Quick Hits/Notables

New York Islander Fan Central | 5/07/2009 04:04:00 AM |
NY Post: Marc Berman, long-time season ticket holder and former long-time beatwriter actually did an article (not all about hockey) but where he leads with the Islanders circumstances.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Islander reporting at the Post would improve a thousand percent with Berman back on this teams beat, is the paper making a change in Knicks coverage or his role with the paper?

One nice thing about the NHL playoffs is you read so many articles about New York Islander championship traditions between the cups and all their accomplishments this time of year it's fun seeing so many teams try and come back down 3-0 or the comparisons.

Jussi Jokinen, Sergei Samsanov all these players on waivers or fringe players at best in the right circumstances seem to have no problem producing big goals or being major factors come playoff time. This is the kind of player Garth Snow needed to target because you cannot teach scoring hands and finishing skills in big games.

I only wish you could place Samsanov's offensive skills in Andy Hilbert's game because you would have a fantastic overall hockey player.

Palm Beach Post: Brian Biggane reports the Florida Panthers decided not to renew the contract of broadcaster Denis Potvin for next season with his comments. Chief Operating Officer Michael Yormark of the Panthers said one reason for the changes is Potvin had not made a 12-month commitment to the franchise, instead spending the summers in Canada but the article speculates Potvin's criticism of the club also was part of the decision.


NYI Fan Central Comments:

Potvin called this clubs games since the Panthers started in 1993 and this feels a little like the circumstances Jiggs McDonald left under a long time ago. Meanwhile we have a play by play man in Howie Rose who if were lucky will show up a week after the opener after doing nothing for the club all summer or preseason, take his vacation during the season and then we'll see if he sticks around for Islander playoffs or not at the beginning of baseball season.

Of course Howie Rose is not an Islander employee nor does the club own it's telecast. I have a feeling Bill Torrey who still works for the Panthers in some capacity is not happy about this decision at all.

Sun-Sentinel: Steve Gorten had a blog entry with Potvin's comments about what happened and that he did expect to return after a shorter version appeared in the paper.

LIBN.com: John Kiernan writes in his article if the Lighthouse project is not approved, Nassau County should consider condemning the SMG lease and building a new Coliseum. Obviously, there is great value in the property the county owns around the Coliseum. In the end, the Town of Hempstead should not be pressured into approving a huge real estate venture because the developer happens to own a hockey team and that the first thing he should have done was put together a real plan to get a new arena knowing about the Smg lease and he would absorb losses.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
This condemning the lease has been going on for well over a decade, did the writer not know this already? He also failed to point out Wang-Rechler own the Marriot and Reckson is a huge part of that area.

Wang's makes it tough on himself with his comments, by the time they circulate and are reinterpreted from town to town you read it twisted into twenty different versions but the writer here does a terrible job in the LIBN. If he's losing all this money I guess this is the only way he can get this project approved as quickly as possible but he's not going to circumvent the approval process which the TOH did not enter the picture officially until Nov 2007.

Funny but Howard Milstein did what the writer said and came in with an immediate plan and within months wanted out so quickly he even tried to leave before a court forced him back and at one point offered to pay for a new Coliseum. Wang says he spoke with Suozzi and was told from day one the county is broke and cannot afford to replace or renovate it's own facility. Why should Wang or any Islander owner pay to replace a building where everyone but an Islander owner receives the bulk of the revenue from doing so?

A lot of writers do not get that part of it.

For a guy who regrets what he's did in buying the club he seems to have no problem going with his general manager to scout prospects but we saw this with the Dragons where he was in the front row cheering during the playoff and four days later sold the club.

John Pickett had these same problems back in the early nineties with Nassau County and Smg. Wang did not create them and spent hundreds of millions on player contracts which right or wrong on the ice proved he was in it for the hockey and something many fans now regret he did.

Until it's time to sign John Tavares to a contract that is or keep Kyle Okposo someday on July 1st.

Edmonton Journal: Dan Barnes seems to do the best job describing Jim Basille's end game best with the Coyotes and current owner Jerry Moyes, who placed the club in bankruptcy and will be in court against the NHL who removed him as an owner from all decisions regarding the club because of the filing which there are questions whether he was allowed to do so legally but there are tons of articles by pro and anti-Bettman/Phoenix/Basille writers all with their own agenda's which run very deep.


NYI Fan Central Comments:

I personally do not want this man owning an NHL team because he makes up his own rules. He comes off more like John Spano in his ruthless attempts to grab an NHL club a decade ago before he targeted the Isles which is not how the NHL BOG works.

You think men with ego's like Ed Snider, Richard Peddie, James Dolan, Mike Illitch, Charles Wang or the Jacobs family in Boston who likely make life impossible for Gary Bettman already and give us a lot of decisions that tie Bettman's hands want him in their NHL fraternity?

I just do not see it unless they want his money that badly, for those with billion dollar companies with hockey as an ego-purchase don't count on them approving him.

The part about the White Sox owners wanting to purchase the club and keep it in Arizona I found most interesting but from the day this team left Winnipeg the media seemingly everywhere has been on a campaign to bury hockey in Arizona and regardless what happened would never accept that team.

We see this with Carolina and Tampa all the time but look what's happening in Carolina again now and looked what happened in Tampa when they won.

I have a feeling Gretzky will as a minority owner and long-time coach have a huge stake and influence in how this plays out.

One thing for sure is the Coyotes do not have an owner willing to pay the clubs bills any longer and the NHL needs to find someone who will.

The kicker and the thing Islander fans have to note here is filing bankruptcy for the Coyotes allows them to have a possible out on their thirty year lease in Glendale, the Isles have five years left on their Smg-Nassau leases.



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