NYI Fan Central Comments:
The value here came from Caps coach Bruce Boudreau on his own player in Tomas Fleischmann who needed two years and finally got it at the NHL level. Tambellini got a two year contract from the club at a lower rate and is not surrounded by players with speed and skill who will get him open space. If Okposo, Bergenheim and others create chances he should be leading the pack at his age but he's not.
Having written that Islanders need to stick with the plan and if he finishes with a zero, so be it.
Twenty games is not enough, a full season may not be enough.
He has been doing some good things away from the puck, he gets that one goal or that one big game it can change quickly, he has speed and offensive skills lacking in this organization.
This is the price a team pays to develop youth, if you are going to bench him or send him down (if he clears waivers) might as well simply move him now or stick with the plan.
I vote to stick with the plan, something from that April stakeholder meeting has to run according to plan.
Aside from that the only reading about the Islanders at the White House I want to see is when they return with the Stanley Cup.
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It's kind of fascinating reading the Newsday staff put a big beating on the Islanders through the summer with the shock jock crew in Mr Rieber-Baumbach calling them a laughingstock at every opportunity " and will do so until they prove otherwise " but the Knicks (last playoff 2002?) again are a circus for countless reasons (failure to buyout Marbury/trades/poor record) and we do not see the same media treatment and worse from the same Newsday staff that has been on a marketing campaign for Jebron James?
Also interesting watching the Dolan controlled Newspaper now run down Marbury in print as often as possible. Two sides in this mess which includes management. Is it that tough to write a check and buy him out if Cablevision has all the revenue Forbes loves to estimate it has?
It cannot be the front-loaded contracts for Drury and Gomez
Funny all we read is the Knicks have a lot of injuries to defend the club's poor record while the Islanders led the NHL in man-games lost last season and it was never mentioned which again is a big theme to this season.
Former Islander beatwriter Alan Hahn for his part has been giving Marbury the
Yashin-treatment during his final season on the beat.
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Is there anyone Mark Herrmann has not driven away yet who may want to attend an Islander game?
He sure got quiet when they won five of six except for him to tell us Josh Bailey is not a franchise talent and they traded Bertuzzi who was drafted lower.
Interesting Rick DiPietro had a lot more to say to the Post than Newsday about his injury to date.
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* I think Larry Brooks is due to unload on the Islanders, the Devils are playing too well for any more gloom and doom unless his target is Bettman.
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* Along those lines former Ranger beatwriter Arthur Staple is all over Gary Bettman and talking a return to team Cablevision for Sean Avery who got a suspension greater today than the one that landed Frans Nielsen out of the lineup for about three months.
Put me in Bettman's corner for a suspension based on lack of common sense by Avery, sometimes rules do have to be written based on personal conduct and like the NFL-NBA
the NHL needs to have a similar policy.
For Mr Staple to include Mike Milbury here is a poor example because his past conduct was always hockey/penalty/contract negotiation related which we saw in the 2002 playoffs and never again in his Islanders tenure.
Mr Staple even was critical of Stars owner Tom Hicks which was more about a writer who discussed A-Rod's big contract when he played in Texas.
Any coincidence here Mr Bettman and the Dolans have legal issues and one of his newspaper writers are critical of the commissioner and the owner who signed his former player? I think not.
Can you imagine the NHL media outcry if an inexperienced former player turned general manager actually signed Avery to this deal and disrupted his team?
Oops, happened.
Guess co-gm Brett Hull can get away with it better than Garth Snow, at least in Newsday.
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* Going to get interesting to see how much Islander coverage is effected by Newsday layoffs here which will include the sports department according to media writer
Neil Best here.
I venture to guess Cablevision owned teams will not see a drop in coverage or someone is paying with their job for Marbury's eventual negotiated buyout.
