Nothing Brooks said is untrue. With the exception of us die-hards who post here & on the other board, not a damn person cares about the Islanders. You want to be relevant: win. Go drop a big contract in Suter's lap. Get to the playoffs, win a round or two. Until then, you'll be sharing half a page in Newsday with the Long Island Ducks.
Brooks is a joke, if you want a well written article check out the LHH response
Last yr at this time, I was posting that I expected the isles to be a bubble playoff team in 2011-2012.
I haven't been happy with the stalled development of KO,Grabner,MacDonald or Bailey.Although,Bailey has looked good since switching to the wing.
I blame not just the players,but the team.Snow and Wang have to take the hit for not adding vets to help carry the load.Quality vets.Not the crappy additions of Rolston,Pandolfo,Staios,Reasoner.
I haven't read the article yet, but I already agree with it.
Frankly this club is lucky how little negative press they get.
Edit; just read it, and I think it's fair. Of course there's a bit of draft 20/20 hindsight and that isn't right of him. But the overall point of the article is fair & I agree with it.
Last edited by Isles Junkie: 03-18-2012 at 11:19 AM.
I haven't read the article yet, but I already agree with it.
Frankly this club is lucky how little negative press they get.
Or maybe we're not lucky. Maybe if more people knew about the corrupt "don't give a **** about the on-ice product" attitude of Wang and Snow, something would get fixed.
Brooks is a joke, if you want a well written article check out the LHH response
IMO, Brooks' article was the unvarnished truth (irrelevancy, unprecedented lottery stretch, etc) mixed in with hindsight (draft selections), but as for the LHH response -- having to defend this abomination of a once proud organization must leave one needing a shower after.
Hey, if someone wants to try and defend this farce, have at it. Until we demand accountability, we'll be lucky to rise to the level of mediocrity.
Or maybe we're not lucky. Maybe if more people knew about the corrupt "don't give a **** about the on-ice product" attitude of Wang and Snow, something would get fixed.
It certainly wouldn't hurt if more local media took notice of the things that go on here. Like circumventing the cap, hiring cheap coaches, poor player development for top tier prospects etc.
But if Arthur Staple started asking these questions/writing op-ed pieces he'd get his credentials revoked. It's like Charles thinks that if no one writes bad things about the Isles, then NYI fans won't realize how awful we are?
I actually think that the NYIs irrelevance is one of the reasons why a move to Brooklyn may not work. Yeah you say that moving to Brooklyn will give them more exposure, but with the exception of a couple million diehard hockey fans of all 3 local teams, NYC doesn't care about hockey. The Rags are arguably the best team in the NHL this season and an average NBA team gets the backpages seemingly every day this time of year. The Devils have arguably been one of the top 5 franchises in all of NA pro sports the last 20 years, they have a gorgeous new building & they still have trouble selling tickets/TV viewership. Dare I say that this market actually can't support 3 teams.
With that said, if this was happening to the Rags, then they'd be under much heavier media fire then the Isles get, which is basically none.
Brooks is a joke, if you want a well written article check out the LHH response
Dominick wrote an excellent response. I am not a big fan of blogs, but he gets it 100% right. Brooks' surmise is correct on the surface, but it is like writing that Germany lost WWII then stating how Hitler's biggest mistake was attacking Antarctica from Norway. My guess is he needed to fill a space in a page and he went to the "Bash the Isles" well for the easy fix, probably because of a very late request by an editor. I'd say Larry does more harm than good by getting the details wrong sometimes. Here was a chance for him to call out the Islander owner and GM and he dropped the ball. Thanks for nothing Larry.
IMO, Brooks' article was the unvarnished truth (irrelevancy, unprecedented lottery stretch, etc) mixed in with hindsight (draft selections), but as for the LHH response -- having to defend this abomination of a once proud organization must leave one needing a shower after.
Hey, if someone wants to try and defend this farce, have at it. Until we demand accountability, we'll be lucky to rise to the level of mediocrity.
All hail, Chairman Chuck.
Hi Law, I've seen the LHH blog defend the Isles a couple of times so I know where you are coming from, but this particular response piece doesn't do that. The writer actually corrects Larry's aim (writes a better backing story for Larry's article than Larry wrote.) IMO, Brooks has been vocal about his dislike for what Wang & Snow have done over the past two years, but at the same time he is no friend of ours, starting with the anti-"Pittsburgh beat down game" article he wrote last year.
Brooks is a joke, if you want a well written article check out the LHH response
That article and that author are part of the BLOG box.
They get credentials and perks and have a vested interest in defending Wang.
To me, that guy knows NOTHING about hockey, is a stats oriented armchair hockey GM and has no basis to bash the truth just because it came from Larry Brooks.
I've complained about Wang/Snow incompetence and false promises since the day Snow was hired and the same people looking at BLOG BOX rubbish as truth are the same people enabling the legacy of failure from this ownership.
The sooner all of us wake up and get on the same page, the better.
Brooks is a joke, if you want a well written article check out the LHH response
Brooks' draft reasoning isn't nearly as sound as he likely thinks it is. However, it's hard to argue with Brooks' overall point and that is how the owner has made this team into a complete & total afterthought.
There's only a few thousand sickos like you and me who post here and on other NYI sites. Only a few thousand of us hardcore crazies who want to talk Islanders hockey even when the Mets or Yankees are playing. We're all they have, and the reason for that is partly because of the market, but mostly because of how much we've stunk the last 20 years.
I'm 30 years old and I didn't get into hockey till the 93-94 season. So I don't even have the 92-93 season to fall back on. The greatest Islanders memory I have is a 1st round playoff loss to the Leafs. I ought to be institutionalized that I still care so much about this damn franchise.
None of us believes Wang wants to improve the on ice product. He desperately wants to get out, but nobody's offering the kind of money his deluded brain thinks the team should command.
That article and that author are part of the BLOG box.
They get credentials and perks and have a vested interest in defending Wang.
To me, that guy knows NOTHING about hockey, is a stats oriented armchair hockey GM and has no basis to bash the truth just because it came from Larry Brooks.
I've complained about Wang/Snow incompetence and false promises since the day Snow was hired and the same people looking at BLOG BOX rubbish as truth are the same people enabling the legacy of failure from this ownership.
The sooner all of us wake up and get on the same page, the better.
What did he say in his response article that wasn't true? He made Brooks look like the old fool he is.
Brooks' draft reasoning isn't nearly as sound as he likely thinks it is. However, it's hard to argue with Brooks' overall point and that is how the owner has made this team into a complete & total afterthought.
There's only a few thousand sickos like you and me who post here and on other NYI sites. Only a few thousand of us hardcore crazies who want to talk Islanders hockey even when the Mets or Yankees are playing. We're all they have, and the reason for that is partly because of the market, but mostly because of how much we've stunk the last 20 years.
I'm 30 years old and I didn't get into hockey till the 93-94 season. So I don't even have the 92-93 season to fall back on. The greatest Islanders memory I have is a 1st round playoff loss to the Leafs. I ought to be institutionalized that I still care so much about this damn franchise.
Good points.
For me, I read the article and realize that brooks is mocking SnoWang for acting like they KNOW better than everyone else,
While pointing out what THEY COULD HAVE DONE in drafts if they really did.
THIS IS WHY I BASH that blog waste of spaces response.
EVERYONE who knows hockey can go back and rummage through the details.
That wasn't the point.
We here on all the message boards represent the last good core of hard core fans.
Time to band together.
Last edited by stevedepot: 03-18-2012 at 11:57 AM.
When I was a kid, and when I say kid, I mean 21 years-old, I moved to Los Angeles, and my asked me what I would miss about New York, and I said, "Probably just the Islanders." - Then she counters, "Well, you probably won't identify with the Islanders anymore." - This was in 1997, and I kind of wish that she was right. And frankly, she's becoming right. This franchise is on a road to nowhere. We've been, "going to be good" for 17 years. We forced our way into mediocrity between 2002 and 2004, but we have generally been bad since 1995.
How can I, or anyone, defend any criticism of this team? We've gotten nowhere. Even with John Tavares' quantum leap, we've gotten nowhere. We have a 19 year old rookie, who is big, but he gets his butt whipped all over the ice, because he's made the team on the merits of a Garth Snow preseason promise. We have two confused young players, one of whom was jerked around by management from the get-go, Josh Bailey, and another one who was told he was amazing and a future captain, Kyle Okposo. Prospects do not become good by route of management's self-conviction. If I was a draft eligible, all joking aside, I am hoping to get drafted by any team BUT the Islanders. I'll bet you Matt Duchene is happy. He's playing for his favorite team when he was growing up. I'll bet you Victor Hedman is happy because he's playing with a lot of good players and his GM, Steve Yzerman, is a respected hockey man. John Tavares, who is one of the game's best players, must have some remorse. I'll bet that deep down he not only wishes that he were drafted by a different team, but also didn't sign on for a long-term deal.
I'm honest about the things in my life. Whenever I criticize this team, it comes from a heartfelt place. It's not cynicism, it's truth. When people say, "Then go root for the Rangers," it kind of makes me chuckle, because why is that any kind of solution? I'm an Islander fan, and this is the team that I want to be good. When one of your kids disappoints you because you know they can be better and you call them out on it, it's not because you want a different kid, you just want them to be what they can be.
The team is mismanaged from the top down. And when there's a problem with the top, there's a problem with the bottom. As fans, we'll get over this. We can stay off the internet, turn off the games, not watch the games, we can avoid the Islanders all together. But this horrible management is affecting lives. Young players like Josh Bailey and Kyle Okposo, for example, are actually having their careers adversely affected because management has kept them from being all that they can be. You can throw Nino Niederreiter in there too.
When I was a kid, and when I say kid, I mean 21 years-old, I moved to Los Angeles, and my asked me what I would miss about New York, and I said, "Probably just the Islanders." - Then she counters, "Well, you probably won't identify with the Islanders anymore." - This was in 1997, and I kind of wish that she was right. And frankly, she's becoming right. This franchise is on a road to nowhere. We've been, "going to be good" for 17 years. We forced our way into mediocrity between 2002 and 2004, but we have generally been bad since 1995.
How can I, or anyone, defend any criticism of this team? We've gotten nowhere. Even with John Tavares' quantum leap, we've gotten nowhere. We have a 19 year old rookie, who is big, but he gets his butt whipped all over the ice, because he's made the team on the merits of a Garth Snow preseason promise. We have two confused young players, one of whom was jerked around by management from the get-go, Josh Bailey, and another one who was told he was amazing and a future captain, Kyle Okposo. Prospects do not become good by route of management's self-conviction. If I was a draft eligible, all joking aside, I am hoping to get drafted by any team BUT the Islanders. I'll bet you Matt Duchene is happy. He's playing for his favorite team when he was growing up. I'll bet you Victor Hedman is happy because he's playing with a lot of good players and his GM, Steve Yzerman, is a respected hockey man. John Tavares, who is one of the game's best players, must have some remorse. I'll bet that deep down he not only wishes that he were drafted by a different team, but also didn't sign on for a long-term deal.
I'm honest about the things in my life. Whenever I criticize this team, it comes from a heartfelt place. It's not cynicism, it's truth. When people say, "Then go root for the Rangers," it kind of makes me chuckle, because why is that any kind of solution? I'm an Islander fan, and this is the team that I want to be good. When one of your kids disappoints you because you know they can be better and you call them out on it, it's not because you want a different kid, you just want them to be what they can be.
The team is mismanaged from the top down. And when there's a problem with the top, there's a problem with the bottom. As fans, we'll get over this. We can stay off the internet, turn off the games, not watch the games, we can avoid the Islanders all together. But this horrible management is affecting lives. Young players like Josh Bailey and Kyle Okposo, for example, are actually having their careers adversely affected because management has kept them from being all that they can be. You can throw Nino Niederreiter in there too.
Read my previous post.
Larry isn't the fool. That blogger is.
I get you have a thing against advanced statistics for whatever reason, but read the article all the way though, and tell me where he was wrong, and I would like for you to point out where Dominik was wrong.
I get you have a thing against advanced statistics for whatever reason, but read the article all the way though, and tell me where he was wrong, and I would like for you to point out where Dominik was wrong.
The guy is WRONG in bashing Brooks because he TOTALLY missed the point Brooks was making!!!
I KNOW ALL the details from those drafts. I'm 46.
Played, coached, reffed and have been a hockey maniac my entire life.
I do not need some wannabe writer on a blog who takes a professional writers editorial out of context to defend incompetence.
ANYONE can look up stats. Some people actually know the game. Great writers get their point across, but only to those with the comprehension to absorb it. To me, I honestly think that blogger got the point but felt the need to defend SnoWang regardless.
To me, that's shameful. This is why this blogging stuff needs to stop.
the majority know nothing about the sport and when they are given teh slightest bit of legitimacy the marginal fans mistake their views as facts.
It certainly wouldn't hurt if more local media took notice of the things that go on here. Like circumventing the cap, hiring cheap coaches, poor player development for top tier prospects etc.
But if Arthur Staple started asking these questions/writing op-ed pieces he'd get his credentials revoked. It's like Charles thinks that if no one writes bad things about the Isles, then NYI fans won't realize how awful we are?
I actually think that the NYIs irrelevance is one of the reasons why a move to Brooklyn may not work. Yeah you say that moving to Brooklyn will give them more exposure, but with the exception of a couple million diehard hockey fans of all 3 local teams, NYC doesn't care about hockey. The Rags are arguably the best team in the NHL this season and an average NBA team gets the backpages seemingly every day this time of year. The Devils have arguably been one of the top 5 franchises in all of NA pro sports the last 20 years, they have a gorgeous new building & they still have trouble selling tickets/TV viewership. Dare I say that this market actually can't support 3 teams.
With that said, if this was happening to the Rags, then they'd be under much heavier media fire then the Isles get, which is basically none.
Great post...
It hurt to read and im no Brooks fan but the fact of the matter is, its pretty much true....
So sad what our beloved Isles have become. Its starts at the Top as always.
This article should do wonders for us in FA should it get passed around.
