FanPost

Calling Out Islanders Fans everywhere


After reading numerous comments regarding the potential sale of the islanders by Charles Wang, I am absolutely mindblown. FOR WEEKS, I've been reading negative, and more negative, and even more negative comments by the majority of the people who seem to be the islander fan base. People have been calling for Wang and Snows head for years, now we hear wang might be selling soon, and numerous people in the fan base is seeming to say "WAIT!!! I hope they don't fire Garth Snow!" Absolutely stunning.

for whatever reason we love this team despite the suffering we've had to endure for decades. But we can't just seem to be able to make up our minds on what the problems and solutions are to this team. It seems to me this is exactly like politics. We had to deal with such crap for years, that its hard to formulate a positive opinion, no matter what the reality is.

As someone who has made his home in Long Island, this is my very first post on this site. However I have been following and rooting for the islanders for years, and I read this site regularly.

I'd thought I'd post my thoughts on the state of the union of this franchise:

On Charles Wang: for the most part I get the impression that Charles Wang cares about the islanders and wants them to succeed. However, I think since the lighthouse project fell through, and the islanders aren't making a whole lot of money, it's obvious wang has preferred to stay at the cap floor, and doggedly so. I don't think this really means he's cheap, we did offer vanek 50 million, we tried to sign erhoff , etc. clearly we don't want to overpay anybody not viewed as elite (parenteau, boyes, moulson, etc.) . To be honest, I can't say I disagree with that strategy. Free agents are almost always NOT worth the price you pay for them. Since the islanders have not been contenders, why lock in people that aren't going to be long term solutions. I am in the majority though that wants to see wang go. He really doesn't instill a culture of winning, he NEVER makes any statements on the club or deliver any messages of hope to the organization. Clearly he's content with staying out of the limelight and you just get the impression that he doesn't care, whether that's true or not.

On Garth Snow: Garth snow is neither as bad nor as good as you think he is. He desrves credit overall for drafting well for the most part, and finding some useful additions on the cheap. The fact remains the islanders haven't been a desirable landing spot for top free agents because they aren't cup contenders yet, so you can't really fault him for that. However you can absolutely criticize Garth snow for not being savvy enough to get the upper hand on a few trades, having an unnecessary hard on for American born and college players, and overall not being vocal enough in the media, to the fans to the players. He definitely has screwed up,the goaltender issue among a few other blunders like the joshmbaileynextension, mishandling the vanek issue. I'm in the camp that snow hasn't been as bad as people think, however it's hard not to think a savvy and more respected gm could've accelerated the rebuild a litter quicker.

on Jack Capuano: I'm on the side of the fence that thinks jack needs to go. He just doesn't seem to get this team to play to their abilities, too many confusing line combinations, too much josh bailey use, kind of being an overall "aww shucks we lost" attitude. We need a coach that is going to demand and instill excellence from day one. No Doug weight either! He will be jack Capuano part 2

On Current roster: overall i feel the islanders are a lot better than our record indicates. Clearly we have a superstar in JT, plus a lot of solid pieces. We really actually just need to acquire a goalie and 2-3 other players, plus another coach, away from being a top team in the league. I couldnt be happier with the progress of some of rookies lee strome dehaan Nelson are all contributing positively and are going to be solid players. Okposo has stepped up. Clutterbuck is actually an important piece. This summer will be a very interesting one to see how we improve. We need to get rid of some dead weight without of doubt, but we totally have a solid foundation and should be excited about the prospects in our system.

Overall I do think with a few key changes additions, i am optimistic we will be close to a cup contending team in a couple of years. if wang sells the team, I hope to god we don't trade all of our rookies foolishly for bloated veterans, but I don't think we will. I am predicting we will shake up the roster and trade a few picks and prospects in the next two years.

Next moves :1.try to sign hiller, halak, brian elliott, reimer in that order. 2. Trade some prospects + picks for a top four defensemen. 3. If we need to overpay a free agent i would love if we could get ryan Callahan, I'm not even opposed to try do bring moulson or vanek back. Doubt it's going to happen though.

Have faith islanders fans, thanks for reading!

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