A if they simply beefed up the championship information and articles on this teams incredible past. They should have year-round access to old articles/backpages, photos, game highlights all over the site. Few teams have the Isles storied championship tradition and it's something that's needs to be addressed and should not be very hard to incorporate into the teams website.

You cannot just market the past on core of the four weekend or Al Arbour night to a new generation, that information should be available all the time.

This should be an easy one. A few snippets from the book Pride & Passion are not nearly enough.
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As for the blog itself:

Unless something major breaks in terms of the New York Islanders, I'm going to take a few days off here for the holiday that could run well into late Tuesday. The Ridderwall, Johansson signing watch continues along with the unrestricted/restricted free agents.

The current media poll will run through the next few days as well.

The feeders all over the blog provide Islander-related updates as well so visitng here you will miss nothing.

Everyone have a good memorial day weekend, thank you as always for the great support.