Islander Notables/Snow's ITV Interview

New York Islander Fan Central | 12/10/2010 06:04:00 PM |


I watched Garth Snow's interview, with Chris King on ITV Friday.

Outside of the general manager getting MacDonald's injury wrong vs Florida and " goosebumps " comment I saw nothing really new there, he did use rebuilding word when in past he went out of his way to defend this as not being a rebuild.

He made it clear enough the Milbury plan will not be happening, which I absolutely agree with. Outside of the arena questions, or no one asking if Snow can offer a front-loaded deal, he said some of the things Lou Lamoriello did this week, about the trade market, not giving up prospects.

Reality check is there is no trade, no transaction that is going to make this group collectively bigger, faster or get them scoring at even strength, these are four line problems, that only time and experience will answer.

They have been as competitive as a team can be without winning based on all the recent one goal/empty net games. The starts to games have been a problem, the pp and even strength scoring terrible. DiPietro makes his mistake a game and it's fatal.

Only criticism I can make is why is Jon Sim on a third line (I know they need veterans/someone to crash net/stir things up) however, when he cannot score you want to see Rhett Rakhshani or Robin Figren get a serious look and bring scoring ability Sim does not have?

Perhaps I answered my own question.

Tough Decisions:
Josh Bailey was drafted to be a center. As long as Tavares, Schremp, Nielsen are here he cannot be played at his natural position at this level, that's a problem which is not going away. Management cannot play him at center in the AHL, then recall him to go play left wing here. It will not work if the gm is talking about his confidence.

Frans Nielsen may be among the scoring leaders, however he has one even strength goal and that was a terrible one allowed by the Flyers last Sunday.

The third period chance Comeau had against Boston was excellent, he has to do it on a nightly basis and finish a few of them or it's time for someone else to get that chance.

You want veteran scorers? What would last summers UFA scrap heap of vets have done for this group? Most could not score, or stay healthy, the younger ones had some scoring ability but had never show it consistently. Other players were enigmas who have proven to be so far on their new clubs.

Only answer now is to keep working in young players and stick to plan. There is no ten game winning streak coming to get this club back to five hundred or the outer fringes of playoff contention.
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Upcoming:
Moving forward the very painful choice of Roloson's departure vs Poulin, Koskinen or Lawson must be addressed. You cannot let Anders Nilsson walk away and sharing work among three goalies who need to play more than once a week, is not the best choice for development.

I have no doubt Roloson is a very good influence and agree with the goaltending consultant's interview he can play another two or three years. If the Islanders found an acceptable package for DiPietro, now that he's proving he's healthy, I would not take a trade off the table involving him, even though the chance is very good after a full year of working off rust he may well be a franchise goaltender again.

I see a bad goal a game from DiPietro with rust, lot's of NHL goaltenders without missing two years perform the same for their clubs. His numbers do not reflect the games or how well he has played in most of them, or quality chances allowed that led to goals against.

Of course Roloson at this point in his career should get an opportunity to win a cup for someone, injury cost him his finals chance in Edmonton.

Now that Eaton, Mottau have contracts for next year, how do you hold back Hamonic or not bring back Martinek? MacDonald should absolutely stay, Hillen and Gervais with Jurcina (Gordon's player) may well be on outside, with deHaan and other defenders in system needing a chance.

If I'm gm, Wisniewski is resigned because he is a very good two-way defender, I want to see him with Streit next season. That is something management should be working on now along with Matt Moulson, but given the past a signing/injury is always possible.

Final comment on my last blog entry for those writers who are very quick to point out Wang is only spending to the cap floor, and using past contracts/not putting Streit/Okposo on IR to get there.

Charles Wang was spending over 40m on payroll before there was a salary cap, he's doing the exact same thing now.
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Misc:
What can be done about Quebec fans coming to Coliseum Saturday? Nothing.

It's up to the New York fans in the long-term to support the product, and for the Islanders to circulate it's message to it's New York fan base, which is why they have a website and a vehicle to communicate, but don't expect reality television updates because no team does that.

It is however weak the Times hockey staff through it's Ranger beatwriter, does not have resources to cover Islander hockey games, but goes above and beyond to get out the Quebec message. Not even Sather protest got a full print article last year in the Times.

Seems NY Times only put in time/money when it's negative about the club, and not do do features on the players. The Times also goes cheap on the Rangers too and treats the Devils same as Islanders, they are never shy about kicking them when down.

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