Ranger media site claims Isles-Milbury agenda?

That did not take long at all, one game.

Looks like Mike Milbury did not get the sell the last place Rangers memo from NBC's Dick Ebersol or James Dolan before the game yesterday and a spin doctor Ranger fan site called the Hockey Rodent with Fox affiliation is very upset Mr Milbury was critical of a last place team struggling and Jaromir Jagr which claims an Islander agenda from the former gm.

This site is calling for a Milbury-free telecast against Montreal and a boycott of NBC products here as long as Mr Milbury is involved with the telecast.

New York Islander Fan Central is calling for the best game on television and cutting the Rangers out entirely until they earn the right to be televised based on standings like all teams should be.

Why is this Islander-related you may ask?

The person doing this article claims Mike Milbury is still under contract to the club and claims an Islander agenda yesterday which makes no sense because the former gm picked the Rangers to win the Stanley Cup earlier this year and terms of Mr Milbury's final Islander contract signed back in 2002 terms were not disclosed according to Dave Caldwell in this 2002 NY Times article, among several sources
here to say nothing of Mr Milbury's reported resignation and interview with Boston for their head coaching position.

If that's not enough the former gm was critical of the Islanders on video last week which was posted on this blog, someone under contract to a team does not rip his former team on television, do they?

I bring up this particular site because it says they have an affiliation with Fox Sports with the author calling for a Milbury dismissal/boycott of NBC products and sponsors but the site tells they they cannot act themselves because of a conflct of interest.

Yes, they do but not the one they bothered to tell you about.

That's the same Fox sports that televises Islander Hockey fully controlled by Cablevision today as part of part of a February 2005 restructuring according to Newscorp.com here with Rupert Murdoch taking his own stations which did not include FSN-NY.

Regardless that site got it's message out and created their perception which is why NYI FAN Central will get involved and tell the true story as I see it.

* It claims the Rangers would deliver the single biggest hockey market in the Lower 48. If you don't believe this, then consider that their very next game will be Rangers-Habs - again a conflict between two franchises very not in cup contention.

I don't know what the single biggest hockey market is but what I do know is the Buffalo market outdrew the New York market by a two to one margin in terms of viewers during last year's playoffs as Alan Pergament made clear in the Buffalo News last spring which is no longer available in it's on-line editon. Feel free to check for the link in their archives
here for confirmation and reference.

The Rangers have the potential to be watched in 12 times as many households as the Sabres do because they play in the nation’s biggest market........

But in Round Two, the New York potential hasn’t translated into more viewers. The Versus coverage of Game One had a 25.3 rating here and a 1.1 rating in New York City. A rating point in Buffalo equals about 6,400 homes. A point in New York equals about 74,000 homes. According to Versus, the game was watched by practically twice as many households in Buffalo than in the Big Apple — 162,000 homes to 83,000 homes.

Several markets also outdraw the Manhattan market overall with the Penguins even outdrawing the Garden's prime sports property in the Knicks and the Nets as Bob Smizik told us in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette last April here while Bob Raissman told us in the Daily News last April a Nets regular season game outdrew a Ranger playoff game in terms of New York ratings numbers and claimed the Garden's personalities are creating delusional chatter about the club's true perception in the market here.

So already the Rangers are not even in that equasion given they drew a ratings avgerage lower than forty thousand homes last year which Richard Sandomir in the New York Times will tell you about here and their playoff ratings last year were terrible in New York to where the media noted several articles like this where NASCAR beat them here.

Bottom line Rangers will be on NBC because Mr Ebersol wants it that way and has a long relationship with the Garden to where the last place Knicks today for the same reason if Mr Wang owned NBC the Islanders would be on television the maximum number of times regardless of the club's record which is not in the best interest of the league or it's fans.

This also begs the question how are the Canadians or any club in playoff position not in cup contention at time?

This site also claims Mike Emrick clearly ratched back his typical wrestling federation delivery three notches so as not to alienate MSG cognoscenti and that Mr Milbury comments were pile-ons and gratuitous but failed to note Mr Emrick is also under contract to Cablevision to call New Jersey Devils hockey and could have a potential problem if he did what Mike Milbury did which also included criticism of the Bruins.

This begs the question if your telling the story why not tell the entire story if you want disclaimer's of Mike Milbury's Islander affiliation run during games beforehand?

Ok, enough of a Ranger fan site with ties to the media but just another example of how fans in the media business create perception for us which is up to you to accept or question.

My advice is to avoid the Hockey Rodent until that site cleans up it's act and does a more credible job but if sites like Fox carry that perception I feel I have given you reason to now ask your own questions if you read this at Fox.

My find word on this subject points to an outstanding article last summer by Jason Chung where he makes clear how Espn influences public attitudes in terms of the NHL in the situationist.com
here.

I feel the same thing happens a lot in our hockey market.

Feel free to comment and respond here or on the message board.

Islander cheapshots in media again.

THN.com Ken Campbell posted an article over the Espn website on the state of the Toronto Maple Leafs Monday, who could take over for general manager John Ferguson, who reportedly was not allowed to fire head coach Paul Maurice last week. He goes through the possible general managers and talks about experience and when it comes to hiring inexperience writes " Let teams like the New York Islanders do this kind of thing. The stakes in Toronto are simply too high for the Leafs to hand the reigns to these guys"........

NYI Fan Central Comments:
What it is with so many of the The Hockey News and Espn writers? Do the Islanders media relations people treat them badly at some point or are they still annoyed with the Four Straight Championships or did Mike Milbury rip Ken Campbell, Adam Proteau or Scott Burnside to Frank Brown who is NHL’s vice president of media relations?

Are they that upset Islanders beat out the Leafs the final day and took away work for playoff games and to this point have made them look foolish in their predictions?

The stakes in terms of winning are far higher for the Islanders in New York than it is for the Leafs in Toronto. Is the Teachers Pension Fund going to Boycott the club, will everyone stay home if the Leafs land in the NHL lottery?

Losing is like Christmas for these writers because they get to complain more in print and many of them are die hard fans of those teams, but that's no excuse for Ken Campbell here.

New York Islanders have to win to get attention and keep people coming in a baseball centric market.

The real stakes for Mr Campbell is the competition for coverage in the Canadian Media and all of them not being able to write the same thing. Folks like Mr Campbell are all in the business of selling themselves.

Fox Sports: Al Strachan who was at the Toronto Sun for years and is a contributing writer at Fox, goes into a mini rant regarding Neil Smith's contract when talking about Maple Leafs looking for a new gm.

Ct Post/Newsday blog updates and Comrie

Ct Post Michael Fornabaio updated his Sound Tigers blog this afternoon and reported Joe Rullier is with the club on a tryout contract. Jeremy Colliton was given a day off after blocking an Ian Moran shot in the second period last night but he's likely to be ready to skate in the morning. Thomas Pock cleared waivers and was assigned to Hartford.

Newsday: John Jeansonne's blog update is on blocking shots and the potential remifications. Brendan Witt and Islanders head athletic trainer Garrett Timms are quoted and provides him witnessing March 22, 1989 game between the Buffalo Sabres and St. Louis Blues when St. Louis' Steve Tuttle and Buffalo's Uwe Krupp collided in the goal mouth in front of Sabres goalie Clint Malarchuk was seriously injured by a skate to his neck.

Espn.com: Victoria Matiash and John Pereira debate whether Mike Comrie's hot start is for real.

Fox Sports: Mike Chen crunches the numbers and asks who is giving the most value for the money by the numbers and mentions Mike Comrie but also questions his consistency.