Some Q/A for my readers/twitter followers..

New York Islander Fan Central | 1/05/2019 03:30:00 AM |
Been a long time since one of these....but overdue.

1. My view of the team this summer before/after July 1st was they would be a contending team, that's what we have. Major concerns on Tavares skating, defense, 5/5 play, difference-maker in big moments were a big reason for me to want to move on. Only pause for me was Trotz being hired, could he make him skate/defend better? Oh well.....

Wrote team needed a coach who could teach, improve individual players, and play a system/strategy, that's exactly what we got, with a staff beyond Scott Gomez who knows how to win at this level.

Wanted Trotz more than Tavares, we got what was missing since Arbour behind the bench, our players will progress more than ever (Cizikas) or not be the right players, we'll see who earns the jobs, they have options.

Never saw smiling or laughing like in Toronto behind our bench---as in never/ever, it was surreal. Did you ever see Nelson smile like that after Toews scored? I think this group is having fun.

1a. Will winning continue, make playoffs, cup run? Don't know, most of teams are evenly matched, and we are barely at 1/2 way point, and short of Ottawa don't see any team well outside.  Could go either way but template is there to win games, with total 180 in shots allowed, so they play numbers & layer defense. Difference between winning/losing so marginal now. Likely going to take 17 over/95-97 points for a spot so hard work has barely begun.

1b. Lamoriello? Love it, even with Snow's prospects. (senior advisor Garth)  Lou will push the right buttons behind the scenes, every day he's around this organization it becomes stronger.

1c. Ledecky/Malkin? No one made them spend 480 million for eighty percent of this franchise, many owners took one look and hit eject button. You can build a lot of Value Retail anywhere for that money & cash it has taken to fund the payroll. No chance payroll stays as high as it is without Barclay's money in downsized Nassau already with non-sellouts when before it was good for a 10-20 million payroll. Those selfies don't produce 70 million payroll out there, not in any NHL suburb.

And for those bean counters at home, most of Tavares 88 million went to Trotz around 20 million, Lamoriello for likely same/more. Paying Snow, Weight, and all old/new staff with Travis Williams. 

1d. BGD/Barclays? They got both Coliseum/Barclay's and likely HUB with Rechler. Yormark has two teams dead last in attendance (granted NYI have been a two year intentional lame duck now) if Brooklyn campaign was all him (via Chicago firm hired) he should pay with his job, if not he should act like he has two NY teams and that goes for NYI owners who have failed since 1972 with their marketing. And why would he want Belmont to hurt both BSE buildings or be this teams landlord another minute much less for a few years?

Yes, I know, BGD is out of running teams business by next season. Travis Williams is here & maybe we'll find out where playoffs happen someday if they qualify?

2. Care about popularity/page views/how many follow me on twitter? No, no, no & never. I see everyone post a blog or article & retweet it five times. Me? Once/sometimes don't even bother.

2a. Why do I ban so many people on twitter? If you can tweet without profanity, without insults, you don't get banned whether we agree or disagree all day long. Sure I ban self-serving phonies or people who are not media or are media who clearly can't stand team or just marketing themselves.

Bottom line those who follow me deserve a respectful digest of messages, and a feed with zero profanity where you can make any hockey point you like. You join my feed you check profanity/insults at the door or move on, even the people I tweet most with are told. Will not play favorites, and I do quietly unblock some to see if things have changed.

Too repetitive, pushing for where I think our team belongs? Absolutely, this is the time for it before any shovels. Sorry, not sorry.
Too many tweets in general sometimes? Yes.
Repeat images/video's. No doubt.

2b.Why don't I follow anyone? Fair question. In late 90's on yahoo joined a mailing list with the pancake crew who acted like they spoke for all the fans, nothing but a bunch of self-serving  promoters so decided to start my own mailing list through 2006, they all turned on one another, years later many surfaced to agree with me.

Seen so many of those kind of men/women through years. Kind of sad they need that attention for themselves & stoop to those levels, more of them are popping up to market themselves now with podcasts, for me it's always been only about NYI.

2c. Shouldn't a blog with this name always support the team? Never occurred to me when thought up the name, have never even wrote name of site on the header since it began, just on twitter & rarely point anyone here unless it's to see a past entry to answer something for them when tired.

2d. Why do I critique media articles? Just something Phil Mushnick did for years at NY Post with people covering games, but adapted it here to hockey articles, now tweets/views from media, or few articles out there, so when there was a daily digest of professional news long before 2006, would read them & comment on work/quality/information or if it was biased or good? At the time long, long ago it was something folks liked, a new concept, but just a small part of things. Which leads me to the next topic.

2e. Staple/Compton/Gross: Staple has a thin skin, years ago posted how many tweets/blogs he did vs Zipay (aka someone who critiques hockey articles) went downhill from there & he blocked me. Worked like he was doing our fans a favor, and clearly not local team he wants to cover, & glass always half empty at best, then wrote without Dolan we better learn to speak french?

I renamed where he works today the jockstrap, their arrogance & entitlement speaks for itself. Staple now is even more lazy & needs his click-bait so his act without Hank Winnicki changed, they need subscribers. My advice? Put them out of business, you deserve better.

No clicks, no subscriptions, no more.

Compton does not like anyone posting when he's wrong (he contradicted himself by about 57 million on the Northwell renovation), pushed Brooklyn campaign and clearly NHL.com says what he can/can't do. When he whined about not being allowed a podcast by NHL (he wrote nothing when SNY dropped his Ranger/Islander podcast the previous year) & called him on it he decided to post my real name (in bits/pieces on twitter a few times) before my full name, then wanted to meet?

I wanted an apology, no dice, between mutual blocks/unblocks just don't want part of anyone while I'm the only adult in the room only criticizing his hockey/coverage (aka exactly as Phil Mushnick does & told him that) or praising his stories about his boy before playoff games. NHL hiring/firing fast, he'll be gone soon, he has twitter meltdowns with other fans, and a temper that's unprofessional. Younger/cheaper can do that. David Satriano was just hired & all the older guys who make more get nervous & they hired Deb Placey, & you can bet money is going to get tighter with the cba becoming a bigger question.

No folks, zero exchanges/blocks with Andrew Gross, long time Ranger fan, who did a great job in NJ for Rangers, & Devils but this is Newsday, less is less. I think only good thing he wrote was when Trotz told him about his day, preparation for game, that was good.

The only quality writer at the Post is well hidden, Greg Joyce, the rest are worthless & Dolan-owned.

I also noticed Lamoriello only speaks to Canadian outlets. Snow tried a few times with Post, but they are a lost cause. 

2c. Fischler bloggers? Can't stand them, they all act like walking billboards. Fischler? Too many decades of him throwing Rangers in our faces/with their yearly cup wins.
2d. Radio interns/kids on Hofstra with King/Picker? Fantastic, just do a great job quietly, never about them, they were trained great. Exactly people our franchise need, hope they become our next generation.
2e. WFAN? Bloggers are all unpaid amateurs who all act like publishers, columnists, or shock jocks.
2f. Be smart. Google failed our fans badly with their concept of news for our team with some cliche sites that are spam. Just avoid it or write google & ask for their removal.

3. Don't want an empty seat in any arena, not rooting for failure in any building, that's how many of our fans got us in this mess since 1989.  But my vision is it's time to expand the NYC fan base & get NYC facility, lets see a good decade without media distractions, and see how it plays out in a city with millions of people, corporate money needed like 30 teams have/want. Nassau failed for 25 years, nothing moved the needle. Belmont on NYC border is in the middle of nowhere with no train access.

The complete hypocrisy from kids/many adults is terrible. They boycott the team away (since Arbour, Torrey, Pickett in 1989) then boycott it back for the last two years, then can't fill 13,900 seats after only four games? Many of them between being fans of other NYC teams or NJ teams pretending to be NY act like it's Long Island or move out of NY entirely only for this hockey team.

It's like the more information I gave Gary Harding from booster club who's been there since 80's, we have a big NYC base of fans, the more for him it was LI or nothing, and they just tune out anything that does not fit their narrative.

Sir, lets see the 4,000 LI base sustain an NHL payroll heading toward 100 million? We were all there when Torrey-Pickett had new building plans by 1991.

4. Have things gotten lazy at this website? Promised would do same as always, some years more, some less. Silly to take pulse of team every few games, sure write about games more on twitter. All three sites are updated/active, even if some tweets moved here sometimes.

5. Plans to stop? Told people years ago would not discuss that, when it stops, it stops. Will not have anything to do with hockey. Not flip, just honest.

6. What happened to media coverage here? Even long ago back to mailing list days in 1998 era of news articles long gone, this team has no real media to provide that any longer. It tougher to find professional media vs blogging sites selling other bloggers & people networking for their resumes, it takes experience to tell the difference which I have but hint-look in small local papers for best hockey stories with quotes. I learned through repetition long before 2004 lockout started the decline.

6a. Bloggers/anyone amateur's worth linking to here? No, not here, that's opinion of amateurs, not journalism, or professional, most former name sites hired unpaid amateurs seeking resume credit. All of those people with their podcasts, merchandise, message boards, bars, bagels, or whatever may like our team, but they want personal attention for themselves more, they are not here for you but I get it, the lack of real media means you'll accept anyone who says or writes anything. Not for me.

Should you care what I think or write? No, but I'm honest & want nothing from no one, don't pretend to be media or anything.

6b. My snark at media or re-posting their tweets contradicting themselves? Most of it is using their own words. Funny how all those years defending Wang, he outlasted the media & fans who hated him 24/7/365 for not spending while they cut coverage and lost millions themselves?  Boy did everyone get amnesia fast when he passed away. For me, it was easy, he did not get any taxpayer money, he spent all he could, and kept trying here & Bridgeport.

7. My grudge or (LOL) obsession with Dolan?  Silly, never wrote about the man before 1998 (and never anything beyond sports) when our telecast was dropped for the current deal, then Metro, as things kept getting smaller and smaller under his/brothers tenure at Newsday/News12 since 2008 & the endless plus2 games forever for worst ratings (including both upcoming Ranger games) with no post-game over 20 minutes. You want praise for the excellent ladies hired? Hint-let them work like everyone else & have post-games in a studio like other teams.

130 other teams don't have another sports owner with a complete monopoly on their rivals newspaper & television coverage.

Our team was given a summer intern & a paywall in 2008, the same newspaper defeat a referendum, then bid for Coliseum themselves in 2013 to make Rangers AHL home, then were so angry they lost to Ratner they hammered Barclay's & Coliseum 24/7  & finally have pushed 24/7 for a NYI move to an arena that would hurt both BSE buildings.

Maybe that obsession is from Dolan, who has every right to set the NHL clock back to 1971 & use his media to put all that cable television money he owes this franchise back in his bank.
 
On top of that the only real money at Oakview (Dolan) sold their share, who is drowning in taxpayer money from Cuomo upstairs and downstairs at Msg between Joe Percoco/Sheldon Silver appeals, while Lhota quit Mta but not board of Msg.  

We'll see how things play out & what's true. Oakview/Azoff/Leiweke do not have the people (on their website)  to fund the arena in Seattle (cost rose 150 million/contractor quit) much less here without Dolan involved somehow unless someone else is giving them a ton of money.

Newsday/News12 sold our fans this Belmont scheme 24/7 (with no details) while they prosecuted the referendum in 2011 to defeat our team getting an arena, they can't be trusted. 

Newsday ran from Azoff-Dolan Oakview split, ignored media reported it was Dolan vs Steinbrenner for Belmont, put up a big smokescreen & sent Baumbach to ask Ledecky questions at some non-event at Northwell to deflect from the split.

A different version of the dance Kim (I worked with Chris Botta) Kerns for 2 years at the Madison Square Company had to pull with Stefan Bondy banned from a Knicks press conference recently with no explanation. No papers or their writers refused to vote for any Knick awards for individual players because of the ban for those wondering for our fans with long memories.


8. Do I want a Belmont arena? No, tell me why they can't stay at Barclay's until a NYC location with rail access can be constructed? No reason why Shea site not shovel ready for May given Sterling is Wilpon and part of this, and nothing's ever been constructed there for a decade, we all know what ground under Shea looks like since it's demolition, and they have rail/road now for free, and all of Willets Point is waiting for Wilpon-Sterling for generations.

There is no neighborhood to be disrupted at Shea site, it's time to be a city team, and get new generations of fans spending money to fund this franchise that never did in Nassau.

9. Do I own when I'm wrong? Always. In fact you have seen many entries here where the head-line is got it wrong with an apology, even when Bossy said Weight was being fired & was within three days.

Ok, all I got, thank you.