Barclay's Center/Nassau Coliseum? It's season #44 in New York.
Like last season there is no time for any distractions.
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Expectations:
It's win or go home for this coach, and likely this general manager. Especially with a new majority ownership taking over.
There are very high projections for this team, words mean nothing, only results.
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Opening Night:
Hopefully they can raise all the banners properly, do a decent tribute to Al Arbour, but I'm skeptical it will be controversy free while Mr Yormark does his Brooklynizing which has even gotten Bettman to ask him to tone things down.
I expect everything from the Hall Of Fame banner to the plaques in that building.
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Dolan/Media:
Obviously Dolan/Ranger media, cheap NYC sports editors love the Brooklyn branding wall, which is great for Mr Yormark despite this being only a New York franchise. The Islanders website seems staffed by Barclay's with hockey updates coming slower because they seem to have few website holdovers.
If there is any hope of any Islander regular season games ever being played in a Ratner renovated Coliseum, Dolan/NHL must approve, if it's rejected Ratner has to pay for that lost revenue.
Daily News editor, Bill Price, did what he said after we spoke, the Islanders have a Daily News logo/section. I also suggested the Devils are represented which did not happened.
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Coliseum:
All I can write is a renovation that was expected to begin in mid-August, has not been announced well into October. There are deadlines, but renovation can mean doing the smallest things first.
Mangano, Rabinowitz at Hofstra are all getting exactly what they want on that property, no doubt Cuomo will approve funding for everything requested.
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Sound Tigers:
Their website does not list Jon Ledecky or Scott Malkin as owners. Wang is not breaking his professional-only team only lease at Webster Bank Arena, and it's been a long time since anyone saw Charles Wang/Bruce Ratner together anywhere.
Seems Wang again put money into upgrading WBA.
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Twin Rinks:
It seems the assets have been sold off, and claims settled. Not sure what that means in terms of bonding issues or Wang getting control soon. Nothing would shock me here if practices were shifted.
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Odds/Ends:
Jiggs McDonald wrote in April when he visited Barclay's they were working on a scoreboard fix, I put a lot of stock in his comments, if it was attempted it was done to no publicity.
The one thing both sides needed to do was fill in those empty seats behind the net. Never happened, and the draft opts four rows behind the goals were not advertised for sale.
If anyone has noticed what Mr Yormark said on 6/30 to the WSJ about over 8,000 full season tickets sold are the exact same numbers being said now which would mean in a hundred days not one season ticket has been purchased.
It took two years to center the first Nassau Coliseum Skate-land scoreboard.
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No Hiding Come Monday Against Winnipeg:
I have big doubts the fans will be there starting Monday as we see the usual October, November, December Coliseum turnouts under 10,000.
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On The Ice:
Wrote it before.......will again. This team could finish 1st overall or 30th overall.
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Preseason:
This was a very bad preseason, one that raised significant questions. I wrote recently unless the team shows disturbing trends in preseason is not a big deal.
They showed awful trends across the board but never put their best team on the ice. That's contrary to Capuano's history as coach.
No one won a spot either besides Pulock, will he sit behind Brian Strait, and burn up eligibility?
Still it's not last preseason before the trades where they put mostly their best team on the ice at Webster Bank Arena, and the Bruins completely dismantled them 6-1.
You play seven games, and are outplayed badly in all seven (with the games on the line & even the two games they hung on to win) against prospects that's not good.
The Caps, Flyers badly outplayed them, there were enough regulars dressed to take over the game with Michael Neuvirth ready to give up plenty of goals for the the Flyers.
The Caps announcers kept repeating how easily they were dominating both games, and noted the Islanders had regulars dressed, and barely applied any pressure.
All seven games this team regressed as they wore on, other teams built chemistry, and were having a good time. Washington barely broke a sweat, and this was an Islander team who just lost to them in a playoff series.
Over the years I cannot recall one NY Islanders camp the regulars did not dress together for a single game.
Bottom line these trends continue, there will be no hiding from a very early coaching change as in October, this core was mostly kept together.
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Chicago:
Ok, they play Chicago who will have their home opener/rust out of the way, while the NY Islanders will not have let Tavares, Leddy, Boychuk, Hamonic dress for a game together in thirteen days.
Tavares-Okposo did not play one minute together.
The full roster not dressing together at all for one single game.
Maybe they hit the ice, and start winning immediately, who knows?
I went to the hockey school which says that is not likely unless you build a little chemistry in preseason games, and play your regulars a game or two together but it's possible.
Greiss got a two year contract, he comes in with a resume less than Johnson a year ago, but this is what he was signed to do, and there was competition for his services, so his job is to give this team a chance to win.
The goalie they took off waivers has zero NHL experience.
