On the Islanders Beat

Greg,

I just want to tell you I LOVE your blog. If it weren't for Newsday's coverage (Alan Hahn deserves credit for this in years past) there would be no informationa about the Isles available anywhere. Your blog really gives us a sense of whats happening behind the stories. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

Islanders should always get the space game or not over the Rangers in the print edition of this paper, same policy the city papers have. In fact Steve Zipay and you should double-up Islander coverage and drop the Rangers.

YEAH NO KIDDING!!! Long Island newspaper my A$$!!! The New York ISLANDERS should NEVER lose print space to anybody. They're LI's ONLY professional team. C'mon lets get some support!

I take it Mr. Wang's advertising dollars don't go far enough to garner him the same type of coverage that perhaps high school sports receives. They tell us NHL hockey isn't a major sport in the US. Perhaps they should paying off the print media. Good grief...

Love your blog Greg. And there's no reason ever for an Isles article to be dropped. After all, Newsday is a Long Island paper.

First, I doubt many fans that attend games have a recollection of what it was like during the expansion years. And I really doubt many understand what it takes to build a franchise.

While the morons in the stands take turns booing DP or Yashin due to their contracts, they only hinder the team's progress. The fans have proven they have little patience for young prospects too.

So while they blame Milbury for trading young talent, they rip into young talent like DP everytime he makes a mistake.

And then the dopes in the stands wonder why the prospects spend more time in Bridgeport instead of progressing in the NHL.

As an Isles, I wish Greg had more space at Newsday--I wish Alan Hahn was given more space too all these years. But, lets get real here: the NHL is not a major attraction vs. the other major sports. The lockout hurt. The new rules are to appease misguided idiots looking for speed. We need physical play baby!!!!!

"The defensemen spoke up, DiPietro responded well and the Isles had only six giveaways, including just two by the defense (Hill and Poti) and none by the goaltender."

DiPietro gave the puck away. In fact, he passed it DIRECTLY to the other team after the Yashin goal I believe.

Hi Greg,
With the ground-breaking of the new Mets ballpark could you perhaps get us some coverage on whats going on with the Islanders new arena. You would think this would be a wonderful idea for Nassau County but instead they twiddle their dumbs and before they know it the Islanders will be gone. In my opionion i would partner up with the Mets and move this team to Flushing. It is obvious the county does not care about them, Bill Torrey began pusing for a new arena during the 1991-1992 season according to Alan Hahn in Fishsticks. It is now the year 2006 and we still have no arena in site. I love the Coliseum and the atmosphere it produces when we are winning but this team will not survive without a new stadium. Please begin to look into reports on this, in my opinion the county needs to be exposed.

I am so sick of everyone saying no one cares about the NHL/Islanders anymore on Long Island. Even though some people cant afford to go to games, there is great interest about the Isles on LI. We need a new coliseum, and we need politicians and the media to stop telling us that hockey and the Islanders dont matter. Newsday should make room in the damn paper for long island's only professional team. We dont need to drop articles on the Isles so we can hear about what color tie George Steinbrenner wore that day.

molly is right. DP passed directly to a flyers forward a few feet from the goal line for a sharp angle shot that DP saved. the only reason i remember this is because i uttered a few expletives like every other time DP handles the puck when he shouldn't and makes a stupid play. DP says that he is going to make mistakes, fair enough we all do, but he doesn't have to put himself in a position where his potential to make a mistake increases by overhandling the puck and being out of position.

A goalie is going to give the puck away at times if he handles it a lot. Half of you experts here probably haven't seen a game outside the Coliseum or on Fox. Watch a few games a night and see how many times the goalies cough up the puck. Hockey is a game littered with mistakes due to the fast pace and the nature of the slippery puck they try to handle. Blaming the goalie every time a goal is scored is evidence of how little the so called Islander fans understand the game of hockey.

I don't think it's necessary or helpful to address other readers and commentators as "so called Islander fans."

Shooter's right, hockey is a fast-paced and tricky game where it's easy to overskate the puck, have it come off ones stick in a funny way, etc. So yes, fans shouldn't blame DP for every goal, nor should they criticize him for every mistake.

But edgar addressed this point in his post, right before Shooter's. The problem isn't that DP handles the puck, it's that he frequently handles the puck at inopportune moments, which lead to turnovers and him being out of position.

That seems like a fair point. I'm not sure why Shooter's trying to rebut it with insults.

The "so called Islander fans" are the ones that cry for Dunham when DP lets in a goal. Much like the same fans that cried for DP when Snow or Ozzie gave up a goal. Instant gratification is what will only satisfy the drive by fans of any sports franchise. It is not an insult. Just the facts. Those who attend games and demand a replacement after the first goal is scored aren't real fans. They are frontrunners.

"With the ground-breaking of the new Mets ballpark could you perhaps get us some coverage on whats going on with the Islanders new arena.
...
Please begin to look into reports on this, in my opinion the county needs to be exposed."

Greg, I absolutely agree with Mike here. I think there's a ton of potential coverage (possibly award-winning if you kebab some of our idiot legislators) about Wang's new stadium and why it's not moving along.

In addition to coverage on a new stadium, I think you have a layup with an investigative report into the direct relation between unreasonably high ticket prices and abysmal attendence for the Islanders.

Unless Wang wants his Islanders entity to be a perpetual loss for tax purposes each year (HINT HINT), it doesn't make sense why ticket prices are so high.

Shooter, if you think Isles fans are frontrunners, you've been under a rock for the last 12 years. I think you're exaggerating about everyone "crying for Dunham" after ONE goal. They don't do that after one. They do it after more than one, usually stupid goals. He's got the league beat on stupid goals thus far. I watch tons of games on NHL Center Ice. DiP makes BY FAR more mistakes puckhandling than any other goalie I've seen. The worst part about it is, it's just not necessary! His place is in net, unless there's a DIRE need for him to come out. Let the Dmen be dmen. Don't try and be a Smith or a young Hextall. Besides, with the new rules, he's restricted play area so much he might as well just stay in goal anyway! It's not worth it.

shooter, thanks for your brilliant and insightful expert commentary, "A goalie is going to give the puck away at times if he handles it a lot."

well, i have a suggestion - don't handle it A LOT. handle it when it makes sense. Calling a puck slippery shows you know very little. The ice they play on makes everything slippery.

Baloney Danny. Maybe if you attended a game you would know how the fans react. They're frontrunners. Just like they battered Ozzie when he had his slumps. And then Snow. Edgar, I agree. He shouldn't handle it a lot. He loses focus when he does so. Cheers.

Frontrunning fans. I swear sometimes I think theyre Ranger fans in disguise trying to keep NYI morale low. Can these so called fans be THAT ignorant?? Or are they wolves in sheeps clothing, infiltrating Isles domain...
Me, I'll always be an Isles fan. Good, bad and ugly. Since about 1976-77.
LETS GO ISLANDERS!
STAY IN THE NET RICO YOU FREAK!!!

Shooter, I still say you're overreacting. I've only seen the fans get on DiP when he deserved it. Granted, i didn't have season tixx so I never had the displeasure of seeing Ozzie get the business. Snow on occasion deserved it. He went down too soon many times and ended up flopping harmlessly as the puck skipped over him. But anyway, Isles fans are certainly not frontrunners. That's impossible. We haven't been at the front of anything but stupidity since Don Maloney dismantled our Cup team. I think there's always a vocal core at the games ready to voice their displeasure, but you can't really blame them. DiP has no place having a contract like that. So, every time he makes a stupid mistake the fans are going to give it to him, writhing in the pain that this kid could turn out to be a 15 year dud. So, we'll have to see what happens. But as we're discussing here, he'd be far better if he left the puck handling to everyone else. But also, don't forget, paying fans have every right to boo whomever they want. If a few knuckleheads wanna boo everything all night, that's their prerogative. I have a tough time defending DiP until he starts winning me over.

Danny, I don't blame people for being frustrated. And angry about what has been done. However, fans need to move on. We all know DP shouldn't have been a first pick. We all know that Heatley would have looked great in an Isles uniform and Luongo would have been good here too.

But it's time fans drop their resentment toward DP and encourage him, not rip him.

I saw the fans get all over Bertuzzi, Chara, etc. When they were ditched, no one seemed to care, until they became much better players elsewhere.

I sit among 8,000 fans now at almost every home game. It's discouraging to see the anger and bitterness on almost every mistake made.

"But it's time fans drop their resentment toward DP and encourage him, not rip him."

Encourage him to what? Handle the puck more? You're ridiculous. DiPietro can't be treated like a child anymore. If he wants everyone to like him, he should start to shape up and stop making so many stupid, needless mistakes. He is just a show off trying to make a name for himself as a goalie by doing anything BUT just stopping the puck.

I think booing him when he deserves it is fine..... but when a-hole fans start chanting we want Dunham it's get quite destructive. DP is this team goalie, not Dunham. Get used to it for the next 15 years and back up DP just a little.

They also chanted for Snow when Ozzie got off to a rough start in his second year with the Isles. It doesn't help. Fans may think they are helping the team. But they have the right to boo since they pay the high prices.

Why should we have to back DiPietro regardless of how he plays? Because he's "our" goalie? I didn't hear fans calling for a 15-year deal so DiPietro could retire as an Islander. In their mind, I'm sure they thought that signing DiPietro as the goalie of the franchise would eliminate negative feelings towards him and everyone would have to embrace him. Guess again.

One day DiPietro may be the best, but this deal could potentially kill that.

Whether he has a 15 year deal or a two year deal should be unimportant to any Islander fan. There's only one guy signing the checks and that's Wang. It's his franchise. You have the right to not show up and display your discontent. However, while I attend the home games, I will support DP and will support any Islander in a NY uniform.

One point re: booing.

I'm only 24, and picked up an interest in hockey from friends at about the age of 10. My earliest Isles memory is when we knocked the Pens out of the playoofs after they won the Cup. So I don't go as far back as some commentators. I wasn't fortunate enough to see real the glory days.

Even so, I have seen a steady decline in the franchise. It sucks. I'm sure it sucks even more if you remember winning 4 in a row. Did anyone see the Si "where are they now?" article a few years back which was a profile of Mike Bossy, who was hawking potato chips at the time? That really hurt. Not only did we suck as a team, but our heroes were relegated to the netherworld of sports.

Sticking with this team has frequently been a painful experience. The DP deal (which only exarcebated the embarassment of the loss of Smith) is just the latest in a series of blows which, as Danny suggests, we can trace back to Maloney. So I understand it when fans boo DP or booed Ozzie, and I can understand it when they refuse to buy tickets because they don't want to be embarassed under the Cup and retired number banners flying overhead.

It's one thing to ask that Isles fans have enough loyalty to support the team as it's sinking. It's quite another thing to ask them to grin and bear it, too.

Let's get the development of Campoli, Gervais and the other young guns going full force. The older players like Hill and Simon might add veteran experience but when will the kids ever get it playing miniscule minutes like they get????