A few quick NYI Fan Central Notables

New York Islander Fan Central | 12/07/2007 01:17:00 PM |
* Thanks to everyone for voting in our recent poll on the media, the next poll will be released on Monday.

Who's to blame for the lack of hockey coverage in New York?

Other sports enormous fan support in this market 3
On ice product not winning in playoffs 3
Too small a niche for hockey in NY today 0
Over marketing of Long Island, not New York by pr department 2
Lockout killed coverage 0
Madison Square Garden, restricting Islander coverage 2
Editors send beat writers to where paper can make money 2
No blame here, just the way things are in this market 1

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Shocked no one voted for the lockout which is something the media uses constantly as a reason for the decline of coverage.

* Something called a schmapplet has finally solved our schedule/game report issue with the blog as I have been looking to upgrade our schedule section. This also has game results from Espn as well as the complete schedule with results and a map showing a view of the building. Credit to the folks for designing it and feel free to add it to your Islander website.

NYI Fan Central Comments
If nothing else it will keep everyone updated on the ever changing names of so many NHL arena's.



* No response to the Times, Post or Msg editors to have New York Islander Fan Central a linked at their pages or given a blog and no answer as to why any Islander blog cannot be added. I do intend to get an answer and post it here because I want our team to get more coverage in these papers. I can only ask for my own site and as I told everyone I do not want any money or my name in the paper.

Quick Q & A from the e-mails:
1. I scream at the TV shoot shoot. The Isles are too fancy. Shoot at the goalie and scramble for a rebound. Make the goalie work. Hire anyone who can shoot the puck. The Isles have too many defensive clones. Bates, Hilbert two players I'd like to see replaced for a shooter. Try Bergeron on a wing. He is not a very good defense man and he has a heavy shot. This is an old team. Bring up some young legs that don't look like they are skating in mud during the third period.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
The shots on goal in games are there in terms of statistics. Quality shots are another story to the point even Mike Sillinger said recently the club is going out of it's way just to take shots but not working to get a good scoring chance. When this club sits on the perimeter and does not screen the goalie they do not score, when Vasicek and Guerin screen the goalie as they did against Atlanta they scored twice.

Clearly this club is trying to go with a defense first approach. Bates and Hilbert are signed through next season so it's not as easy as replacing them or putting their NHL salary in the minors. Hilbert also makes a lot of solid defensive play on the boards but in terms of goals it's an expensive luxury to have. Islanders are hoping he shows what he did in Pittsburgh when he had nineteen goals in twenty games.

Bergeron was asked about playing wing and is quoted as saying it's not something he wants to do or think's he can do.

2. Fans should write letter to the publishers of these papers threatening to
boycott them unless the Isles get better coverage.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
The sports editors and the publisher do not depend on the Islanders to generate revenue for their papers. When Chris Botta suggest fans should boycott some of these papers it says all you need to know because no doubt he fights very hard for increased coverage. Islanders are not blameless because they increased the Long Island mantra and posted it all over every comment. They gave the city media the excuse it was looking for along with the lockout.