Ok, I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately and I think the Isles need to do something to save their season. Only one-game over .500, this team is fading extremely fast. I know that the message boards are flooded with dozens of people that say that they should trade everyone on this team and start all over and I’m not even going to get started on all the ridiculous trades these people come up with, but something does need to be done.

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?

Posted under Random Rant

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.

Posted under Random Rant

On my way to school today, I decided to take my Islanders media guide with me and after skimming through it on the bus, I can honestly say that there were a few lines in there that really touched me and made me think about the state of this great sport more than I have in years.

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.

Posted under Isles 2006-07, Random Rant