I hope you know this.
In other sports, there is competition among writers in this town and for someone to write something incorrect means there are others looking for a story and will use space to criticize a fellow writer so they do need their facts straight.
Not for hockey and especially not the New York Islanders.
The coverage (aside from Bridgeport/Ct Post) is the only thing tanking year round and the damage they do creating our teams perception does stick on a lot of fans and credible newspaper writers in other markets. The limited print media in newspapers is all our fans have to present as professional coverage and there is nothing of value anywhere else beyond infrequent NHL.com updates with features on the players where they tell their own story.
Having written this does someone/anyone in a newspaper follow hockey enough to get something correct even once in a while?
Which brings me to this blog entry.
I flat out laugh every time I read something that the New York Islanders should build like Chicago, Pittsburgh and now even Washington but let's take a look at all three teams and I will tell you why the only team New York should be built like is the New York Islanders and correct some of the revisionist history.
Chicago Black Hawks:
How many times have I written Charles Wang needs an Espn Zone like Chicago has?
I'm not knocking the current Blackhawks who have a world of talent and are 0-2 against the Islanders the last two years but..........
Does this mean Scott Gordon should be fired like Denis Savard after four games next season, or if Garth Snow is fired in a year because somewhere an Islander alumni aka Scotty Bowman's kid Stan took over operations and hired his father so Dale Tallon had to go and it's no big deal?
Does this also mean when Garth Snow or the next gm forgets to file contracts properly for Bailey, Okposo and Tavares in a few years (like the Hawks did with their three young players) forcing them to spend much more money to keep them earlier no one is going to notice?
I guess this also means the Isles can sign another Yashin contract and give out a Marian Hossa-like, twelve year, front-loaded contract while he was too hurt to even play or give out an absurd contract like Cristobal Huet received ($22.4 million/ $5.625 million per season) combined with someone else getting a Duncan Keith thirteen year deal?
I suppose Garth Snow or his successor can also do a Brian Campbell like signing and give a player who's a poor defender $7.14 million annually through the 2015-16 season and the club can follow Chicago's plan to build a team.
Scary how many mistakes the Hawks can make and still be packaged and sold as some kind of great rebuilding job after a decade of brutal hockey.
But who's noticing if a team is winning with our joke of a media? This is how we are told the New York Islanders should build their hockey team.
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Pittsburgh Penguins:
Bottom line is Pittsburgh won a league-wide lottery for Crosby and that is not a plan any general manager can follow. Garth Snow or his successor is not going to get that kind of chance (beyond another lockout) and as great as Evgeni Malkin is they did not win a cup because they drafted Jordan Staal or M.A Fleury to go with former Islanders Bill Guerin, Miro Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko.
Pittsburgh gave away Angelo Esposito in a trade, Colby Armstrong and Ryan Whitney were also traded. The Pens drafted a fellow by the name of Matt Moulson who now plays for the New York Islanders.
Same kind of stuff you read about Pittsburgh doing it right but no one remembers after they won the league-wide lottety for Crosby they signed a team of UFA for Mario Lemieux coming out of the lockout that was so painfully bad LeClaire, Recchi, Zigmund Palffy and Lemieux were gone by mid-season and Crosby finished up his rookie year with.......
Former Islander Andy Hilbert.
Craig Patrick lost his job after that season.
Is that how the New York Islanders should be building?
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Washington Capitals:
So the right way to build is give away Jagr's contract paying half his salary only to give an even bigger/longer contract to Alexander Ovechkin?
Is that how Garth Snow should have built his team after years of George McPhee's clubs being outright horrible without leading the NHL in injuries?
Washington's goaltending is on par with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers entering the playoffs with former Islanders Tom Poti and John Erskine on their defense after former Islander Viktor Kozlov played for the Caps. Semyon Varlamov to me is the only real shot they have in goal unless it's a high-scoring game.
Having written this there is a strong case to be made George McPhee did a fine job drafting Mike Green (3rd rd/2004) & (Semin 1st/2002) and of course Nicklas Backstrom along with Eric Fehr, Boyd Gordon but this was a very weak team for a long time that still frankly has some significant holes which Garth Snow's club did exploit taking three of four games to overtime and winning one.
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Hopefully the kids in the Islander locker-room just give stock answers and let these writers move on to their next update because aside from the quotes of coach/players there is little/nothing of value in the questions asked.
A long time ago when Steve Stirling was hired he talked about the New York Islanders needing to play like Anaheim and New Jersey, both who had played in the Stanley Cup finals but in the end New York should only build their team and play hockey following the New York Islander blueprint.
All I can add is just because teams are winning now the history should not be re-written as to how they got there as a blue print for anyone else.
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