The Oklahoman: Reports New York Islanders scout Ken Morrow, a defenseman on the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, was at the Cox Center for Friday night’s playoff game between the Barons and Hamilton Bulldogs and had following on Matt Donovan....
“We think he’ll be pushing for an NHL job next year,” Morrow said. “I saw him at our rookie camp last summer, and he certainly stood out there. I think we all felt that he was ready to make the jump to play professionally.”
Espn.com: Had a few words from Garth Snow on Friday regarding the status of goaltender Evgeny Nabokov, and possibly filing paperwork to toll the contract.
"If we were to entertain something like that it would be after the playoffs. The phase we're in right now is that we just finished up our exit meetings and we have to go through scouts meeting and look at any avenue to make the team better."
NYIFC Comments:
If Garth Snow files paperwork to toll the contract (after the NHL season concludes) and it now allows the Islanders to trade Nabokov without him needing to clear NHL waivers again (as he had to last season for Snow to trade him) this comes off like a very good move.
Hard to say where the club goes with this and pointless to file before he completes the World Championships healthy. If Poulin, DiPietro or Montoya come into camp injured/ineffective or sustain an injury they may well need Nabokov, who may want to be part of this team if an opportunity to start is provided.
What we need most here is more clarification of rules. Bottom line if the team files it appears Nabokov owes the team a year of service at salary he was claimed on waivers.
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Some important Coliseum news on Thursday, too much innuendo surrounding Gary Bettman's nothing new statement on Islanders Friday, but obviously things have to start happening soon. Bettman's job is to push for a new/renovated arena and support a member of the Board of Governors.
The important news was in the NY Times (going pay subscription again) on 4/21 that I felt was a mistake so I did not post it here.
NY Times: Wrote about the Coliseum site with Kate Murray's comments.
For the Coliseum site, Hempstead will in the next few months be unveiling its alternative: a pared-down mixed-use zoning plan. It proposes 500 units of moderately priced and “work force” residences, said Kate Murray, the town supervisor, as well as hotels no taller than 10 stories, bicycle lanes, pedestrian walkways and the option to build convention facilities, shops, offices and entertainment sites, as well as refurbish the Coliseum. The new zone has 5.4 million square feet of development, versus as much as 13.5 million square feet in the Wang proposal.
That was “way too large for this 77-acre parcel,” Ms. Murray said.
NYIFC Comments:
I know, you saw this act last summer, but process now says TOH has to push through the same zoning you saw in that project last summer.
What folks forget here is TOH/Kate Murray's scaled-down development has to go through the exact same approval process as the Wang/Rechler proposal even if everyone's sees both proposals as futile.
TOH can take as long as possible (within guidelines) to push through their project(which is why eleven months just for re-zoning) but they cannot end process. The TOH must go through the motions, they must take their development project to completion with TOH approval and then force an official no from Wang/Rechler to vacate the current MOU regardless if we have their on the record comments via Mangano it's not viable for them.
This is all the end game for TOH/Murray to officially be the ones to tell the public they turned down our proposal, it's all about blame game. They are not going to vote down Wang-Rechler Lighthouse and be ones to take blame, they are going to force Wang-Rechler to formally reject their project.
All designed to go through motions and run out clock.
And it may well come down to Mangano blaming taxpayers, you turned down our referendum to finance a new Coliseum, nothing more I can do.
As for James Dolan's Newsday their end game is to run down the team, keep things negative from the former intern turned beatwriter (when will Grabner be signed/will Islanders be relocated poll?) drive away fans without the same level of coverage for any positive news or features via former Ranger beatwriters when it's time for additional coverage.
You think Newsday wants to hype Tavares, Moulson, Grabner or these kids? Token coverage at best/kind of like Msg+2.
It's not in their best interest on or off the ice.
Dolan's writers do what they are told or Chief Editor Debbie (website design) Krenek or Hank Winnicki (sports editor) will find someone to replace them as quickly as John Mancini was replaced here or as fast as Wallace Matthews quit. Many are long-time Ranger fans (Neil Best) and had plenty of enthusiasm running down Islanders before Cablevision purchased Newsday.
To be fair Ms Krenek held this position formerly at Daily News.
It's like the Dolan/Cablevision/Msg television coverage, keep the club hidden on stations like Msg+2 that produce lowest ratings, keep them off television as much as possible, hurt the brand because it's Msg competition and then simply write the team is not very popular with the public to justify these decisions and produce the ratings numbers via Msg media after the damage has been done.
Meanwhile spam their own teams 24/7 on both channels and during Islander games as this years latest twist.
No special programming, no preseason games on television/ITV/no Islanders in studio full time on Dolan's hockey show. No Msg telecast which Devils receive because they signed their agreement more recently and demanded better coverage as part of resigning.
Not believing this? Even the Red Bull had issues with Msg's branding of their product when they resigned their television agreement recently NY Post.
It was not only about money for Red Bull management, they wanted exposure for their team.
Why? The revenue the Dolan's can save on the Islanders vacated television contract combined with expanding his own teams brands (along with AHL team) back into Nassau County is worth hundreds of millions.
Cablevision/Dolan bought into Hartford and even recently insulted the Bridgeport Sound Tigers by naming their team Ct which is where the Islanders AHL team plays.
Msg may well spend 25 million to purchase the LA Forum here.
Is Nassau or TOH going to reject Cablevision renovating Coliseum to keep revenue for County/TOH if all these plans fail? Will Charles Wang, who owns hotel on that property regardless of what happens to the Islanders if he does not have a functional Coliseum on that site for future events?
I'm sorry, you have read this all here before here, however this is all one big endgame. Our fans may get the token editorials supporting the Islanders remaining at the Coliseum from Newsday, but continued poor media can kill a franchise. The kind the Dolan's teams never see in James Dolan's newspaper.
No team anywhere in North American sports has a media worse than the New York Islanders. It could be 1980-83 on the ice and the coverage and negative spin would be same, this goes beyond game results or the age of Nassau Coliseum or attendance at hockey games.
You believe the Canadian media does their own reporting on New York Islanders? They pick up blurbs from Dolan's paper and by the time they are done it's translated into another version with even more misinformation. Not even the Florida Panthers receive 1/10th of the mountain of negative coverage the New York Islanders receive.
Newsday will never fight for this team or show the enthusiasm for them they way the Pittsburgh media fought for Penguins, they will not even put up the fight the Arizona Republic does for the Coyotes.
Cablevision/Msg/Newsday has a vested interest in what they are doing, and it's not in the New York Islanders best interest.
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