No surprise here the usual Espn suspects in Scott Burnside and Teri Frei who rip the New York Islanders at virtually every opportunity decided for the most part to give the Chicago Black Hawks a pass for firing a respected coach after only four games as demonstrated by their articles here & here.
Espn: Pierre LeBrun unfortunately even helped the Espn party-line selling the Hawks message Savard was not experienced enough against the coaches in his own division as Scott Bowman added his quotes to control the spin.
Espn: Former Tampa general manager Jay Feaster even came on board to talk of why teams sometimes make these kind of decisions in season and cited his own experience.
NYI Fan Central Comments:
Funny this is the same Espn outlet that kept putting up those articles hyping up the Hawks all summer despite this franchise on almost every level being worse than the Islanders since 2002.
Unlike the death grip Cablevision pays for to keep any Islander coverage on television restricted because of any fear of competition, Hawk ownership kept their own team off the airwaves.
Of course everyone's favorite Newsday beatwriter who worked the hardest to make sure Ted Nolan's contract was center stage for the public to talk about to a point the Islanders did not even get gameday coverage at the time yesterday basically felt the move was unfair with his Islander-related comments about the United Center not being a bad place to work for Joel Quenneville with more from the summer speculation the former Avs coach did not seem too interested in the Islander coaching position recently here.
NYI Fan Central Comments:
With friends like Mr Logan the New York Islanders in the media need no enemies.
I guess Mr Logan forgot to note the Islanders have had more season ticket holders
at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum for several seasons than the folks who went to the United Center or whatever the Hawks call home these days.
Mr Logan also forgot in his rush to inform the public the Islanders are behind the Hawks (in his opinion) in terms of a youth movement that this is the same Joel Quenneville who was also not interested in the Messier/Sather Ranger coaching job
and their rebuilding back in 2004 when the Colorado Avlanche came calling here despite some problems with exhaustion at the time.
Mr Logan also forgot to write Joel Quenneville has been a Western Conference coach his entire career.
I guess that simply would not stir up Islander fans so why bother?
Bottom line:
If Garth Snow fired Ted Nolan four games into this season who had the same contract situation as Denis Savard entering this season off the way the Chicago finished 2007-2008 while hiring a high-profile coach as a scout a month ago there is no chance Islander management would have received anything but the same laughingstock tag these reporters roll out at every opportunity as they make their sentimental journey back to the nineties once again.
Of course the New York Islanders do not have an Espn-Zone in Chicago and a vested interest in keeping the glass half-filled here because it's good for business.
Always about business, ties, friendships, bonds and very little about holding every franchise to the same standard. As usual the Islander beatwriter only tells one side to the story and omits Mr Quenneville also passed on coaching the club he used to cover for Newsday.
Nice job by the Post today. A postage stamp AP article on the Islanders win in Tampa Bay, a full article by Mark Everson who was allowed to travel all the way to Atlanta?