Updates will continue on Mr Torrey as released. Finally Al Arbour/Bill Torrey will be together on the header, even if Al losses a little space. The core of the four was a bit subjective, but Lorne Henning was recognized by the team when it was decided.
Billy Carroll, Brent Sutter, and all of the other cup winners were given a special place at the historical site, along with many special people who worked there during dynasty era.
Expect more updates.
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Not a lot to write on many fronts, things will play themselves out.
Off the ice.........
Richard Browne of Sterling Enterprises said Dolan runs the Belmont arena, and NYI are his tenants, same as since Dolan's newsday first reported that. This forced RFP was rushed to approval because this is payback for 2013 from Andrew Cuomo because Mangano picked Ratner's bid over Dolan's for the Coliseum RFP.
Dolan's media will stand muted or positive on his Belmont area from Cuomo/taxpayers, anything negative (from LI Business news) will be hidden/muted/heavily and quickly criticized, or placed under the shell company names Oakview, NY Arena Partners or just name the New York Islanders because the Dolan family owns Newsday, and want the quiet process Wang wanted in 2011 for the referendum which Dolan's media turned into a circus to defeat it so Dolan could bid in 2013.
Expect nothing but positive updates for Dolan to get his arena as quietly as possible.
Once ground is broken Dolan could care less if the New York Islanders are his 41 day tenant or not, and prefer his own 2013 bid for the Coliseum which brought their AHL Wolfpack there with Ranger training camp and home preseason games.
And the cable contract through 2031 gone with the New York Islanders.
Only our owners know what they surrendered to be Dolan's tenant along with giving up territorial rights to an outdoor game in writing.
The fan base will again prove they will not go to Nassau over the long run, and our owners will discover they were either naive to the pathetic attendance trends back to 1989 or use this as their out card if Dolan writes them a cable buyout check.
My inclination is Jon Ledecky or little mentioned majority owner Scott Malkin did not need real estate so badly that they spent 480 million dollars for 80 percent of a team, then three years of close to 70 million in payroll in advance to have their reputations tarnished forever with the public as Howard Milstein found out long ago for a sliver of land next to the Cross Island Parkway.
Last I checked a lot of folks purchase real estate without spending money for a sports team in advance.
I want them in NYC at Barclay's as is until a NYC alternative is found without Dolan, eventually it would work out there for the long-term but BSE is frankly a lost cause with regard to sports management which likely will hurt them or end their Coliseum property rights at some point.
Not a fan of Wang-Dolan pictured together in the last week but that is their choice.
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If folks think the Dolan/Belmont announcement upset the home record, just wait until this team becomes the first ever to call 2 NHL facilities home for this duration.
Players don't need many distractions to lose games in this league, and we all know how poorly this team played in Nassau. Get ready for a decade of that and Dolan's Belmont site/Coliseum becoming massive year round construction sites.
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Off the ice, I made clear Garth Snow/Doug Weight's time should have ended last summer. Snow has had a fair amount of time to make some serious runs at a Stanley Cup.
Some media/others with their own sad agenda's who are not media want him cyber-bullied out of his job under all circumstances. I'm completely against those tactics. My reasons for wanting a change are he did not win enough the team took a step back a year ago, and a giant step back this year with a man who simply is not experienced enough to be a head coach at this level.
Snow's made some excellent decisions in the last year, and during his entire tenure, only they know if Weight being given the full time job was Snow's decision.
All Weight reaffirmed were the words sound nice, but give me a coach who can't put two coherent sentences together but can teach players/systems/strategy.
That's how you win.
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About Lou Lamoriello, he will be 76 when the season starts, if he were hired here to be gm, his recent record would be worse than Snow's in signings/decisions which is likely the real reason unqualified team president, Brendan Shanahan, wants someone else that he can control as gm while Mike Babcock runs his bench, and cleans up his Matthews problems before he has to go.
Lamoriello had some rough final years in NJ. Parise walked from him after making finals, he signed Kovalchuk to an illegal 15 year contract, who left anyway, and the team was fined a first round selection which they got back, and then the team really started losing.
Snow unloaded Grabner's contract on Toronto for 5 million, who again went 30 games with no goals as he did here in 2013-14.
Then Matt Martin signed the contract there everyone knew would be a bad one here, he's had some very poor decisions.
Chris Lamoriello is two years younger than Snow, and Bridgeport's gm, a title Snow gave up last season. The new cyber-bullying on Bridgeport's record, which again would have tied them for the 8th seed in the other division after what would have been a first place finish a year ago in the other division reflects media with an agenda.
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On the ice..............
I made clear recently where I stood with John Tavares, if he returns it could be a mistake that sets them back for a generation if his skating/defensive/invisible games continue, where he's rarely the best player on the ice.
I'm prepared to move forward with or without him, and feel this team has an excellent core, and his contract could help resign Lee, Barzal, Eberle for openers.
My impression is the peripheral media out there who simply think Tavares was a star who carried them, and Halak was a bad goaltender give the impression they watched a few highlights and little else.
Halak had a career season. He was the only reason those 35-50 shot against games were close or this team did not finish with 20 wins. I did not see many bad goals, and have little doubt he can carry this team, and has never been more durable. I would resign him for 2 years as quickly as possible given the market available.
My guess is Halak wants to land elsewhere with a home media, some defense protecting him, and people discover what those who watched closely here know.
He's going to help a team win. Greiss showed a good sampling at end to prove he'll be fine here moving forward.
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As for the rest the math is very simple, a lot of roster spots are filled already. UFA is terrible in goal, and on defense. Mayfield, Pelech have their contracts or RFA with 55, 2, 28, 6-Toews.
We'll see where things go here regarding writing on draft days.
