I am frustrated as any of us with the whole DP injury fiasco, but enough is enough I had to take a stand on the main board and defend our own.
My post........
"The guy bleeds orange and Blue......No players that are any good want to come here....DP commited to LI when he was entering his prime....NOBODY askes to be injured and gets hurt on purpose....If Hossa,Luongo,Kovi,Bryz, or Ovi were to get hurt, would you all expect them to stop trying to return? They all have LONG contracts as well...It was bad luck and its not the only contract of its kind....Would I offer that to a player? NO but when a player is offerd a contract like that they are not going to turn it down.Its security for them and thier family.
I wish DP were able to realize that he can no longer take the physical demands of a pro Athlete. I wish he retired tommorow. The Isles are an easy target, say what you want about MAD MIKE and some off the outrageous trades we have made, our ownership problems, our mishandling of prospects, and our management and uncertain future, but the DP jokes are getting old and quite frankly, should not even be an issue that is made fun of.
I agree that its pretty weird thing for DP to buy the Isles fans lunch, but its more than I see other players doing for their fans and atleast somone realizes that we as Isles fans have Been Painfully Loyal year after year off dissapointment and heartach. He might not be the most beloved guy theses days around the colliseum, but atleast we know he is an Islander through and through whether on the ice or not, and is willing to do the rite thing by the fans.
I know their will be some that say if he truly cares about the organization and the fans that he will retire, but how many off you would give up on the thing you love the most and have done your whole life.
Kudos and much respect for Rickeys Friendly gesture.
No matter what outsiders say, we Islanders fans have a special bond to eachother and our team that will never be understood by any outsider. We love our Hockey team as much as anyother fans loves thiers, and we will continue to bleed orange and Blue until the end.
It'd be sweet to see the Island get a solid team back. Tavares, Hamonic, and their other young guys should be solid pieces to build around. And it would be cool to see DP be able to maintain some level of health.
I have no problem with DiPietro. I sympathize with any player struggling to return from injury. That being said, I do not think the force behind that constant ridicule is DiPi and his injuries, I think its management for signing him. Now hindsight is 20/20 and they obviously did not sign him with the knowledge that this would happen but I just wanted to point out that I don't think the jokes stem from him and his injuries.
I think its cool that he sprung for lunch for the fans. Its a good promotion and a way to remind fans that this guy still does want to be an islander and not being able to play is hurting him more than anyone. When Sid has been out, people forget about him and start to think about life as a fan without him. That is why they would always make those annoying practice videos and constant articles. However annoying they may have been, from an organizational standpoint its a necessity and this is a similar situation. Fans sometimes need to be reminded of a players dedication to the organization and this is a great way to do it. I applaud both Rick and the Islanders for this.
I have no problem with DiPietro. I sympathize with any player struggling to return from injury. That being said, I do not think the force behind that constant ridicule is DiPi and his injuries, I think its management for signing him. Now hindsight is 20/20 and they obviously did not sign him with the knowledge that this would happen but I just wanted to point out that I don't think the jokes stem from him and his injuries.
I think its cool that he sprung for lunch for the fans. Its a good promotion and a way to remind fans that this guy still does want to be an islander and not being able to play is hurting him more than anyone. When Sid has been out, people forget about him and start to think about life as a fan without him. That is why they would always make those annoying practice videos and constant articles. However annoying they may have been, from an organizational standpoint its a necessity and this is a similar situation. Fans sometimes need to be reminded of a players dedication to the organization and this is a great way to do it. I applaud both Rick and the Islanders for this.
I've really got nothing against DP myself, it's just hard to look past the whole Gillies thing, when it comes to the NYI.
I have no problem with DiPietro. I sympathize with any player struggling to return from injury. That being said, I do not think the force behind that constant ridicule is DiPi and his injuries, I think its management for signing him. Now hindsight is 20/20 and they obviously did not sign him with the knowledge that this would happen but I just wanted to point out that I don't think the jokes stem from him and his injuries.
I think its cool that he sprung for lunch for the fans. Its a good promotion and a way to remind fans that this guy still does want to be an islander and not being able to play is hurting him more than anyone. When Sid has been out, people forget about him and start to think about life as a fan without him. That is why they would always make those annoying practice videos and constant articles. However annoying they may have been, from an organizational standpoint its a necessity and this is a similar situation. Fans sometimes need to be reminded of a players dedication to the organization and this is a great way to do it. I applaud both Rick and the Islanders for this.
Great post...
I agree that the ridicule is more towards management, but what I was trying to point out is there are far more worse things that managment does that could be the subject of peoples "jokes" way before the DP signing. I was also trying to state that there are more 9 yr + contracts out there that can be compared to DP's and that if they were to be injured it would be the same situation..
The Isles deserve the scrutny for other dumb things they do but signing a goalie who at the time was young,team USA starter, and an ALL STAR , with a decent cap hit was not at the time a bad thing had DP stayed healthy.
I've really got nothing against DP myself, it's just hard to look past the whole Gillies thing, when it comes to the NYI.
What Gillies did was flat out wrong and most level head and mature NYI fans hated what he did; but to hold one players actions against the entire Organization is wrong.
Its the same if people hated the entire Pens organiztion because of Cookes past.
or If one FAN of a team did somthing outrageous and we held it against an entire fan base..
I think people are more concerned with the contract than DP himself. Watching the game, you realize how badly he wants to play, if only because he's still out there after he's lost a few steps from the injuries. Imagine being so unbelievably good at something, then having it taken away from you.
For me it seemed like a lot of islanders fans made jokes about him in an attempt to laugh to keep from crying. Otherwise the situation is just damn depressing.
The guy just has incredibly bad luck with injuries. Between his knee, concussions, groin injuries... it's gotta suck. At some point though he has to come to the realization that he won't play hockey again. Any thoughts I had that he may return were effectively stomped out with his most recent injury (re-injury?) while he was already on IR.
While buying lunch for some fans is a nice gesture, the best thing for him to do for the fans is recuperate in retirement.
If the Islanders were allowed to play to the cap, they'd be competitive and probably in the playoffs.
They could've signed Richards, Cole and Gagne with room to spare. It's really sad they're stuck in the toughest division in hockey and forced to compete in spite of their situation.
