A little 1980 celebration header for 5/24.
Quiet Sunday (Casey Cizikas at Memorial Cup) before the latest spam storm of negative local Coliseum coverage, sure seems anything positive receives only a sentence or two?
As usual, New York Islander Championship history this time of year just becomes a story-line of every Stanley Cup Playoff nationally, just not in New York.
A history that really no team outside of Montreal comes close to, from comebacks, to the great players/games/records set.
The New York Islanders are New York's Championship Hockey tradition, greatest American NHL dynasty, arguably the greatest dynasty in NHL history.
They set the standard.
In baseball city USA, that does not count for much. In Pittsburgh, it means Bryan Trottier receives an interview today (see twitter feed) because there is no longer a baseball season in Pittsburgh.
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Starting to get foolish reading non-sense about how the Islanders should unload Nabokov to another team automatically when the question should be about the best goaltender starting here.
If Nabokov is supposedly the Flyers goaltending answer he should be the answer here.
Of course, the reality is right now Nabokov is a significant step lower than Biron was when he signed here from Philadelphia. He had a brutal summer last year, San Jose dumped him, he priced himself out of the NHL, then ran away from a signed contract in Europe and did not report when claimed off waivers. Frankly by his own admission he was not ready to play or in condition or knew who was calling him when he was claimed on waivers.
His brief WC performance and subsequent injury did nothing to change any perception about his last year being the exception.
Having written all this there is just as good a chance Nabokov comes in, wins the starting job and resigns here. It's never as personal as some make it out to be until the team, player or agent say so. Nabokov wanted a chance to play for a club in contention and for all his statements he also made clear it was not personal against the NY Islanders.
Next season this club has every chance to be in contention with Nabokov starting or any of the other five goaltenders.
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I have nothing but great things to write about Steve Yzerman, who grew up following Bryan Trottier, wanted his number and has been a class act his entire career.
That written please stop selling us any concept that Roloson, Bergenheim, Thompson, or MA Bergeron are star players Steve Yzerman identified with some kind of incredible management skill.
MA Bergeron's great pp shot produced 6g/21pts/23games when Garth Snow brought him here. Without him the Islanders do not make the 2007 playoffs and that trade was made at a point Bergeron had far greater potential. He always seems to end up in the playoffs on a teams backline, plays a big part in that clubs success and then moves on because his defensive play outweighs his great shot.
Dwayne Roloson/Bergenheim numbers were better here than in Tampa before the playoffs. I'm thrilled for all of them including Nate Thompson, Eric Brewer, Wayne Flemming and would love to see them win the Stanley Cup together.
Whether they do or not can the rhetoric please be toned down just a bit because Yzerman did not rob Snow. Roloson took Edmonton to a final, he was a quality goaltender in several places and everyone who followed the Islanders the last two years knew he would help whatever team he went to.
Ty Wishart is a first round pick with some ability, who looked good here.
Point is it should not be a winner/loser thing with this kind of trade.
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For those scoring at home the three hundred or so Atlanta fans that turned up for a last minute fan rally Saturday to support the club was about two hundred plus more than those who showed up for a month long organized Ranger fan rally (on a game day) to show support for firing Glen Sather.
Kind of like during the lockout you would see all the media in NYC from Canada covering meetings packed in streets, while NYC media ignored it entirely.
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The reality of Atlanta-Winnipeg is simply this.
Will NHL BOG (board of governors/team owners) want to quickly replace the ASG ownership with one that have not reportedly been vetted financially to make extra revenue if two outside parties make a sale agreement?
We saw this game with John Spano, who was lining up to purchase Dallas, Florida and was never checked out financially when he closed a sale here.
This is not Gary Bettman's call, who serves the BOG, not the Canadian media with their own agenda.
My preference (which means nothing) is the BOG forces ASG to either file bankruptcy or continue a search for local ownership during the next year, not dump a modern building in a strong TV market, which has not had a fair chance to see a winning product.
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Those who believe Wang, Vanderbeek, ask their television partner to hide their teams off television all summer raise your hands?
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Has Ed Snider re-branded OLN/Versus to be called Flyers plus with NBC to be called Flyers+2?
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