NYI Fan Central Comments:
Let's just call a spade a spade. The editors at the Post choose to treat the Islanders this way and are more of a New York franchise then the East Rutherford, New Jersey Giants or Jets and thousands of people care and notice and have since the team first appeared on WOR-9 in the 70's.
The lack of coverage is subjective, done by design and no doubt a few life-long Ranger fans who have enough problems getting any recognition for their own team in New York City who control the agenda behind the scenes at the Post, Times and Daily News want it this way. The space in the paper designated for hockey coverage today is extremely limited.
In other words the Rangers are just as invisible inside New York City and are desperate for coverage because they cannot compete with the major sports who dominate year round.
Bottom line, it's reflective of a few individuals regulating the limited space for hockey coverage, no more and no less. It has nothing to do with any teams popularity in a market.
Mr Brooks writes something once or twice a year on the Isles and there is always some kind of negative spin or outright insult thrown in there about the franchise because he cannot help himself as a life-long fan of an Islander rival and today is no different.
This former Devils employee also has no problem getting in his shots at his former employer.
Mr Brooks was stuck with the Islander beat when they did win the Stanley Cup which he does praise but never could personally accept as a New York Championship Franchise that won like his favorite team never could. He makes sure to keep the New York Islanders on the outside whenever the chance presents itself. His disgraceful conduct claiming Mike Bossy wanted money for a retirement ceremony where he had to issue a public retraction then not writing a word on the event speaks to his true agenda.
Mr Brooks finds it very comfortable doing all he can to distance the Islanders from being a New York franchise but the reality is he even acknowledges indirectly on occasion is how many Islander fans are inside the city limits and at Msg for games and have been for close to two decades and only serves to contradict himself.
They came out in big numbers in March 2000 to cheer a club dead last heading for their seventh straight year out of the playoffs at a time Larry Brooks called the Garden, Nassau Coliseum Mainland in an old article I posted on my Islanders-Sound Tigers mailing list.
At the time Mr Brooks wrote this Butch Goring was just fired as coach at the worst time in franchise history with no reason for any New York Islander fan to attend a game of a team destined to finish out of the playoffs for a seventh straight year but did in New York City and in substantial numbers.
No, in this 75th anniversary season the Rangers had to go even a step
farther and turn the Garden into Nassau Coliseum Mainland, as the
substantial number of Islander fans, who invaded Manhattan last night,
filled the arena with chants of "Let's Go Islanders!" as their team
whipped the heroic home boys by 5-2.
Devils have the same problem with Post beat writer Mark Everson, who has been known in New York circles as Mark Neverson for his gloom and doom on the Devils.
As for Larry Brooks:
What's the expression, a picture is worth a thousand words?
Does Mr Brooks really think all these Islander fans inside Msg cheering for the NEW YORK Islanders are only from Nassau County?
Another sad day from the very limited hockey department at the New York Post, your act has gotten very old Mr Brooks, save the
half-hearted complements because it's clear the insults are the real agenda behind them.