After the game, I had an opportunity to ask him a few questions about just how intense the rivalry was between the Islanders and Rangers.

The Drive for Five: You played a big part in the Islanders/Rangers rivalry in the 70s and 80s. What was it like for you?

Ron Duguay: What made it exciting aside from the teams being so close in proximity, was the fans. I’m sure that there were probably more fights in the stands than on the ice at times and it was fitting since the fans were the ones that really created this rivalry. On top of that, both teams really enjoyed playing against each other and there was a respect. It wasn’t like when we played Philadelphia, when it was a gong show. When we played the Islanders, it was hard-nosed hockey.

TDFF: Was there a player on the Islanders that you were scared to hit the ice with?

Duguay: No. I just knew and was always aware that if I went into Denis Potvin’s zone, I was going to get hit and hit hard. Other than that, I think everyone always played hard and were respectful of each other.

Photo Patrick Hickey Jr.

Considering the fact that there seems to be a rift between several of the older players and Isles head coach Scott Gordon, many of the team’s veterans could be on the move.

I’m also wondering if Trent Hunter’s supposed lower body injury has more to do with his relationship with Gordon [I have no idea what it is, but if it's rocky, we may have seen the last of him] than anything with his lower body.

As of right now, it just feels like the team has had enough of many of the veterans on the team.

Jon Sim, for example, goes and plays his best game as an Islander and is put on waivers the very next day. The guy has been playing great hockey as of late after a whole season of under-performing and as soon as he gets going, you attempt to give him away? I don’t know if I agree with the logic there. He’s signed for an agreeable one million dollars next season and if he continues to produce, he’ll have a dozen goals in about 60 games. That’s not too shabby for a guy that scored 17 a few years ago with a plethora of ice time. Why they wouldn’t want to just ride him out until he stops scoring is beyond me.

What they are doing right now is slapping him in the face. Putting him on waivers once and not having anyone pick up was bad enough, now putting him back there while he’s playing his best hockey is the ultimate disrespect. Now if no one picks him up, what’s the next step? Throw a player you’ve already proven to have no faith in and that you’ve shown has no value to the 29 other teams in the rest of the league back in the lineup? Like I said, he’s still got another year on his contract and you’ve already made him miserable this season, so what exactly is this guys incentive to play hard for you? That’s the big problem here. Now he has none.

Simply put, doing things like this will inhibit free agents from coming over in the future. Add in the fact that the Islanders obviously already have problems signing players that they need to and this is not good news.

Not good business dealings if you ask me.

The question I’m about to ask may appear to be a simple one, but it is still one that has to be asked.

“What is going on here?”

I know that it appears that the Islanders Lighthouse Project is destined to the same fate as what’s going on with the New Jersey Nets in Brooklyn, but are they really on the market? Are things are bad as the last time this team was sold? I don’t think so. This team would have made the playoffs last season if it was not for injuries and would be .500 if they had a healthy defense and Rick DiPietro around.

Sure, Islanders owner Charles Wang has sunk a plethora of money into this team and has lost most of it, but chalk it up as a learning experience. Rather than buy a champion like he tried to do when he first came here, Wang now has to do the same thing every other team is doing now, which is building through good trades and draft picks.

Before the Islanders are attempted to be moved, he should at least give this team a few more years to see what he has with Josh Bailey, Kyle Okposo and the host of other youngsters that are starting to ripen. I don’t think he’ll be too displeased in the end, especially if they continue to build through the draft over the next few seasons.

Nonetheless, it’s never good to hear that the team you watch is thinking about taking their business elsewhere.

Luckily, one thing that isn’t tough to understand or decipher. This organization is starting to build a dedication to it’s youngsters , not only for the rest of the rest of the season, but the future as well.

“At the end of the day, there was nothing to lose,” Islanders head coach Scott Gordon told the AP before the Florida game a few night’s ago when asked about why the youth on the team are getting more minutes. I knew it would be a pretty tall order to make the playoffs; we’d have to go something like 30 and 10 and that’s a hard thing to expect. It’s not like we abandoned our older players, but we’re giving the opportunity to the younger players. Along the way, I think that made us a better team.”

With Gordon understanding the team’s MO and doing whatever it takes to help them accomplish their goals, the Islanders need time for all the pieces to come together.

Will they get it?

That perhaps is the most important question of all.

You can’t help but feel bad for the kid, especially considering what he’s done for the team over the few seasons. Sure, some would say that the Islanders never put any real faith in him when they signed Joey MacDonald to a two-year contract, with the second being of the one-way variety, but I believe the fans of this team never gave up on him.

When word passed that he had been brought aboard, it gave Islanders fans a reason to smile.

Those moments alone have been few are far between this season.

This time it was the Columbus Blue Jackets that were taking a crap in the Isles’ cereal. Playing far more than the role of spoiler this season, the BJ’s did what they had to do to give themselves a chance to make the playoffs and for that you can’t blame them, but for what they did to the Islanders fans in general, don’t expect many cheers the next time they play at the coliseum.

Guerin’s quote the other night- “It’s disheartening to see where we are right now,” Guerin told New York Post. “What could have been, who knows? But you never come to grips with losing, I don’t care what the situation is. Never. It’s miserable. But I feel like we’ve held up our end of the bargain. We’ve produced on our end, and it’s disappointing to be where we’re at. I think we’ve both done our parts.”

Sounds pretty miserable if you ask me.

I like the fact that he hasn’t gotten used to losing, but as far as keeping up his part of the bargain- I’m not too sure of that one. Sure, he’s on pace for a 26-goal season, three more than he was this season, but take into consideration that he only has three goals in his last 18 games, in which the the team has gone 3-15 in and it’s easy to see that Guerin’s play hasn’t helped the Islanders fortunes.

Is he to blame? Absolutely not. Only an idiot could blame one player for the crap storm this team has had to deal with this season, but as captain Guerin has got to step it up and get these youngsters going.

A month or so ago Islanders defenseman Thomas Pock received a five-game suspension for delivering an elbow shiver to the head of Ottawa Senators forward Ryan Shannon. Why it wasn’t the cleanest play in the world, it was more of a hard elbow “leaning” than a straightforward elbow delivered with malicious intent to injure. Seriously, what I used to do to Karl Malone when I played NBA Jam in arcades throughout Brooklyn during the late-’90s would have been far worse if it wasn’t virtual.

Over the weeks that followed,that incident, we’ve a couple of other elbows thrown with much better precision and accuracy, to only land shorter suspensions.

We’ve also seen the NHL’s poster boy, Sidney Crosby, punch someone in their nads and get nothing for it.

Now, it appears that Jarkko Ruutu is a lot more than an annoying Fin, who is in serious need of a phone booth meeting with someone like Eric Cairns.

He’s a vampire.

Biting the hand of Buffalo Sabres forward Andrew Peter’s the other night, Ruutu gets only a two-game suspension? I know that the injury a player suffers in lieu of the incident and what the league has charged other players with when similar infractions occur play a part in the end result, but seriously NHL, two games?

Biting someone in any sport is a grotesque action, even in MMA contests. A two-game suspension is a slap on the wrist. If it was something questionable, a-la a hit from semi-behind with two moving players, that is one thing, especially when you consider how fast this game is, but when a player’s glove is in your face and you decide to bite it, you don’t belong on the ice, you belong in a doctor’s office.

The Dallas Stars took the moral high road when they told Sean Avery to take a hike, maybe it’s time for Senators to do the same thing with Ruutu.

That seems extremely unlikely however when the league dishes out insignificant penalties such as these. Also considering how the game isn’t allowed to police itself the way it did, say, a decade ago, guys like Ruutu, if reined in properly, are worth a ton to teams. If this happened in 1994, I can easily rattle off a list of players on the Sabres alone that would have challenged Ruutu right after this occurred. In today’s NHL however, skill supersedes heart and loyalty, making for a game that I sometimes have a problem of recognizing.

When I first found out the news, I thought it was a joke.

Sadly, I’d do anything to make sure it was.

The way technology is right now, people that have the spare time, can push players into All-Star games that don’t necessarily deserve to be there. I mean C’mon, former Islander Dave McLlwain has his own fan site for Christ sake.

In the midst of this lunacy however what happens to a player who deserves to start at the All-Star game like Mark Streit? What about Mike Green? Simply put, this is a travesty. It’s almost like the knuckleheads that almost got Rory Fitzpatrick into the game a few years ago were actually Cylons [sorry for the Battlestar Galactica reference, I've been addicted to it lately] and were programmed to just piss logical people and hockey fans like myself off.

As far as the Western Conference is concerned, I’m not as mad at the Western Conference, mainly because guys like Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Ryan Getzlaf are three of the best young players in this game and even though Brian Campbell is having an off year and Scott Niedermayer is winding down an impressive career, these are guys that have much better name recognition than Markov and Komisarek and guys that fans want to see on the ice.

I can’t say the same thing about Komisarek and Kovalev to anyone who isn’t a fan of the Habs.

In spite of all of that though, when only four out of 30 teams are represented in the starting lineup of an All-Star team, you know there’s a problem. Where are the Bruins, Red Wings and Rangers in all of this? Where are the San Jose Sharks?

Let the Habs fans out there have their moment in the sun. Their hosting the game anyway. However, that doesn’t mean that the rest of the fans in the league will be able to take them seriously the rest of the season.

At the end of the day, these fans will only be able to look down at themselves and understand what mistake they made, robbing good young players of an opportunity to get what they deserve.

Those same fans will see something else when they look down as well.

A pair of red, white and blue Clown shoes.

Seeing the way these guys have played as of late is one of the only reasons why I haven’t put my foot through the TV. The same thing goes for Kyle Okposo, Blake Comeau and Mike Comrie, who have played their tails off over the past week.

In spite of the happiness these guys have been giving me lately however, I find myself watching this team score more goals than everyone thought they were capable of, but making crucial mistakes on defense that cost them games. Defense was supposed to be one of the team’s strong points this season, but I think the Isles are really missing Andy Sutton and Radek Martinek right now. That combined with a less than mediocre game from Rick DiPietro and the Islanders were sunk in the water.

So, as a result, the hard work of five or six players every night goes down the toilet…again.

But why?

I’ve said it before this season and I’ll say it again; right now, it just feels like the Islanders have to play as close a perfect game as possible to come out on top. One mistake, one defensive zone breakdown, one bad goal and this team has trouble coming back. It doesn’t help matters either that they are too concerned with playing dump and chase than establishing a forecheck and playing puck possession hockey. Sure, they play with a sense of urgency over the last two minutes and lately have shown enough spunk and jam to clean up a few messes, but in the end, it isn’t enough. This team is missing two many pieces and that, combined with DP’s problems, will make this team a big time contender in the John Tavares sweepstakes this summer.

I hate saying it, but as of right now, this team is a good two or three seasons from getting to where they were they need to be.

Weight gets 1,000 and 1,001- Seeing Weight’s kids run around with the banner trying to get the numbers right was one of the most adorable things I’ve seen in quite some time. It was about time he got that monkey off his back and even though it would have been great to see him get the point in front of the fans at home, the PA announcer in Phoenix did a stand-up thing and let Weight have his moment. Hopefully, now that he’s healthy again, he gives us a few more before the season’s over.

Bailey’s first- See what happens when this kid shoots? I know he’s a great passer, but he needs to stop being Adam Oates or Brendan Morrison and turn into someone like Doug Gilmour. With his stick-handling, skating and passing ability, I don’t see any reason why Bailey can’t eventually be a 20-goal, 65-point guy in this league. He’s just got to shoot more and be willing to make mistakes. Right now, he’s trying to be too perfect and much like his teammates, is failing at it.

You see, Crosby for all his talent, obviously has a vision problem. The other night, he thought Boris Valabik’s testicles were a punching bag. If you haven’t seen what happened, check it out here a few times.

Many of you guys know how I feel about fighting in this league. If you don’t, or you’re a first time reader, here it is. I feel that fighting serves a necessary function in the game and even if it didn’t, it’s entertaining and fans that aren’t necessarily interested in the game like to see it, which is good for the league as well. But when two guys are hitting a guy all over his body, that just not cool. That’s something I’d see on TNA Impact or WWE Raw, not in a professional hockey game. The team I cover in the EPHL, the Brooklyn Aces [here's a cheap plug, AcesOverBrooklyn.com] would never do something like that, so why do fans and media alike have to watch this in the best league in the world?

I’ll tell you why.

Sidney Crosby is untouchable and the league doesn’t care that he still has a ton of growing up to do. He was handed poster boy status in this league before his first game and in spite of his jaw-dropping offensive totals, he’s not the cleanest player in the league either. Right now, Crosby is like a young mafioso. He’s got more power than he could ever dream of and has all the right people watching his back. I mean seriously, this is a guy that from day one was living with Mario Lemieux. You can say whatever you want about Wayne Gretzky, but “The Great One” got initiated into the league by Billy Smith’s stick a few times before the Oilers started getting smart to having him protected. The Penguins on the other hand, have Crosby protected better than the pope.

One day though, someone in this league is going to make him pay for the things he’s done on the ice, like this, that are extremely questionable. Hell, in a one on one scrap, Valabik would destroy Crosby; he’s 6’7 240 pounds. But Crosby getting in a one on one scrap with someone legitimate and not named Andrew Ference will never ever happen because it’ll turn into something from the movie “The Warriors” in a heartbeat out there. If Gary Bettman is in the arena, you bet h’d jump out on the ice in defense of Crosby too.

However, that is what may be necessary for the maturation process to truly begin with someone aptly nicknamed “Sid the Kid.”

For the rest of the players in the NHL, a suspension would be mandatory for something like this, but Crosby is like Steven Segal for some reason. No, he’s not fat and doesn’t choke out baby seals on “Family Guy,” he’s just “Above the Law.” Why Bettman can guys get away with things like this and Thomas Pock gets a five game penalty for an elbow that did nothing? Why?

This isn’t even the first time someone has been borderline molested on the ice and nothings happened either. Remember last season when Garnett Exelby tried to castrate Blake Comeau?

If you haven’t seen this either, here it is.

After watching this and knowing that Exelby and Crosby never got suspended for these actions, it’s easy to see that the NHL has a sadomasochistic fetish here. They love seeing players getting hit in the chops. Why else would they let players get away with things like this? Exelby isn’t anywhere on the same level as Crosby and yet he got away with deliberately sphering someone in the nads. Knowing this, it’s fair to say that league probably has burned DVDs of the best chop shots and play them on slow nights or when the Lightning and Islanders are playing against one another.

While I can ultimately live with Exelby’s actions because I know it was out of sheer frustration [anyone remember that game?], Crosby does things like this because he can get away with it. He knows he’s untouchable.

Maybe I have a huge problem with this because of the way I was raised. Where I come from, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, no one is untouchable and the second they think they are, they wake up with a horse’s head in their bed or they get what’s coming to them. It’s a natural thing. Everyone shows respect to one another and if not, you pay the price.

If Crosby isn’t show the light soon, he’s going to have to pay a price he can’t afford.

However, during that time, Ted Nolan’s hard-working attitude and approach was always prevalent. Regardless of who was on the team, Alexei Yashin, Ryan Smyth,Mike Comrie, he made sure his players worked for their minutes. When they didn’t, they were benched. That included players like Miroslav Satan and Rick DiPietro. For being that dedicated to the success of his team and not caring about the consequences, I applaud him.

But in the end, that’s why he lost his job.

There seems to be a logic-famine of sorts on Long Island for the past few months, as Rick DiPietro has more of a say in when he gets to play than his coach and even though we all know now that DP was hurt and Wade Dubielewicz was the better goalie at the time, Isles GM Garth Snow decided to stick by his franchise player, rather than his coach. You can’t blame Nolan for trying to assert himself though, he took the team to the playoffs the year before and had quickly become a fan-favorite and made the team semi-respected again.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to gain the confidence of the organization.

And why would it be? This is the Islanders we’re talking about. A team that let another great coach, Peter Laviolette, go a few years ago because they felt he wasn’t a strong enough presence in the locker room and the inmates were running the asylum.

Sadly, it took almost a half-decade later for the organization to get the real problems out of the locker room out and the organization, Alexei Yashin and Mike Milbury.

I guess golfing partners are really hard to find on the Island nowadays, huh Mr. Wang?

So while Nolan had every right to do the things he did, he clashed with Snow and that was enough to get the ball rolling. Soon after Snow was questioning Nolan’s actions in front of the media and it was becoming obvious. He wanted Nolan out.

In spite of all of that though, I can’t shake off the feeling that if he would have just been a “yes” man, he’d still have a job.

But Nolan just isn’t that kind of guy.

However, his inability to communicate with Snow wasn’t the only reason why he was forced out. Even though he has a good enough track record coaching youngsters, considering his coaching time in juniors, the Isles used this past season as a way of saying he was unable to help the team with their youth movement.

While I myself was skeptical of how he would have handled the youngsters, let me just say this: there is a huge difference between being forced to play youngsters due to injuries and depending on them to produce through an entire season. While I’ll admit I don’t know how well he would have done this season, I will also admit this: he deserved a shot.

Some will now say that guys like Andy Hilbert and Freddy Meyer, who were Nolan favorites, will have to work harder for their spots on this team, because who ever takes over this team will be more likely to give guys like Bruno Gervais, Jack Hillen and Jeff Tambellini more of a shot. While that may have happened this season with Nolan at the helm, there is no question about it now, this team is looking for a lapdog to carry out the plan Charles Wang and Snow have for the organization.

So again, the Islanders find another way to reduce their eve-sinking credibility in the NHL.

The only question is, who steps in?

Okay, here’s the think. The Islanders may have cut some of the fat on the team by trading Marc-Andre Bergeron and Chris Simon, but I believe the real fat cutting is beginning right now. Depending on how well players like Fedotenko, Satan and Vasicek play down the stretch, they could in fact play themselves off the team. The Isles have a few extra draft picks now and still have plenty of cap space. I feel that not many people really understand what can be done with this team in the offseason. All that cap space and a handful of players that the Isles can either sign or part ways with, coupled with a host of young players that are proving more and more that they’re NHL ready… I don’t know, seems like fun times to me. They already have a top-tier goalie and a great coach

That doesn’t mean I am giving up on this season though. This team has been consistently inconsistent this season, but they’ve had their moments. When they play solid defense and get the kind of goaltending Rick DiPietro can give them when he’s on, this team gets results. Sure, the powerplay is broken and is partly responsible for the team being on the outside of a playoff spot looking in, but they could have things much worse. I mean seriously, they could be the Los Angeles Kings or the Tampa Bay Lightning. They’re not.

They just have to establish some sort of consistency. At this point in the season, I don’t care if it’s a winning streak or they tank it. I just don’t want to do through another crazy season. Wait, who am I kidding? I’d love to see them make the playoffs on the last day. It would be nuts. However, it shouldn’t have to be that way. They should go into the playoff playing the best hockey of the year and not get in on the skin of their arses.

The way they’ve played the past two games, showing glimpses of what it takes to be a playoff team, but not being able to finish, you can guess where I think they are right now.

To make matters worse, DiPietro wasn’t sharp the other night against the Pens and he’s going to have to be in order to get this team to the playoffs. Is he playing hurt and the media isn’t aware? Mike Sillinger was playing with a hip injury all season and no one knew. His production went down and the media was all over him, wondering why his production was down. DP hasn’t been sharp over the past two games and wasn’t exactly stellar in a few of the games during the recent win streak. I’m not trying to stir the pot here, but it’s definitely a possibility.

Anyway, the Isles have a huge game against the new look Atlanta Thrashers tomorrow that is a must-win. Four points out of a playoff spot and five points out of sixth place, the Isles have to start winning games anyway they can.

It’s go time.

Are the Isles ready?

“Don’t Dream, It’s Over.”

As Islander fans, this is what we’ve usually come to see the trading deadline as, regardless of how many times the team has made the playoffs over the past six seasons. It’s the time of the year, to stop dreaming and realize that the season is over. A time to give up on young players because they’ll want too much money in a few years or a fan favorite who could nab the team a pick in an attempt to rebuild. Things were so bad at one point with this team that long time fans still kind of have this hatred or fear of the deadline. That kind of ‘Ah crap, here it comes again approach,’ where regardless of what you do, you can’t stop the inevitable feces storm that is headed your way.

“Know We’re Getting Somewhere.”

This has been a feeling that the fans that were around during the Dynasty understand better than anyone. Bill Torrey made numerous little upgrades before, during and after the run that fortified the team down the stretch and quite possibly put the team over the top. Guys like Butch Goring immediately come to mind when you think of trades that lifted this team up to the next level, but the acquisition of Ryan Smyth last season did as well. If Radek Martinek and Rick DiPietro don’t get hurt down the stretch and Chris Simon doesn’t go bananas, that trade might have been one of the most important in the team’s recent history. But as fate would have it, it was just another rental in a league that was full of them last season.

This season is kind of in between these two sentiments though. It’s obvious the team is depleted on both offense and defense, but they’re so close to making the playoffs that you don’t want to mess with what you have. At the same time, guys like Ruslan Fedotenko, Miroslav Satan and Josef Vasicek have been playing great hockey as of late and while you don’t want to trade them when they’re playing like this, it’s better to trade them while their value is high, rather than get nothing for them at the end of the season.

Snow will be the conductor once again this trading deadline though and only he knows how the song will end. All we can do is wait and see what he presses on the jukebox.

Last season was different though. I know what I’m about to say may piss some people off, but let’s me honest, Robert Nilsson has seven goals and only 18 assists this season [Anyone else think the Isles should have drafted Zach Parise, Patrice Bergeron or Ryan Getzlaf instead?] and Ryan O’Marra can’t even average a point a game in the ECHL. For a while last season, the Isles rose above the mediocrity they’ve got themselves stick in and garnered more positive headlines than they had in years. Sure, they got into the playoffs on the last day of the season and didn’t exactly wow anyone once they got there, but I had the feeling that this team was building towards something besides another first place ouster.

That all changed this offseason though as guys like Tom Poti, Jason Blake, blah blah blah, you guys know this story already. So now, despite a month or two of thinking with the glass half-full, I have reverted to my glass-half empty approach. Nonetheless, I know that Snowie is doing what is best for the franchise and isn’t trying to make a huge splash like Milbury used to try to do, he’s trying to make this team better. It’s kind of like Milbury had the Isiah Thomas thing going on way before Zeke got the opportunity to become a GM in the NBA. Rather than develop talent, he would make a quick trade and before it was able to develop into something either disastrous or wonderful, he’d trade those guys for someone else.

Now with Snow, you at least get the feeling that he’s willing to wait until the pieces fall where they should. I think the way guys like Blake, Poti, Kozlov, Zednik, Asham, Hill, Robitaille and even Smyth have played this season [under expectations at inflated costs] has proven that Snow has made the best moves he could for the franchise. Despite still not having a first line and a legitimate number one defenseman, the Islanders are still in the mix. Again, are they gearing for a Stanley Cup run? No. However, that hasn’t stopped them from being competitive and playing hard. As a fan, that’s the most important thing to me. Winning would be great, but watching a team that doesn’t give up despite what ever obstacles stand in the way [the Isles have had plenty this season] has been a fun experience.

So what is the point of this whole diatribe? I think Snow is going to get rid of the players that he think he can’t keep in the offseason to avoid what happened to him last year. Then he’s going to tweak the defense. After that, he may make a small move to get another dependable forward. That’s a far cry from getting Ryan Smyth, but it’s going to be even farther from anything Milbury did before him. I really think Islander fans don’t have to be worried about this team being run like utter crap anymore and while they may be very far away from challenging for a Cup, they’re not dying a slow death. This may come to bite me in the arse later, but I’ll take the risk.

In Garth I trust.

“We’re definitely not happy with the result, but the game itself: I don’t know how much better we could play. Our guys gave what they have.”

Those words are from Islanders coach Ted Nolan. While they originally seem like the generic quotes you’d expect from a coach in the situation Nolan is in right now, I think there’s something more there. “Our guys gave what they have” means to me that Nolan is beginning to understand that this team is done. Sure, the Wild are a far superior team than the Isles, but if they could have played better defense and converted on a few golden opportunities [Jeff Tambellini’s immediately comes to mind] they could have come out on top.

“It’s a good point, but it should’ve been two. We played well tonight. I thought we played hard, but we’ve got to finish the job.”

Very well said by the Islanders captain. They needed a point worse than Glen Quagmire needs a monogamous relationship. In addition, Guerin also said that the Isles need to start finishing more, something that I’ve been saying for a month now. Also considering how many one-goal games this team has been involved in this season, where would they be if they had a few more goals under their belt. On second thought, let’s not think that way, it’s only going to make digesting this season even more difficult.

While the Islanders offensive problems have been well documented this year, I just thought I’d put things into perspective a little more by showing you some projected offensive numbers of a few Islanders players, according to ESPN.com.

Mike Comrie- 23-goals, 37 assists, 60 points

Bill Guerin- 28 goals, 18 assists, 45 points

Miroslav Satan- 16 goals, 28 assists, 44 points

Trent Hunter- 10 goals, 29 assists-39 points

Mike Sillinger- 21 goals, 17 assists, 38 points

Ruslan Fedotenko- 13 goals, 22 assists, 35 points

Richard Park- 13 goals, 19 assists, 32 points

Josef Vasicek- 16 goals, 11 assists, 27 points

Marc-Andre Bergeron- 12 goals, 13 assists, 25 points

Andy Hilbert- nine goals, nine assists, 18 points

Sean Bergenheim- seven goals, 10 assists- 17 points

Now I’m not a rocket scientist, but with more playing time, Comrie should be looking at least a 70 point season. Guerin’s goals are fine, but he should be looking at a 60 point season. Satan should have twice as many goals and about 10 more assists. Hunter’s assist totals are higher than expected this season, but he has to put the puck in the net more. Sillinger has been playing hurt all season and despite that has turned in a decent season. Nonetheless, he’s expected to have about 50 points. Fedotenko, like Comrie, has been getting more ice-time this season and should have gotten about 20 goals and 25 assists this season. Vasicek is having his usual season, but also should have more assists, considering how many opportunities Satan has had this season.

As far as Hilbert and Bergenheim go, they’ve worked hard in both ends this season, but you’d still like to see more offensive production from them. Bergeron has solid offensive numbers considering all the games he was scratched for, but there’s so much else to talk about when it comes to his game like his horrendous defense.

The only person on this team that is having anywhere near a more than solid offensive season is Park. When a role player is the only one exceeding a team’s expectations, it’s no wonder this team is playing so badly.

Make no mistake about it, right now is go time. This season is still worth saving, this team just needs to start playing with some desperation.

The only question is, do they want to?

However more than a few fans have expressed their opinions to me over the past few weeks, to the point where I have been getting e-mails [from more than a few people] who are complaining that I’m “drinking the orange and blue kool-aid.,” among a few other choice remarks that put a smirk on my face. However, anyone that’s been reading this blog since I started it last season knows that I am the farthest thing from a huge DP supporter. As a matter of fact, I dedicated several posts last season [which aren’t back on the site because it crashed in June, but will be back once I repost everything over the summer] to bashing his idiotic puck chasing and selfish play.

The reason why it was so easy to do that last season was because after about 25 games, Tom Poti, Sean Hill and Brendan Witt were playing some extremely solid hockey. Bruno Gervais and Chris Campoli were also working hard and playing tough in their own end, making me extremely teed off that this team was hovering around the .500 mark all season. If DP would have played the way he’s played this season, last year, this team could have been in the fifth or sixth spot in the Eastern Conference, not the eighth.

But enough of the wishful thinking. The reason why the Islanders are under .500 right now has nothing to do with DP. The defense is no where near as solid as last year’s and the offense is anemic. Does anyone remember that the Isles had a 40-goal scorer on this team last season and four 20-goal scorers [and five players with over 50 points], to go along with two defensemen with over 40 points and Ryan Smyth? I’d be surprised if the Isles had more than one player with over 50 points this season. Now ask yourself, does it even matter what type of goaltending you get when your team scores this much. The answer is no.

Right now, DP could go out there and make 35 saves, give up two goals and his chances at victory would be extremely slim, so don’t get on his case when the Isles lose 4-3 against a team that is far superior in every facet of the game as they are. Until the Isles step it up on both ends of the ice, things like this are going to be happening a lot more than the annoying e-mails I’ve been getting lately [which I welcome regardless of their “matter of factness” and annoying self-righteous bravado]. And like I said, this has nothing to do with how I feel about DiPietro. The Isles could clone Tony Esposito and Ken Dryden and put them in net and this team would still be in the same situation. Throw all the stats on DP that you want at me that you got, but they don’t mean anything in the end.

As far as I’m concerned, the only stat that does mean anything is the Islanders league-low 132 goals.

You want to know what that paragraph was? It was the hopelessly devoted Islander fan in me speaking. He still has fond memories of Pierre Turgeon scoring his 50^th goal against the Rangers and crushing hits by Rich Pilon. He stayed positive when this team traded players like Turgeon, Todd Bertuzzi, Ziggy Palffy, Bryan McCabe and Eric Brewer away for nobodies like Kirk Muller, Trevor Linden and cough…draft picks…cough. He didn’t mind the combination fisherman/Isles jersey and actually thought Niklas Andersson could be a consistent offensive threat.

This part of me is currently embroiled in a fist fight of sorts with another part of me, the realist. The one that knew the Jets were finished after week four this season and the one that was pissed when the Isles got rid of Bryan Smolinski and Robert Reichel. The same way that could never understand how the Isles couldn’t get another high profile player to compliment Mike Peca and Alexei Yashin to make a serious run at a Stanley Cup and not a half-assed one.

As of right now, the realist in me is beating the living crap out of the passionate and faithful Isles fan. With every give away by Marc-Andre Bergeron, every filed toe drag by Mike Comrie, every nixed opportunity on the powerplay and bad penalty, the punches come flying in faster than a Mike Tyson spelling bee appearance.

I implore you New York Islanders, give the fans out there a reason to keep watching. Give the youngsters more time on the ice and give Rick DiPietro the support in net that he needs to get some wins. They’ve waited way too long over the past 15 years for this team to give them a smile that lasts longer than a few weeks. On the message boards and mailing lists, some of the more pretentious and pseudo hockey intellectuals have actually discussed the team moving and how it would be more convenient for them. That’s how bad things are right now. The only thing that can silence thoughts like this is your play on the ice. Make it happen.

I hate writing about things like this as I would rather analyze the way the team is playing and comment on that, but I’ve simply had enough of this team underachieving.

Here’s what I think. When the trading deadline comes, Ruslan Fedotenko, Marc-Andre Bergeron and Miroslav Satan go bye bye. I don’t care who they get for them. As a matter of fact, if the Isles could get some high picks and maybe a player or two that can help, just fine, if not, the picks will suffice.

Now Bryan Berard would take Bergeron’s spot, while Aaron Johnson would be the seventh d-man. To take Satan’s and Fedotenko’s spot, call up Jeff Tambellini and Frans Nielsen. While I’d rather call up someone more explosive like Kyle Okposo, rushing this kid could be catastrophic. Plus, they’ve been playing their tails off all season and deserve a shot. If that means that the Isles don’t make the playoffs this season, I can deal with that. As it stands right now, the Isles seem like a rag-tag assortment of misfits and talented grinders and youngsters. Getting rid of Fedotenko and Satan would allow the youngsters to finally crack the lineup. I’d love to see Comeau play with Tambellini and Nielsen, they’d be like a “Kid Line” version 2.0. Sure, they’d make mistakes, but they’d be fun to watch and would bust their humps on every shift.

That also means that Ted Nolan is going to have to start having more faith in his younger players. Tambellini is having a monster season in the AHL and can contribute if he’s allowed to get some bumps and bruises. The same goes for Nielsen. All season long, I’ve watched this team play strong and then go on week stretches of mediocrity. Now over the past dozen games, they’ve shown a total lack of focus, grit and passion. Something needs to be done. Satan and Fedotenko have looked like ghosts of their former selves and Bergeron [as I’ve mentioned numerous times before] has been a complete disaster on defense. If this team had a legitimate first line and could score, it wouldn’t be so bad, but we know that that’s not the case.

On that note, I’ll turn the question over to you guys. What do you think should be done with the Isles?

With the Isles next game on Thursday and not having anything in particular to talk about today, I decided to talk about something else that I felt that had to be addressed.

Okay, after watching the game on NBC yesterday and hearing everyone constantly hype this guy up, I have to speak my mind. No, I am not talking about Sydney Crosby. For as much as I think that he’s spoiled by the referees and is being coddled by the Penguins, the guy is a remarkable player and if he was on a team that I owned or worked for, you could bet your bottom dollar I’d do the same exact thing.

The player I am talking about is former Islander Tim Connolly, who is not the kind of game-altering player that everyone makes him out to be. Yes, he has plenty of talent, but he is not a top line center in this league and has never been. I even dare say that he may never develop into one. Today on NBC was like the kiss Tim Connolly’s rear show. Both commentators were talking about how he’s picked up the slack for the losses of Chris Drury and Daniel Briere. Ahem? The guy has 27 points in 30 games, doesn’t have the goal scoring ability of Briere and is far from being the leader Drury was when he was in Buffalo. Even when the Isles were playing the Sabres a few weeks ago, Billy Jaffe said that they were going to get big time numbers from him this year. What are all of these people thinking?

It’s really interesting considering the fact that Connolly has never put up big numbers in the NHL. As a matter of fact, he’s never topped 20 goals or 40 assists in a season. I don’t know, maybe I’m crazy, but my idea of big numbers is a point per game with 30 plus goals and 50 plus assists, something Connolly needs a season and a half to get to. No knock against the guy, but he’s not the cat’s meow like every makes him out to be. He’s a solid second line center with the heart of a lion. He’s battled injury after injury and has a knack for playing well in the clutch as well. However, that doesn’t make him a replacement for anyone on a top line. If I was building a team from scratch, he’s probably be one of the people I’d look at to center my second or third line.

When he was with the Islanders, he had a ton of potential and worked his tail off in both ends of the ice, but the Isles were so horrible that EVEN if he scored a point a game, the team would still be stuck in the cellar. He was just too young and had way too much pressure on him to develop as quickly as possible.

Eventually, he was sacrificed along with Taylor Pyatt to get the Isles Mike Peca. Unlike how many people feel about that trade, I think that considering how Connolly and Pyatt have turned out [talented and serviceable NHLers, but not superstars] that getting Peca was the right move. Who knows what could have happened if Alexei Yashin and Peca could have gotten along and Peca could have avoided the injury bug.

Nonetheless, my point is this, everyone needs to stop drinking the Connolly Kool-Aid.

So many fans of this team focus on all the bad moves people like Don Maloney and Mike Milbury made over the years and the fact of the matter is this. The trade that sent Connolly and Pyatt for Peca was not one of them. If anything, it got the Islanders to playoffs a few years ahead of schedule if they would have kept them.

One quote in particular, by Mike Lupica, after the Islanders lost to the Rangers in the playoffs in 1979 [four years before I was born] really made me think about how far this sport has deviated from what made it so great and thrust me to the keyboard faster than Rosie O’Donnell to a nearby White Castle at lunchtime.

After that series in ‘79, Lupica wrote, “New York has been spoiled. They will never forget these hockey teams.”

Sadly almost 30 years later, Lupica was wrong, but I’d almost do anything in my power to make him right on this one.

After the Rangers won the Cup in ’94 and after two strikes in 95 and 2004, this sport has paled in comparison to what it used to be. When I first started watching hockey, it didn’t matter who was playing. The passion, grit and energy that was hockey in the early 90’s and before was absolutely astonishing to me and glued my young Rickey Schroeder- looking self to the television . As I’ve mentioned before in previous columns, I would watch Rangers, Devils and Islanders games as a youngster because I loved the game so much and just wanted to see guys out there competing. That’s how amazing the sport was to me then.

Nowadays, despite seeing all three local teams make the playoffs for the first time since ’94, I feel that the game has changed drastically and the things that made it so great may be gone forever. Gone forever are the personalities like Clark Gillies and Bob Probert, tough guys who could put the puck in the net as often as they dropped the gloves, to only be replaced by uber-talented youngsters like Sidney Crosby, Dany Heatley and Evgeni Malkin. It’s not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just not the same.

I know I’m deviating from my point here, but 30 years after that amazing playoff series that Lupica spoke about, are there any remnants of that kind of play left in the game today? Sadly, I’d have to say there aren’t nearly enough.

However, I’d be out of my mind to say that I still don’t love the game, it’s just in a different way.

Like a long, loving relationship, over a long period of time, things change and the reason why you originally fell in love with someone may not be present anymore; despite that however, the person can name a myriad of other reasons why they stay connected with that person and still harbor feelings for them, making the relationship stand the test of time and provide memories that make life itself worth living.

While hockey doesn’t feature the same type of hitting, grit and toughness that made me a lifelong fan 15 years ago, the speed added to the game over the past few years are exciting and great to watch in their own way and have continued to spark my interest and keep me watching.

But that’s just me. Like the thousands of marriage that end up in divorce every year, hockey fans will continue to watch something else if their needs aren’t met and they aren’t satisfied. Let’s face it, not everyone is a hardcore fan or capable of being in a loving, long-lasting relationship and it’s those people that have the ability to change the way the world looks at things.

Right now, the NHL needs to find a way to keep the hardcore fan involved with the game and bring in the casual one, without altering the game to the point where it’s barely recognizable anymore.

Otherwise, the rich and nostalgic history this sport has will be gone forever.

It’s already started.

Now it’s time to stop it.