Ever since the beginning of training camp, maybe even before, the assumption has been the Islanders will trade Nabokov as soon as they get what they believe is acceptable value. I was all for that at the beginning.

But why now is everyone still under this assumption? He is playing lights out and this team is winning a lot of games lately. DiPietro is finished, so throw him out of any discussions. Poulin and Nillson are not ready to be number 1's and most likely are at least 2 more seasons away from being ready. So that leaves Montoya and Nabokov as the only legitimate full time NHL goalies in this organization. And all due respect to Montoya, but he is not any near as established as Nabokov. He has played well in his very limited time here, but he has a very small sample size.

Nabokov is only 36, which is not that old for goaltenders anymore. We have seen plenty of examples of goaltenders playing at a high level until they are 40. Nabokov has proven to be a great regular season goaltender. Yes, he has not always had the most success in the playoffs, but just getting TO the playoffs is what this organization needs to do by the end of next season.

I believe that Nabokov would be the perfect stop gap until Poulin (who I personally believe is going to be the future number 1 goaltender of this organization) is ready. I would offer him a 2 year contract. No one else is going to offer him that. Make it very similar to the Roloson contract from a few years ago. It gives Nabokov security, and it give the Islanders a proven NHL All Star goaltender for the next two years.

Now, he may say "no" to the Islanders. I don't believe he would say "no" to a 2 year contract at 37, but that is a possibility. If he does not want to sign here, then Montoya gets the nod. But to just automatically trade Nabokov at the deadline this year is absurd and seems to be based soley on spite because of what happened last year. Last year is in the past and cannot be undone. But this year he showed up and has played his butt off. He was not complaining early in the year when he was not getting many starts. Now that he had his opportunity, he made the most of it. You cannot ask for anything else out of a player. He has earned the contract and I believe it should be offered to him. Of course, if some team comes along and offers a 1st round pick for him at the deadline, then obviously the trade needs to be made. But as we have seen over the past few years, the trade value of goaltenders is very low. The most he would get is a 3rd round pick. I don't believe that is enough to trade a 300 win goaltender soley for spite.

This was a topic here last season, so I thought I would just take a look to see where the standings would be today if the NHL adopted the 3 points for a regulation win formula. Since this is an Islanders website I am only going to focus on the East and not the West.

Here are the actual standings:

1	Philadelphia	68	42	19	7	91
2	Washington	70	40	20	10	90
3	Boston	68	38	21	9	85
4	Pittsburgh	70	40	22	8	88
5	Tampa Bay	70	39	22	9	87
6	Montreal	69	38	24	7	83
7	Buffalo	69	34	27	8	76
8	NY Rangers	70	36	30	4	76
	Carolina	69	31	28	10	72
	Atlanta	69	29	28	12	70
	Toronto	70	30	30	10	70
	New Jersey	68	32	32	4	68
	Florida	69	28	32	9	65
	NY Islanders	70	27	32	11	65
	Ottawa	69	25	35	9	59

Here is what the standings would look like with the new formula

A couple of observations:

• Our Islanders would be in last place right now, unfortunately
• Ottawa likes their games to finish in regulation
• Atlanta appears to be the most negatively effected team by this.  They are kind of in the playoff hunt now, but with the new system, they would be all but out
• The Rangers appear to be the most positively effected team by this.  They only move up a spot but have a little more of a cushion over 9th.
• Overall, the standings are not really that much different with the new 3 point system.  So that begs the question, is it worth if for the league to go to this system?

Hello Islanders fans!  Pretty good weekend of games.  Wish we could have won the shootout yesterday, but getting a point against the Devils right now is pretty darn good! On to the post....

Just wanted to give a very BIG thank you to Evgeni Nabokov to sticking it to the Islanders.  If he reported we would have never traded for Al Montoya and we would not be seeing what looks to be the BEGINNING of a nice career; instead we would be seeing the END of Nabokov's career!

Thanks Evgeni!

Signed,

All Islanders fans

OK so the the title of this post is stolen from the Chappelle Show (and if you do not know what the Chappelle Show is I suggest you YouTube some clips because it's such a funny show), but it is time for us to keep it real with what is really going on with the Islanders and what the future holds.  It's time to put delusions aside and look at reality.

No new arena will EVER be built in Nassau County

The LHP didn't happen.  It was NEVER going to happen.  The Islanders have been trying get a new arena for at least 20 years and have been blocked by the political machines of LI.  20 years people.  That is a long time.  What made people think this was going to be any different?  From the start of the whole LHP process, the Town government acted like it didn't even have a chance of getting done.  Everything they said, didn't say and everything they did showed they never wanted this to happen.  But we all believed, for some unknown reason, that it was going to be different this time.  THIS time the Town was going to give in. 

Charles Wang wants to devalue the franchise

This is one that needs to be explained a little.  Why would any owner want to devalue their business?  Once Wang realized that the LHP was not going to get done, he knew that he had to sell the team.   There are no magical arena's that are going to be built in Queens or Brooklyn for the Islanders.  The new Brooklyn arena is not being built to accommodate hockey.  If Wang wanted to get with the Nets about 5 years ago and jointly build the arena in Brooklyn, then that would have been an option.  But that ship has sailed.  Brooklyn isn't happening.  An arena in Queens is about 7 years, at least, from being done.   Everything that Wang went through with the LHP; all the reviews, meetings, environmental studies, not to mention the lawsuits from the businesses in the Willet's Point area that would be kicked out if the arena was built; all of that would have to happen again in Queens.  Wang is NOT going through this whole process again.  Suffolk County is, quite frankly, not an option.  There is no way Wang stays on LI and moves further away from NYC.  It would be ill conceived and would not work financially.

Wang has become resigned to the fact that he cannot make this franchise work on LI.  And Wang's biggest problem is that everyone knows this.  He cannot sell this team in it's current state.  So what's the best way for Wang to dump the team?  Devalue it to the point that someone with enough money will take it off his hands for him. 

Tom Souzzi, the former County Executive, amended the current lease the Islanders have with SMG to make it more Islander-friendly.  At the time, everyone was saying and writing what a great thing this was.  But I always knew that it really did not change anything.  The Islanders are never going to make money in that arena, no matter what the lease is.  Wang knew this and saw this as an opportunity.  It has been widely reported and confirmed that Wang loses about $20 million a year on this team.  With the new lease, Wang has just accepted he will never make money with this team and will try lose as little money as possible.  So what did he do?  He raised ticket prices and parking prices.  He gutted the front office.  He fired Jankowski, Trottier, his son in law Chris Dey and who knows who else lost their jobs. Raising revenues and lowering expenses.  Selling a business 101.  We could talk all day about the payroll of this team.  But that one I think pretty much speaks for itself.

But there is another part to devaluing this franchise.  Alienating what is left of the fan base.  Wang has done an excellent job of this.  The raising of the ticket prices was a stroke of genius on his part.  He killed two birds with one stone.  With him getting a larger portion of the ticket sales because of the amended lease and the higher ticket prices, he is making more money on ticket sales this year then last year, even though the attendance is way down. 

But why does he need to alienate the fan base?  because.....

When the lease is up in 2015, the New York Islanders will no longer be the New York Islanders

The team will not be playing on LI or in the New York area after their lease it up.  There is no other person that will buy this team and keep it there.  Wang knows this.  But he does love LI and does not want to be known as the Walter O'Malley of this generation.  He believes that if he keeps running the franchise the way it is currently being ran, then by the time 2015 comes around, there will be no one left who cares about the team, and when they inevitably move to Canada, KC, Vegas, or wherever, he will not be seen as the villain.  He can say that no one was coming to the games and that it was impossible for him to make money on LI.  I have said it before and I will say it again:  If the Dodgers can leave Brooklyn, the Islanders can leave Long Island.

Now I know a lot of people will say I am wrong.  But I'm not.  I am as big an Islanders fan as there is, but I can also see what is staring me in the face.  Charles Wang never wanted it this way.  When he bought the team 10 years ago, he wanted to be the savior.  Did he make mistakes along the way?  Yes.  But in the end, the politics of LI was the ultimate undoing of this franchise.  In hindsight, Wang should have realized sooner that he was not going to get the LHP done and should have teamed up with the Nets with the Brooklyn arena.  But hindsight is 20/20.  He did what he felt was best for the franchise and what was best for LI.  But it didn't work.  He was the last owner that would keep this team on LI.  He had to be begged to buy the team because no one else would touch it.  He incurred huge loses for 10 years now.  $200 million he has lost since he bought this team.  $200 million. He did his part to keep the Islanders on LI.  Maybe some miracle happens in the next couple years and a new arena ends up being built and keeps the team on LI.  But that's what it would be.  A miracle.  It's a harsh reality to accept, but this is where we are with this franchise.  They were once the model of winning in the NHL.  Everyone wanted to do things the "Islanders way".   There are not many franchises in any sport that can say they had the highs that this franchise had in the late 70's and the early 80's.  There are also not many franchises that have had the same lows.  But I will choose to remember the highs and will continue to root for this franchise wherever they end up playing after 2015.

As reported via Twitter by the impeccable Katie Strang, the Islanders have signed Andy Hilbert to a one year, two way contract.  Hard to imagine this will go over well with the fan base considering the uproar last week in regards to the Sim two way deal. 

Hilbert is a decent 4th liner and I am sure this signing is only for depth in case of injuries, just as the Jon Sim signing was.  Discuss below!!

Continuing my little poll series, this time I want to focus on the coaches of the Islanders.  There have been many of them over the past 15 years.  So outside of Al Arbour, who was the next best coach in Islanders history?  And not who became the best coach after.  Who was the second best during their Islanders tenure?  Give explanations if you wish in the comments section.

I left Earl Ingarfield and Brad Shaw off the list as they were only interim coaches.

I am going with Ted Nolan.  He didn't have a ton of talent on his teams, but he sure got the most out of them.  He may have ruffled feathers with the wrong people, but as for actual coaching, no one got more out of his players then Nolan.  I am not taking anything away from Laviolette, but the 01-02 team was a pretty damn good team if you really look back at it.  It was Milbury's shining moment.  And I think it is still too early to tell on Gordon.  I believe in about 3 years he will be the second best coach in Isles history, but not today.

I did the DP poll last week, so I figure let's do another one this week!  It's August so there is absolutely nothing going on in the world of the Islanders.  This poll has to do with the team in general.  Based on the roster that we currently have, how many points do you think the Islanders will get this year? If you feel they will fall somewhere between 85 to 95 points, do you think that their point total will be enough for the playoffs?  Leave your responses in the comments section if you wish!

I am going to guess 88 points for the team this year.  I think that will not be quite enough for the playoffs, but they will keep it exciting up until the last week of the regular season.  While I think they will miss the playoffs this year, I believe they will put the league on notice that they will be a playoff team in 2011-2012.

So we are about to hit the August blue for hockey fans.  Since we are going to be bored and depressed this month since virtually nothing goes on regarding the NHL, let's make ourselves more Depressed!  This is short and simple.  I would like to get an idea of what the fans think about the number of games that our favorite player with a 15 year contract will play this year.

My personal opinion will be about 15 to 20 games.  He sits the first half of the year and then comes back about halfway through and splits his time with Roli.

Let me know what you think!

Editor's note from Dominik: The Fitz writes his take on the Jaffe news in this FanPost, so for any main-page surfers who miss the right-margin content, let's direct discussion of the Jaffe decision and speculation on replacements here.

So it was just reported by Botta over at Pointblank that Billy Jaffe's contract is not being renewed by MSG and the Islanders.  As reported by Botta, this is an Islanders decision and not an MSG decision.  Now I personally really liked Jaffe and thought he was great at what he did, and I am sure there are reasons why the Islanders did not want him back.  They may be good reasons and they may be bad reasons.

Continue reading this post »

So once again, I need to read about how Garth Snow offered more money to a big name free agent only to have that player go to another team for less money.  I really cannot take much more of this.  This has nothing to do with Garth.  This has nothing to do with Charles Wang (I know 90% of you will disagree with me on this). And this has nothing to do with the Nassau Coliseum (99% of you will disagree with me on this!).

What is the biggest problem???

Nassau COUNTY.

This is the problem.  The Islanders can build all the Lighthouse Projects they want.  If it is in Nassau County they will NEVER attract the big name FA's.  It's that simple.  It is not a big enough market.  Bottom line.  Yes, it is 10 minutes outside of NYC, but this is not a NYC franchise.  It's a suburbs franchise.  That is how this team is marketed and how they operate.  There is only one solution to this.

QUEENS.

Or Brooklyn, but that seems unlikely.  Queens is the best possible scenario for this franchise to become relevant again.  It is in NYC which right away makes them a legitimate big market team.  They would be right next to the Mets and would be able to market with them.  The corporate money from NYC would flow in once they moved there.  Instead of showing potential draft picks and UFA's Jones beach and Oyster Bay, they can show them NYC.  The greatest City in the world. 

Why do you think big name FA's never go to Buffalo?  They have good ownership.  They play in front of a packed house every night.  Same with Minnesota.  They have sold out EVERY game since they have been in existence and play in a beautiful new arena.

Now let's look at the other end.  Detroit signs all the big time FA's they want.  Joe Louis arena is a dump.  For years Chicago had horrible ownership but they could still attract the top guys. 

Buffalo and Minneapolis/St. Paul are small markets and Chicago and Detroit are big markets.  Bottom line.  26-32 year old males do not want to be making millions of dollars and living in small markets.  Yes LI is close to NYC, but it's not like Manhattan is a 5 minutes drive or train ride away.  It's a schlep to get there from LI. 

So we can continue to get mad at Garth and Wang for not spending money.  We can continue to blame Kate Murray for not approving the LHP.  But in the end we are all lying to ourselves.  As long as this team is on LI they will never attract the big name guys, and that, unfortunately, is reality.

I am just throwing this out there in case there are any fellow Isles fans out here in Western NY.  I live in Rochester and was wondering if anyone wanted to get together for the draft.  I'm not sure if there are people in Syracuse or Buffalo either.  We could find a bar that is equal distance from everybody.  I would love to meet anyone else who is an Isles fan in Western NY as I have been out here for almost 10 years and still have yet to meet another one!

Not really sure if anyone else has been watching the women's tournament, but it has been surprisingly good hockey so far.  I have never really watched too much women's hockey in the past.  In 1998, the first year they were in the Olympics, the hockey, to be honest, was not very good.  But to see how much improved the game has gotten in only 12 years is pretty amazing. 

The only downside in my opinion is that there is no checking.  But the game is very wide open due to that; so maybe it's not all bad. 

Just a quick post to try and open people's eyes to it.  Canada is playing Sweden right now on MSNBC.  Check it out!

So much for the NHL being a league that cares about competitive balance.  They cannot be serious in saying they want that when some games have 3 points awarded, and other games have 2 points awarded.  It would be like saying some wins in the NFL are worth 2 wins and some are worth 1.  It makes no sense to have things this way.  The obvious solution has been discussed a thousand different places.  They would switch to the soccer method: 3 points for a regulation win, 2 points for a OT/shootout win, 1 point for an OT/shootout loss, and 0 points for a regulation loss.

The great thing about this method is that it rewards teams for beating another team in 60 minutes. Remember the days when a team needed a win and they would pull their goalies late in the third period in a TIE game?  Now that was fun!  There is no need for that anymore because they can just wait to beat them in OT or in a shootout.  There is no value in winning a game in regulation.  The only motivation to win a game in regulation is to not give the other team a point in the standings.  But if your are playing an inter-conference game, there is no motivation to even do THAT.

This is another reason why it is hard to determine where the point total will be at the end of the year to see who makes the playoffs or not.  In the past, when every game had two points awarded, you had an idea of where the playoff cutoff point was going to be because you knew exactly how many points would be awarded throughout the entire season.  But now with some games having 3 points and some having 2 points, we honestly have no idea how many points are actually up for grabs.

Yes, the current formula does allow more teams to stay in the playoff longer then they would under the old system.  But at what expense?  Should a team that is less qualified make the playoffs over a team who was better at beating teams in regulation just because the one team happens to have players who are better at breakaways?  That is the question.  If the league thinks the answer should be yes, then the current system does that.  But the theory we hear a lot is that the league does not want to skew the history books with the new point system.

There are two contradicting issues with the leagues view.  First off, they have already  messed up the point system by adding potential 3 point games.  So right there, their argument is pretty much moot.  But there is also the issue of not wanting to skew the history books.  They already have.  Since there is a winner and a loser every game now, goaltenders get a more wins then they used to.  Every shootout win a goalie gets is a win that they never would have gotten in the old system.  Look at the all time single season win totals as the proof.  5 of the top 10 all time wins in a season are post lock out when the shootout was instituted.

So how would the new system effect the standings?  Well I did the research and figured it out.

Here are the standing as of today (1/15/2010) under the current system


NJD 32-12-1 = 65 pts

BUF 29-11-5 = 63 pts

WAS 28-12-6 = 62 pts

PIT 30-18-1 = 61 pts

BOS 23-16-7 = 53 pts

NYR 22-18-7 = 51 pts

OTT 23-21-4 = 50 pts

___________________

PHI 23-20-3 = 49 pts

NYI 20-19-8 = 48 pts

ATL 20-19-7 = 47 pts

TBL 18-18-10 = 46 pts

FLA 19-20-8 = 46 pts

TOR 16-23-9 = 41 pts

CAR 14-25-7 = 35 pts

Here are what the standings would be today if the NEW system was used:



NJD 25-7-12-1 = 90 pts

BUF 23-6-11-5 = 86 pts

WAS 22-6-12-6 = 84 pts

PIT 21-9-18-1 = 82 pts

NYR 20-2-18-7 = 71 pts

BOS 16-7-16-7 = 69 pts

PHI 19-4-20-3 = 68 pts

MTL 12-11-21-4 = 62 pts

_____________________

TBL 15-3-18-10 = 61 pts

ATL 14-6-19-7 = 61 pts

OTT 16-7-21-4 = 59 pts

FLA 13-6-20-8 = 59 pts

NYI 11-9-19-8 = 59 pts

TOR 15-1-23-9 = 56 pts

CAR 10-4-25-7 = 45 pts



So the teams that seem to be most positively effected by the new system would be Philadelphia which goes from 10th in the conference to 7th and Toronto who, while still in 14th in the conference, are only 1 regulation win and one OT/shootout win behind 8th place.  The teams that are most hurt by this are Ottawa and the Islanders.  Ottawa goes from 7th to 10th while the Isles go from 10th to 13th.  But if you look at these standings, what jumps out?  MORE teams are in the playoff hunt under this system.  So if the league wants to have as many teams in the playoff hunt, the new system is BETTER, while being the fairer system.


Lets now look at what the standings would look like if the NHL went back to the system used before the lockout (where a team received 2 points for any sort of win and a team received one point for a tie or a OT loss).  What this system does is more or less take away the bonus points that have been awarded in shootouts.



BUF 27-11-7 = 61pts

NJD 26-12-7 = 59 pts

WAS 24-12-10 = 58 pts

PIT 24-18-7 = 55 pts

NYR 20-18-9 = 49 pts

BOS 18-16-13 = 49 pts

PHI 20-20-6 = 46 pts

OTT 19-21-8 = 46 pts

______________________

MTL 19-21-8 = 46 pts

TBL 17-18-11 = 45 pts

NYI 16-20-12 = 44 pts

ATL 16-19-11 = 43 pts

FLA 14-20-13 = 41 pts

TOR 15-23-10 = 40 pts

CAR 11-25-10 = 32 pts




Once again the biggest winners here are Philadelphia and the biggest losers would probably have to be New Jersey, since they lose the top spot in the conference because of this.


So here are three separate systems the NHL could use to determine standings.  They could also go back to the days where if you lost in OT you would get 0 points, but I do not think that ever would, or should happen.  A team does deserve something for being tied after 60 minutes in my opinion.  So the way I see it, the NHL has two options:  keep the shootout and go to the soccer method, or lose the shootout and go back to the point system the way it was prior to the lockout.


While the pre-lockout system does have the contradiction of having some 3 point games and some 2 point games, I believe this is the best method (even though I rail against the contradiction in the beginning of the blog).  Teams would be playing more conservative in OT games that are intra-conference because they would have the ability to not allow a bonus point to the other team if they can get through OT tied.  Of course, games that were inter-conference would be more wide open in OT because there is no penalty in giving the bonus point away to the other team.  But I always have a funny feeling in my mind after games that end in the shootout.  Did the winning team really win and the losing team really lose?  Not in my opinion.  They tied, and that's the way it should stay.


Please let me know what you think about this.  This is an interesting subject.

OK.  I have had it.  I was never one that thought this team needed to have a designated enforcer, and I still do not think they need one.  But somebody needs to step up and protect John Tavares.  Two more times last night he was on the receiving end of a cheap shot and not one of his teammates stood up for him.  This needs to stop.

There are plenty of big, tough players on this team that can stand up for our future superstar.  There is Trent Hunter, Tim Jackman (when healthy), Andy Sutton and Brendon Witt (when playing).  But I am going to focus on two players:  Kyle Okposo and Blake Comeau. 

Blake Comeau has the size and natural ability to be a very good power forward in this league.  He just needs the heart to put it  all together.  Comeau needs to sit in the video room and watch tape after tape of one player:  Clark Gilles.  The first power forward.  What do you think Gilles would have done if Mike Bossy or Bryan Trottier was elbowed in the face?  He would kick the you know what out of the player that did that.  I am not trying to compare Blake Comeau to Clark Gilles, or saying he needs to end up being as good as Gilles.  I am arguing that he needs to model his game after Gillies.  And in order to do that, he needs to start stepping up for his teammates.

Kyle Okposo is the future Captain of this team.  I am think we can all agree that there is no question about that.  They would not have given him an "A" at the age of 21 if the captaincy was not in his future.  Now he needs to start acting like a Captain.  Kyle is not a small guy.  He is very strong, especially for his age.  He needs to show that he is the unquestioned leader of this team and start to stand up to players that take cheap shots at our best players.  A great Captain cannot just be a leader in the locker room; they also need to be the leader on the ice. 

This is not to say if someone put a big and CLEAN hit on one of our star players that we need to go after the other team.  I have very strong feelings about that as well.  When Sutton lands a crushing hit on a player and the other team comes after him, I commend him for never fighting the other team.  There is no need to.  He has done nothing wrong.  Other teams in this league need to stop acting like a bunch of five year old's when one of their teammates get hit hard legally.  That never used to happen.  Gilles would not go after someone if the hit was clean.  This is a new phenomenon in the NHL and it needs to stop.  But that is a debate for another day.

There has been lots of debate on message boards and blogs on what should be done with Rick DiPietro once he is FULLY recovered.  I am here to say that there is no debate.  When Ricky is healthy, HE is the number one goaltender of the New York Islanders.

This is in no way a slight to Roloson.  He has played outstanding hockey thus far this season.  There is no question about that.  If there was an All Star game this year, he would probably be their representative.  He is tied for 13th in wins, which is pretty impressive considering the goalie duo we had last year, and the continued lack of depth on the blueline.  But he could be tied for first in the league in wins and it would not matter.

Why?

15 years, $67.5 million

It is that simple.  Really.  Once Ricky signed that contract, that was it.  When healthy, he became the number one goaltender for this franchise for the next 15 years. They made their beds with that deal.  Now they need to live with it.  You cannot have your $4.5 million per goalie as your back up.  Not when there are 12 years left on his deal.  This is not the same as the Giguere situation in Anaheim.  He does not have 12 years left on his deal.  He can be traded.  Ricky cannot be traded.  

Now the question of WHEN he resumes his job as number one goalie is a good one.  And the answer is still not known.  He needs to be COMPLETELY healthy before he resumes the workload of a number one goalie in this league.  But when he is healthy, the job is his.  He does not need to win the job back from Roloson.  And do not start feeling bad for Roloson.  He was well aware of this when he signed the two year contract this summer.  He is a 40 year old goaltender who was offered a two year contract by the Islanders when everyone else was offering him a one year deal.  He knew when he signed that deal he was giving up playing time for more job security and money.

All this being said.  I do not believe Ricky will ever be the type of goalie that will play 70 to 75 games a year.  They will always need a very capable back up.  We should feel very fortunate that for the rest of this year and next year, that back up goalie will be Dwayne Roloson.