The New York Islanders...a team that made the NHL in the late 80's. A franchise so proud on tradition, symbolized work ethic and had one of the best hockey minds of all time Al Arbour. That was then, this is now. The Islanders a team no one goes to see, mired by bad trades, horrible decisions and even worse financial turmoil. How does a franchise with so much promise in the mecca of sports as we know it New York go from the top to down and out in a matter of two decades?
To find the answer we need to go back to when things were good. When the talent was Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier, Clark Gilles, Bobby Nystrom, Billy Smith, Denis Potvin and the brains Bill Torrey. This group of players and management were laying a foundation for all future Islander team. Not since the Montreal Canadiens and the New York Yankees had a team had a chance to stamp its name in the history books for all time.
So what went wrong you ask? It was a number of things. The Edmonton Oilers came into the league. No one saw that team doing as much damage as it did so early on. If it weren't for Edmonton the Islanders would have probably won 6-7 cups in a row. The Islanders were sold, Bill Torrey left for the Panthers and the slippery slope became a reality. Bad owner and bad GM after each, Maloney, Spano, Milbury, Snow and Wang. The snowball was now an avalanche. Sure there were some visits to the playoffs. But absolute neglect for an arena, lopsided trades like Kirk Muller for Pierre Turgeon, Benoit Hogue for Eric Fichaud were too damaging. Selecting Dipietro over Danny Heatley and Martin Gaborik, passing on Ted Nolan as head coach in favor of Peter Laviolette who indeed won a Stanley Cup just not for the Islanders. The Islander fan base became disheartened with the franchise and just stopped showing up. Could we blame them?
So we had bad finances, bad management and bad decision after bad decision all creating the perfect storm for failure. The Nassau Coliseum was built in 1972 and is almost 30 years old. Other than the Cubs, Red Sox and Rangers no team plays in a facility of such antiquity. All of the arenas mentioned have had significant upgrades and are considered landmarks. The coliseum did have upgrades but nothing of substance.
The issue is clear the Islanders and the fans of the Islanders have a bad team, with a bad facility and bad management making even worse decisions. No one person or group has been able to stop the avalanche from sliding not even Gary Bettman. So how do we do fix this mess? Stay tuned I will have a blog on How to fix the Islanders. It's the least I can do after helping Jerry Jones with the Dallas Cowboys
