Wanted to answer some questions I have been getting in e-mail given it's a bit quiet.
1. This is a non-profit/no-advertising website of this site or anyone who wants to advertise/link exchange or whatever. No interest in how many read this site or follow me on twitter.
2. This website is to tell the New York Islanders story from the perspective of a fan, covering all aspects to things related to the team. Our team has no real media any longer, and my standards have not dropped from what they were in 2007 when this began.
2a. The people paid to work at the teams website do a fantastic job for us, the cyber-bullying done to them is always inappropriate.
3. Obviously I have views some do not agree with or like, which is fine. I'm not going to pull punches, but will always be fair.
4. My twitter account has been protected during the last two NHL seasons. I do block/mute many accounts because the folks who do follow should be able to have respectful conversations, free of profanity/personal attacks. If you can/could not post 140/280 characters without doing that, and be courteous or agree to disagree I'm not interested in conversations with those kind of people, nor should people who follow me be subjected to that.
4a. I do admit to a self-righteous streak. Not a fan of internet bullies. If I come off as talking down to folks, it's not my intention & I am sorry, but always let everyone make a fair point, and hope we learn from each other.
5. Simply put I have zero tolerance for the self-serving people who use our team to promote themselves or some kind of career they aspire to. Don't know them, maybe they like the team on some small level when they are not selling their acts or podcasts or message boards, but understand they do what they do for their themselves.
Giving people free space at websites like WFAN/CBS does not make them media, they don't cover games or go in the room, but they do entertain which is what they aspire to.
The Fischler interns/bloggers want their Msg credential to cover Ranger games, so they conduct themselves far differently vs how they stir things up with the NYI. Resume first.
Having no real media any longer it's very easy for them to operate these days, and present themselves as something they are not.
Other teams (many who have struggled much longer than NYI) don't seem to have this issue.
Bottom line those people are there for themselves, not our team.
I'm a logo on the front person.
6. I don't care what Brian Compton thinks of me or his personal comments. I don't know the man & thought his images of his little boy cheering on NYI in the playoffs were wonderful a few years ago.
My thoughts are if a New York based NHL.com writer had a podcast to trash Dolan, Sather, and the Rangers in the same manner or brand them as a Manhattan team, the media relations people at NHL, who are mostly former Ranger fans/beatwriters at the Daily News would tell Mr Compton, you can write for us, or have your podcast, and be critical of Ranger management, not both.
Plenty of hockey writers who used to write for newspapers are out of work, who have to up their game to stay employed at whatever they are selling today as media. Right, Arthur Staple?
Too bad he'll never write about how he dumped Dolan/Newsday, two weeks after Steve Zipay retired, but he sure was good at telling us unless we become Dolan's tenant our team goes to Quebec.
7. The people who work for Newsday/News12, all affiliated outlets job is to get Dolan his Belmont arena to be our landlord 41 days or find a new job. Bad news & information is not what they interested in like in 2011 when it was not Dolan's building to operate so they played watchdog. They sold their false narratives on fan support, Barclay's and when you get naive people who make the decisions, but can't read between the lines or do their own jobs very well not branding New York things like this happen. Both Barclay's, and the Islanders ownership share the blame here.
Most outlets just parrot what's in Dolan's paper, they have no money or interest in coverage.
7a. I have done all I could to help the anti-Belmont Arena people, they seem to get Cuomo, Dolan, Percoco, Silver, Lhota ties, taxpayer money for Dolan family, and cronyism, but always get off that message when it's time to face the camera's.
Is it that hard to go there with signs that say No Dolan Belmont Arena, with the taxpayer money James Dolan, and his family received from Cuomo for Chase Garden tax exemption, Penn Station plan, now his Belmont Arena, with campaign contributions from the Dolan family to Andrew Cuomo?
8. Our team should be New York based or presented as such like everyone else. The same people who run to New Jersey on football Sunday's should get over themselves with the Long Island or Brooklyn mantra for a NY team. The NHL does not work in Nassau, once Cuomo hands Dolan his shovel, they would likely love to get NYI out or this will fall apart for the owners when the fiction of fan support in Nassau is again exposed.
It would have worked in Barclay's over time and still outdid Nassau, but like Trottier coaching the Rangers, Dolan's media did everything to stop it from day one.
One person on twitter commented why not just go like fans did with Boston Garden which had the same problems. I reminded him the Bruins had a friendly home media not looking to get the team moved, and always talked of how great the Boston Garden was for over 60 years, unlike here.
I do think Malkin-Ledecky relied on media and some fans, and for now decided being a tenant on the Queens-Nassau border puts it in the middle, but it's a naive plan.
Finally, still undecided on writing here during the draft. Been updating historical site a lot for anyone interested.
