He's sorry.... so, sorry....

"Plain and simple, it's ugly."-- New York Islanders chief financial officer Art McCarthy, detailing the financial picture of the Islanders for owner Charles Wang

The middle of the Stanley Cup playoffs, normally a period of time where the hockey grabs the headlines is finding off ice distractions starting to take up most of the media time (well that part of the media that even seems to care about hockey south of the border). While much has been made of the financial travails of the Phoenix Coyotes, Atlanta Thrashers and Tampa Bay Lightning, all of which make the Nashville Predators look like a blue chip franchise, there's a new alert on the radar one which should catch some attention in New York.

The New York Islanders owner Charles Wang, currently in the middle of his own battles with the Nassau County government over a potential new arena development known as the Lighthouse project, allowed the New York city newspaper Newsday to examine his books from an auditor to highlight the $208.8 million that he has spent per year to operate the Islanders.

Described as one of Long Island's wealthiest men (total monetary value apparently dropping fast if you factor in the Islanders troubles), Wang has made monthly deposits of 33.5 million dollars to keep his team in operation.

The rink project in Hampstead New York has become bogged down in bureaucratic delays that have left the apparently unintended philanthropic owner at his wits ends, making suggestions that the time may be near for his Islanders to relocate, with Kansas City apparently the leading suitor at the moment.

In addition to his monthly payments for the joy of ownership, Wang has seen the value of his team drop as the economic picture continues to decline, Forbes listed the value today of the Islanders to be 154 million dollars, the purchase back in June of 2000 was 170 million.

Along the way, Wang lost a partner who he bought out in 2004 and has since become the sole provider for the financial troubled Islanders.

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The Newsday article provides a fascinating look at all that has gone wrong for the once storied Islander franchise, leaving you to wonder if the Islanders with such losses as these and a dropping asset price, will even find anyone inclined to buy the team even if they come with a road map off of Long Island.

From the NHL catwalk: Islanders

As the NHL and Rbk release the new updated uniforms for the NHL this year, we'll provide a link to the NHL shop page and a preview of the new look. Here's the new clothing choice for discriminating New York Islander fans.

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Islanders shop page.

Billy G gets a C

The New York Islanders still smarting a bit after watching Ryan Smyth head back west and Jason Blake leave for Toronto gave their fans a bit of positive reinforcement on Monday. Garth Snow and Ted Nolan announced that recent free agent acquisition Bill Guerin would become the 11th player to wear the C as Islanders captain.

While clearly back into a rebuilding mode after a brief playoff run in this years playoffs, the Islanders decided to look to Guerin for on ice leadership for a team that has struggled in that department for a number of years.

Fresh from a contract signing that will see him earn 9 million dollars for two years in the blue and orange, Guerin will be the face of an ever changing Islander squad that seeks to get back to the halcyon days of Smith, Potvin, Bossy et al. Whether Guerin in his declining years will be able to recapture some of his past scoring exploits will prove to be the key point to the Islander signing.

They had rolled the dice large at the trade deadline in their quest to bring in Ryan Smyth, hopeful that he would look at the chance to help reclaim hockey glory on Long Island But with a phone call from Joe Sakic and a chance to join the Colorado Avalanche, Smyth moved on and the Isles had to go to plan B.

A plan which seems to involve creating a first line out of free agents as Mike Comrie and Ruslan Fedetenko picked up their Blue sweaters just before the Guerin announcement. Also joining the Isles through the free agent market is Jon Sim.

Last year was a learning curve for the Islanders as Ted Nolan got himself back in the coaching saddle and tried to coax his team to exceed the expectations of the Islander faithful over the last few years. He came up a little short, but had a pretty good run leading up to the playoffs, only to have the good vibrations come to an end at the hand of the Buffalo Sabres in the first round.

They’ll be calling on history and pride in 2007-08, hoping that Guerin’s experience and the excitement of the newcomers will mesh with the remaining Islanders, taking them further by the time next May rolls around.

Was it Professor Lamoriello, in the dressing room, with a line up card?

If you’re looking for a suspect in the game of Clue that became the end of the Leafs season on Sunday, perhaps look no further than that listed above!

My oh my, you could hear the wails of despair as far as Hamilton on Sunday night, as the Mighty Maple Leafs were denied a trip to Lord Stanley’s post season dance this year.

After a remarkable tension filled third period of hockey between the New Jersey Devils and the New York Islanders, the Leafs found themselves on the outside, suddenly free to spend more time with the kids, the clubs and their outside business interests.

In the end, the Islanders would rely on a little known goaltender from Invermere, British Columbia to put them into the play offs. Wade Dubielewicz made two key Overtime shoot out saves, securing a place for the Islanders in this years playoff season and sending the Leafs to join the Habs on the sidelines, to serve as testimonies to chances missed.

But, before we rehash an amazing last ten minutes of hockey we rewind to a pre game decision by head coach, GM, and Presidente for Life Lou Lamoriello. It was Lamoriello who chose to sit out perennial all star goaltender Martin Brodeur in favour of seldom used back up, Scott Clemmensen.

It was a move that no doubt has more than one member of the Maple Leaf Nation screaming conspiracy at the top of their soon to be silent lungs.

To be fair to the back up, he played a fairly solid game for the Devils, and while a little sloppy on puck control he none the less held the Islanders to account for a good portion of the game, Despite numerous scoring opportunities the Islanders could only tally two goals, both of which were scored by Richard Park, who ironically played a fair amount of his formative hockey in the Toronto area. (Go ahead blame his minor hockey coaches if a scapegoat is needed) an interesting bit of irony for Leaf fans to ponder on a most remarkable day.

The Islanders held the Leafs fate heading into the third period, when they began to falter, allowing the Devils to get back into the game, including a wild last .9 second of a goal that sent the Leaf’s misery into extra time. With a bit of a momentum shift taking place, Leaf fans would be forgiven if they perhaps thought they had been offered a stay of execution, with the Devils to provide deliverance in short order.

However, five minutes of Overtime settled nothing, despite a last minute of play that featured an Islander power play with a 4-3 advantage. With neither team scoring it was off to a shoot which saw the Islanders take a 2-1 lead into the final shooter, an effort from Sergei Brylin that was poke checked away by Dubielewicz bringing an end to the roller coaster of emotions on Long Island and setting a whole new wave of tears loose in Southern Ontario.

While the Leaf fans may not like their fate, they should remember that their heroes had more than enough chances in the last two weeks to avoid all the drama and secure a playoff spot, in the end as the Leafs and Habs stumbled through the last week of the season it was the Islanders that ran the four game winning streak into the final playoff spot.

The remarkable Islander win now provides the Metro New York City area with three different options for Stanley Cup cheering, a situation that will most likely bring a smile to the face of Gary Bettman while the CBC wonders whatever will become of their ratings now that Toronto can get Raptor crazy.

In fact, don’t be surprised if we soon hear conspiracy tales from depressed and angry leaf fans on how the Leafs hopes were not just dashed, but murdered on the last day of the season.

If this were a game of Clue, cynical Leaf fans might suggest that if not Lou, then perhaps the following as their prime suspect in the crime: The name of Colonel Bettman, in the office, with the telephone.

Islanders have the hammer.

Toronto Maple Leaf fans have yet one more day of nail biting to endure, before they know if they should start reading up on the Raptors and Blue Jays or that shiny new toy the soccer club.

The Leafs took care of their part of the bargain on Saturday night, but edging the Montreal Canadiens 6-5 and sending the Habs home to pack and plan for the summer might not be enough.

Toronto took to the ice in the first period and appeared ready to chase Montreal right out of the Air Canada centre and down the 401. At one point in the first period the shots on goal favoured the Leafs by a ridiculous measure of 19-2.

Christobal Huet was left to fend for himself for a good ten minutes of the first before Montreal could mount any form of effective counter attack. And for the Habs, Huet proved to be large he single handedly kept them alive in the first period, as he faced an onslaught of Toronto attacks.

Surprisingly by the end of the first period Montreal was still battling to knock out the Leafs, and by the second period they were ahead providing a glimpse of playoff elimination for Toronto. The Leafs would battle back to tie the game at 4-4 by the end of the second and took control in the third building their way to the 6-5 decision.

They now await news from New Jersey on Sunday afternoon as the New York Islanders attempt to put away the Leaf's dreams for this year. The Islanders need a regular time victory to ruin the Leafs aspirations for this year.

Should the succeed, it will set up a Long Island Buffalo playoff series, which would provide much in the way of high drama and sub plots for the first round of the playoffs.

Of course, Toronto would have other preferences, a nice little cross border showdown with their southern neighbours is what they're hoping for. To get it, they'll need a little help from the swamps of Jersey.

A billboard clipping for Garth Snow

It’s not often that the terms fleeced and New York Islanders doing the fleecing, get mentioned in the same story but the recent swap of players between the Islanders and Flyers, has one particular New York Newspaper making Snow out to be the second coming of Sam Pollock.

Snow engineered a trade of Alexei Zhitnik from the Island to Philly for the services of Freddy Myer, a move that is garnering a few pats on the back for the GM who last was feeling the heat over the rather rewarding terms that he brought his goaltender, Rick DiPietro under (rewarding for DiPetro at any rate).

But this one, well if Kevin Greenstein of the New York Sun is any indication will herald the day that Snow joined the big leagues of trade em, swap em in the NHL.

If nothing else, Greenstein has guaranteed himself some pretty good access to the Islanders GM, who when he tires of the snickering from the rest of the media, can at least look back at the Greenstein article as verification that he is a GM to be reckoned with. A statement that wouldn't have been associated with the Islanders replacement GM at the start of the season.

One suspects that if there are any "exclusives" coming out of Long Island, they most likely will be carrying a Greenstein byline for the next little while!

Islanders' GM Snow Fleeces Flyers With Latest TradeHockey
BY KEVIN GREENSTEIN
The New York Sun
December 19, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/45416

When the news hit the wires that the New York Islanders had traded veteran defenseman Alexei Zhitnik to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for young blueliner Freddy Meyer, one could have been forgiven for questioning the sanity of both teams involved in the deal.

With 35 points in 31 games, the Isles are currently in ninth place in the Eastern Conference. But when one considers the fact that they have three games in hand on seventh place Toronto and eighth place Carolina, it's safe to say the Isles are a legitimate playoff contender. And so it would be reasonable to wonder why the Isles would deal Zhitnik — a valuable veteran with significant playoff experience — in exchange for an unproven youngster.

Meanwhile, the perennially powerful Flyers are sitting in dead last in the East, with only 20 points in 32 games. They appear to be in need of a serious rebuilding effort, and have precious little hope of reaching the playoffs, much less winning a round or two. So why would they give up on young Freddy Meyer, a promising 26-year-old puck-moving defenseman who compiled 27 points and a plus-10 rating in his first NHL season?

And after careful evaluation of the possible reasons behind the deal from each team's perspective, conclusion is that the deal makes a lot of sense for the Isles, but none for the Flyers. Put simply, the Flyers got fleeced.

First and foremost, the Isles cleared a significant amount of cap room, which should enable them to make a bigger deal later on this season. Zhitnik's salary for 2006–07 is $3.5 million, while Meyer costs only $525,000. Factoring in the games already played, the deal saves the Isles close to $2 million against the $44 million salary cap, giving them tremendous flexibility as the trade deadline approaches. A player with a $6 million salary counts for only $2 million against the cap if he's acquired for the season's final third, making the Zhitnik deal all the more compelling for the Isles should they decide to "go for it" this season.

Now, it's also possible that owner Charles Wang mandated that rookie GM Garth Snow cut costs. The Nassau Coliseum is littered with empty seats for virtually every Isles game, which without question hurts the bottom line. Making matters worse, although the NHL is reporting an overall rise in revenue, the Isles do not qualify for revenue sharing because they are based in a major metropolitan market.

But given Wang's approach thus far, there is little reason to expect him to take such a short view where his team is concerned. He likely realizes that Long Island's hockey fans will turn out in droves if the team starts winning on a consistent basis. Therefore, it's more likely than not that a big deal — one in which a top-flight player is brought in — is on the horizon for the Isles.
Another important reason behind the deal could be between the pipes. Isles goaltender Rick DiPietro knows Meyer well — the two have played together on and off since they were 13 years old, including two seasons with Boston University — and it's reasonable to expect that input on personnel decisions is a side benefit of DiPietro's 15-year contract.

"This is a trade that makes us younger and more mobile — that's why we did it," Snow told reporters before Saturday night's game. "We're very happy with the deal because, simply put, it makes us a better hockey team."

Meyer is out with a minor back injury, but should return to the lineup as soon as next week. Chris Campoli, another young blueliner, returned to the lineup for Saturday night's shutout of the Atlanta Thrashers, giving the Isles' defense a speed boost that should serve them well in the coming months.

Meanwhile, the party line in Philadelphia is that Zhitnik represents a significant upgrade on their blue line.

"Alexei is a very durable player," Flyers GM Paul Holmgren explained to the Philadelphia press. "He can play a lot of minutes. He has a wealth of experience. We think that he can really upgrade our defense."

But while Zhitnik does represent a short-term upgrade over Meyer, it is unlikely he will be the catalyst to springboard the Flyers back into playoff contention.

Instead, it's far more likely that the Flyers are putting on a strong front for their fans, making a legitimate effort to turn things around on the ice before what would seem to be an inevitable rebuilding effort. Veterans Peter Forsberg and Derian Hatcher are sure to be shopped as the trade deadline approaches, with the Flyers looking to add some much needed speed and youth to their lineup, and in particular on their blue line.

Now, this of course begs the question: Why give up on Meyer? An excellent skater with substantial offensive upside, he would appear to be the prototypical defenseman for the modern NHL. Looking ahead, if the Flyers fail to get back into the playoff hunt, Zhitnik (like Hatcher, due $3.5 million in each of the next two seasons) will turn out to be yet another aging cap albatross taking up valuable space on the Philadelphia blue line.

Garth Snow might be a rookie GM, but this deal demonstrated that he's learned a lot during his very short time on the job. Cap management is a tricky proposition, and with this deal, the Isles came out ahead from virtually every perspective. Should they realize down the road that they need a bit more experience on the blue line, acquiring a veteran blueliner at least the equal of Zhitnik — one who isn't owed $7 million over the next two seasons, no less — should be a fairly simple task as the deadline approaches.

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A recent book release, Sheldon Kennedy's "Why I Didn't Say Anything," is a must-read for hockey-playing teenagers, and probably for all teenagers. Kennedy played eight seasons in the NHL, but is best known for the courageous stand he took in charging his former Canadian junior hockey coach Graham James with sexual assault. The book details Kennedy's hard road to redemption, and reading it gives teenagers an important weapon against future abuse. Without question, knowledge is power where this difficult topic is concerned.

Also noteworthy is a recent DVD release, "In the Crease." The film follows the California Wave Bantam AAA travel hockey team on their path to nationals. It presents the players' trials and tribulations in an honest, unique fashion, and is supplemented by input from some of the NHL's biggest stars, including the Devils' Scott Gomez and the Rangers' Brendan Shanahan.
Mr. Greenstein is the editor in chief of InsideHockey.com.

He has a yen for Yashin

Fans of the Ottawa Senators won’t believe the type on the screen, but on Long Island head coach Ted Nolan is singing the praises of Alexei Yashin. The Islanders boss wants the hockey world to know that they may have Yashin all wrong, he wants to win, he’s playing hard and he’s the Islanders go to guy these days.

Nolan who has a bit of a reputation in the motivation game isn’t taking any credit for the resurrection of the Yashin work ethic; instead he says it’s all about minutes on the ice. The great players need the ice time to improve and in New York under Nolan, Yashin is finding the tap on the shoulder comes more often than it has in past years.

From the number one line, to the power play to penalty killing, Yashin who now logs over 19 minutes a game has scored 13 points in 11 games thus far in the season, firing off 53 shots in the course of his days at the office.

Long expected to have a breakout year and become a dominant player, Yashin isn’t yet at that point. But if he truly has found himself more involved in the game this year it can only benefit his career and help to erase some of the more contentious moments of his days in Ottawa.

For Nolan it’s a simple project, if he can get Yashin back on track the rest of the team will be able to feed off of his renewed interest in the game. The coach killer label may soon be gone from the enigmatic Russian, which in the short and long run is as good as things could get for Nolan, goals, assists and leadership for Yashin will be a most welcome bonus.

Nolan has Yashin going on Long Island
Canadian Press
Globe and Mail
November 1, 2006

Ted Nolan spent his years between NHL coaching jobs as a motivational speaker and it's apparently come in handy so far this season.

The New York Islanders head coach has lit a fire under centre Alexei Yashin.
"I'm not too sure what I've done, it's more so what he's done," Nolan said Wednesday, trying to deflect any credit.

"The one thing about Alexei is that what I've heard and what he is are totally different things," added Nolan, whose team is off to a surprising 5-4-2 start. "I've never met a classier individual in my life. I've met a lot of sports people but he's a top-notch, quality person."

That glowing assessment might surprise some.

But Yashin has always sparked strong feelings. There was acrimony in his departure from the Ottawa Senators in June 2001. And then shock at the subsequent US$87.5-million, 10-year contract he signed on Long Island.

Plus he's been hammered in media circles for underperforming as an Islander.

"I think it's part of professional sports," Yashin said Wednesday when asked about the criticism.

"If you look around, it happens to players in football and baseball, too. The biggest example here in New York is Alex Rodriguez with the Yankees. The media has to sell newspapers. The biggest news is when you find negative stuff on the stars. I have to live with that and it's been part of my life."

Yashin, in the sixth year of that contract which pays him $7.6 million this season, insists he's always given it his all despite what people perceive.

"I really try to give everything I have in every game," said Yashin, who had 66 points (28-38) in 82 games last season. "And I hope some fans appreciate that."

Nolan had heard all the stories about Yashin before taking the Isles' job in June. But if there's anyone willing to give somebody a break despite a bad reputation, it's Nolan, who twisted in the wind for nine years between NHL jobs after his departure from Buffalo.

"Alexei's got great passion," Nolan said from his Islanders office. "Maybe the rap that he's got in the past is unjust. . . .

"We're just going forward and he seems to love playing and we love watching him play. He's going to make a lot of heads turn this season."

Yashin, who turns 33 Sunday, leads the Islanders with 13 points (5-8) in 11 games and 53 shots on goal while playing more than 19 minutes a game, second among forwards on the team.

"The big thing that Ted does here is that he lets me play the penalty kill," said Yashin. "It helps me stay in the game. It keeps me ready, every next shift I'm ready to play instead of missing a big chunk of the game.

"I'm getting more consistent ice time."

That was a no-brainer, said Nolan.

"He's a great player and great players need minutes," said Nolan. "Alexei is on our No. 1 power play and our No. 1 line. He's even blocking shots. . . . He's skating well, he's making great plays, he's getting involved physically."

Nolan didn't waste time forging a relationship with his top centre.

"I went out for dinner with Alexei and our owner Charles Wang the very first night after I got hired this summer and we talked about the team, which direction we wanted to go into," said Nolan. "We started that rapport right away and we continued it. We went out for more meetings later. He got more comfortable with me and I got more comfortable with him.

"It has to do with communication, you have to communicate with people in order to find out what makes them go."

Said Yashin of his coach: "We have a very good connection."

Nolan surprised some around the hockey world by also keeping the 'C' on Yashin's jersey.

"You can be the greatest captain in the world but if you don't have people in the room to support you, it's difficult," said Nolan. "One of the things we've done here is bring in some people to support his leadership, I just don't think Alexei was surrounded with proper leadership in that room last year.

"When you look at guys like Chris Simon, Mike Sillinger and Brendan Witt, those guys have really added something. Alexei feels a little bit more comfortable with himself and now his play his indicative of that."