THE Garden

 

Granted, my debut at Madison Square Garden wasn’t at Tyson – Holyfield.  It wasn’t at a Ranger game.  But being at the men’s Big East College Basketball Tournament wasn’t such a bad way to take The Garden in for the first time.  Minus the nine dollar beers (and five dollar normal sized bottles of water, for real), it’s a special building.

It’s a much more personal arena than I thought.  I had imagined such a famous arena (the world’s most, as the PA announcer repeatedly reminded the crowd) was going to be some huge ampitheatre where the players would look like Hobbits from the upper rows, but it’s not like that. 

I wouldn’t have had to find out what those seats were like if it wasn’t for my true New York experience.  I showed up looking for scalped tickets, and wasn’t a step on the sidewalk near the building when a guy in a backpack asked me if I was “selling”, which is what those gentleman ask - no legal repercussions for buying, only selling.

I had been told to get a seat in at least the 200 level to really take in the college feel.  When Big Al (as his ‘business card’ said) offered me 300 level for 40 bucks, I told him I was paying 20 for a 200 level or better and walked away. 

After the chase-down-we-can-work-this-out-approach, he handed me a ticket in the lowest bowl, and agreed to give it to me for $25.  I offered him the $20, and he said no.     

So when I gave him the ticket back and he started to laugh about me driving a hard bargain, I figured I had won.  He said fine, deal, here’s the ticket, and scurried away like the cops were six steps behind and about to finally pounce.  I got inside and gave my ticket to the people at the front. 

Section 311.  F—k.

It’s alright, I was a single, so I found a good seat anyway, but man.  Welcome to New York, rookie.

The arena has amazing acoustics - even at half time when everybody is simply talking it’s loud.  I’m adding good seats to a major boxing match at MSG to my bucket list which currently only has “play Augusta” on it (PS less than a month until The Masters, eeeekkkk).

You have to love college sports.  The band.  The students.  The chants.  The games just feel oh-so-important.  In the WCHA, my team played in front of 15,000 in Wisconsin, 12,000 in North Dakota and 10,000 in Minneapolis.  The student section was always in the same t-shirts, standing the whole game while chanting chants that you’d have to have taken a class in fan-obsession to know.

   (Kohl Center, Wisconsin)

But college basketball fans are even more influential because they’re right on top of the court, so the players can pick out certain individual to be the object of their hate.  

At most college games you can yell anything from any seat in the building and nobody will tell you to sit down, including the profanity-riddled slew of derogatory comments coming from my nearby seat-mate, which brought nothing but chuckles from the crowd.

The two games I saw weren’t thrillers, with the better team inevitably taking over fairly handily in the end, but I was glad I went.

I even ended up bringing Chinese food  uptown to Stan Fischlers apartment for dinner (Stan is one of the better connected hockey men in the world, as well as the current record holder in Jew-jokes-told-per-day.  I even learned a new Yiddish word).

And tonight, I’ll be in the production meeting of the Rangers – Predators game  for the MSG network with Stan, trying to take in what I can about how that all goes down. 

So today, back on the train!

*Also noteworthy:  Stan has written five books on trains, including the one I take in, the LIRR (Long Island Rail Road).  Fascinating guy.

Note:  Justin’s first article for Max Hockey is up on their site at www.maxhockey.com.

Stuff That Matters

 

I keep a written list of the stupid stuff I want to write on my blog, and occasionally (as you’ve probably noticed), I go through it and write a blog of raging unimportance.  I usually skip a few little thoughts for whatever reason, so today I’ve decided to go back and honor those neglected, so here goes:

Does anybody print anymore?  You know, not with computers, but with a pen, words, on paper?  I’m a guy, so I wasn’t blessed with naturally bubbly printing.  Plus, I’m impatient so I always tried to write a thousand words per second.  Because of this, when I do write, I use cursive, so my writing fully looks like I’m in seventh grade.  But I’ve done it so infrequently since college that I’m openly embarrassed by my writing now.  Even my all-capitalized-man-printing looks like a six-year-old chewed on a crayon and printed it with his teeth.  Thank god for computers.

 

That picture reminds me.  Does anybody not love crayons?  Something about new school supplies in general are satisfying.  So much hope for the future I guess (though if crayons are considered school supplies, I’m assuming they won’t be scrawling anything Pulitzer worthy).  My girlfriend is creepily obsessed with school supplies, which is fine, but I’ve gotta draw the line at using those tabbed chapter markers in binders.  I’ll find what I’m looking for, thanks.

 

The names of exits, cities and towns around Long Island are awesome.  If I ever get to name another blog, or book, or band, I’m just gonna start stealing them.  I gave serious thought to starting a second blog just so I could name something “Rockaway Boulevard”.

And while I’m on driving, is there anything worse than having to make stops on the way home (okay, probably, but it sucks, right?)?  You’ve been out all day, running stupid errands, you’re hungry and dreaming about sweatpants.  You hop in the passenger side of the car and your driver says “I just have to stop real quick to pick up a prescription”. Or developed pictures.  Or a sack of French baguettess.  Whatever it is, you know it’s going to suck.  Something won’t be right, you’ll have to wait ten minutes, or drive somewhere else, now we’re out of gas, I-hate-you-take-me-home.

I like a cup of tea in the morning.  Give it a go.  Those Euro’s with their warm breakfasts are really on to something.  For some reason starting the day with a stomach full of cold circles in milk with O.J. doesn’t leave me feeling as satisfied and ready as sausage, eggs and tea.  I will continue to run nannerpus at every opportunity.  His freaking eye coming off is priceless.

The Haney Project on the golf channel has Hank Haney trying to fix Charles Barkley’s swing, which is like trying to fix your dog’s jump shot.  Probably only gonna make so much progress.

In the first episode Charles snap-hooks one and his curse is: “God-bless-my-muhtha…”  I love it.

And lastly, I have a question.  Could those “are you a human” questions be any more difficult??  You know, the ones where you’re signing up for something, or submitting something online, and you have to type the letters you see?  It’s usually like a magic eye with a word-and-a-half that don’t actually exist in what appears to be the Russian alphabet.  Does it need to be that difficult?  I usually apply the three strike rule, which means that after my third attempt I start writing myself hate mail for being such a loser.

And that’s where my head is at.  See you Isles die-hards tonight at Gabrielles in Rockville Center!

Islanders-Based Hockey Musings

 

Next year is going to be a great year for Kyle Okposo.  The kid is going to finish this season with 15-20 goals on the worst team in the league as a rookie.  If he has a couple linemates, I think he could be an NHL All-Star team hopeful in his second season.

They’re thinking about sending him to Bridgeport for AHL playoffs which seems a little ridiculous to me.  I do think it could help him (especially in the confidence department), but the risks are too big.  Playoffs are crazy intense at every level, and he would log a ton of minutes.  This puts a kid that the Islanders are calling the future face of their organization in harms way for vicious hockey. 

Even though he’d have the summer to heal if he got hurt, some injuries can nag throughout entire careers.  Why risk it with a kid that the team is so invested in, when the team he’d be laying his heart on the line for isn’t even the Islanders?  As a favor to a team that’s given so much to them, maybe?  Injuries happen when players relax and don’t have to try their hardest.  Hopefully this isn’t the case, Kyle’s future is bright on Long Island. 

Also, isn’t there some sort of ethical logic in not allowing a full-season NHLer to play in the American League playoffs?  Great, there’s a loophole, but does that mean you should use it for something you’re not even so sure will be a positive thing for our player?  Of course he’s saying he’d do it and enjoy it, what choice does he have?  They have him under contract, so they can send him to Paraguay if they think it would help.  He’s being a great guy about it as usual, but in the end, he has to go.  That doesn’t mean he actually wants to.

And what if he doesn’t succeed down there?  Maybe he gets shadowed and frustrated, plays with less-talented players who can’t make the plays he needs them to make?  That wouldn’t be so great for confidence.  Maybe there’s some mucker who knows he’s not NHL bound that tries to get famous by taking him out.  Maybe he ends up resenting the organization for sending him to the AHL when he considers himself (as he should) a legitimate NHL star.

Chances are he’d go down there, play great, feel good about things and come back.  It’s not really a huge issue that I’m super-passionate about, it just seems so unnecessary after all his great development.  It’s almost a slap in the face to the kid who worked so hard all year, so I’m hoping it doesn’t come to a playoff send-down.  The risk-reward doesn’t match up in my head.

 

How about the Guerin to Crosby goal last night?  Two on One, Billy skated into there’s-no-way-he-won’t-shoot-from-there-land, and snapped it over to Sid who snapped it in the net, perfect execution.  Who you play with really does affect your yearly totals, gotta believe Guerin made a few of those plays on the Island that ended in missed nets.

And how spoiled are Capitals fans?  I know nobody has said that until recent years, but man, their team is like the Harlem Globetrotters.  And don’t you love that Crosby and Ovi-Wan Kenobi don’t get along?  It’s such great theatre for the NHL.  Plus, neither of them is ignorant in what they’re saying about the other guy.  Crosby doesn’t like Ovi’s goal celly’s (as the purists don’t) and Ovi thinks Crosby whines (he does, but he also takes a freakin’ lickin’ out there).  I bet in their last season they make up and get married, like some Friends-esque sitcom.

 

Trent Hunter broke his ankle?  Does the average years of NHL experience on the Islanders even start with a one anymore, or has it dipped below?  What I do like, especially around Long Island, is how people talk about the team.  It’s not like a Nashville or Atlanta, people talk about them in real terms, and take them seriously as an NHL franchise.  The Islanders, in dead last, are not a joke.  People want to see them stay here, and be successful.  Soon.

And how in Freddie Macs name are the Islanders above the salary floor, who are they paying?  Honestly.  DiPietro, there’s four point whatever he makes.  Streit probably does okay.  I’m curious about the Enron accounting there, I can’t think of anybody else that makes two million dollars; they have 25 players or so, and a ton have to be around a million bucks or less.  How they get to $40.7 is beyond me.  I’m sure they are, it’s not like they haven’t thought of this, but when Comrie, Guerin and Campoli left for Mcammond they must have dropped the payroll by a sackful.

 

On the hockey theme, I’ll be a guest at Islanders Point Blank night Tuesday at Gabrielle’s, doing an interview with host Chris Botta between periods.  I look forward to seeing some of you there!

Wizards, Tracy Morgan, and Newfoundlands

 

This weekend took me down to Baltimore, to spend the weekend with Brianna’s best friends.  Since I have a couple writing deadlines coming up, it probably wasn’t the best use of my time, but I had a blast.  Here’s today’s lighter fare:

How great is Gandalf’s line “You Shall Not Pass!” in the first Lord of the Rings movie?  It’s pretty much how the conversation with my Eastern Religion and Philosophy teacher ended, despite my begging.  I could only find the stupid long clip (with subtitles?), so feel free to bail out after Gandalf lets that beast know what’s up.

30 Rock is officially hilarious.  Tina Fey’s baby-obsession had her staring at a pregnant teens stomach, and her guy friend noticed.  He says: “Uh-oh Tina, you’ve got crazy eyes” to which she quips ”Well, you’ve got shut-up mouth”.

 

PS, that’s a drunk, shirtless, Tracy Morgan (on the left) on my couch after doing stand up comedy in Alaska.  Not sure how that happened.

Why do the stock iPod headphones sound like they’re inside out?  No headphones on the planet allow for so much sound to be heard by the nearby listeners.  On planes or trains, wherever, if you hear the beat of someones music, it’s a given they’ve got the stock headphones.  I think the solution may be to stuff the iPod in the users mouth and an earbud up each nostril.  I dunno, just a suggestion.

Feeding the Gillies two Newfoundlands is about the most fun I’ve ever had with dogs.  I’ve fed them unintentionally (leaving your pork chop on the coffee table to go get a drink puts the blame solely on the pork chop owner, not the dog) a number of times, but got to do it for real on Friday.  If they watch you scoop the food they drool like my college roommates couch napping on Sundays.  It’s gross/hilarious.  Look at these beasts.  Here’s the little one Bruce and the older one Hunter.  The 150 pounder Hogan just went to doggie heaven.

  

Who are the Islanders planning to use to sell jerseys?  I was in the NHL store the other day, and all the Isles jersey’s had Comrie and Guerin on the back (DiPietro is the most common at the games, but I doubt sales of those are what they once were, since he’s largely been unable to play).  If it’s such a business (as us players are constantly reminded by GM’s), wouldn’t you think jersey sales would be important?  I’m not so sure “Hilbert” jersey’s will move at quite the same pace, as much as Isles fans love their team.

My Max Hockey debut will be up on Wednesday, stay tuned!

Note:  My second contribution for Islanders Point Blank is on ex-Islander captain Bill Guerin.  It’s up for reading at www.islanderspointblank.com.

In A New York State of Mind

 

New York is far from perfect.  Unlike Los Angeles, the weather does not have the immediate effect of inducing giggly happiness.  If somebody is giggling in New York, they’re crazy. 

Earlier, I wrote some pretty nice things about NY, largely about its dough-baked-fat-making pleasing cuisine.  And I do love the city.  But I don’t know why yet.  I’m still trying to pin that down, but I think I’m getting closer…

It could be because of the entertainment options.  The grandeur of Times Square and Manhattan are awe-inspiring.  The sense of humour is sharp.  But no…. you know what it is?  The people are hard.core.  You get the impression that the entire population of NYC is like a virus that’s immune to antibiotics.  When the going gets tough, New Yorkers tell you to screw yourself.

They creep into the streets while waiting for the okay to cross.  This is granted by a minorty figure…. a white man.  Cabbies don’t care if they mow a toe, or clip a hip, and the pedestrians seem oblivious to the yellow threats bombing under their noses.  It’s not exactly a boardwalk in L.A. where people smile and take in the sun.  People are doing things.  Working.  Living.  Eating.  Move, thanks.

Times Square has to be one of the only tourist destinations that’s a center for business.  Locals are burying knishes and pretzels, on their cell phones, jogging across the road despite the orange hand recommending otherwise.  I don’t blame them for getting rattled when Jane, Cynthia and Elaine from Fargo, North Dakota stop in the middle of a crosswalk to take a picture in front of huge advertisements.  There’s work to be done.

I love stupid things like the train announcement that warns “All bags may be subject to random search by police.” (they can do that?)

I’m okay with the Muslim guy selling a Chinese fella a Greek-ka-bob.  I like that I can get a three dollar dirty-water-dog that’ll immediately shave six minutes off my life expectancy.  Stuff’s happening, look around.

I saw a bank on fire get put out.  I walked through the glass doors of Sports Illustrated and saw a print of the original TIME magazine.  I met with a guy from the NHL after seeing St. Pat’s Cathedral and Radio City Music Hall.  I heard a kind Italian gentleman inquire to a friend ”What am I, an asshole?” in a way that would’ve made Soprano’s writers say “nah, too cliché”.

If you go to New York, don’t make plans, just walk.  Maybe they won’t be the friendliest folk, and it might be blustery and gray.  But you’ll leave with a dollop more respect and a pinch more love for the Big Apple.  These are good people.

So check it out.  Come annnnn…..

SkyMall, The DMV, and Breaking Heads

 

Since my better-thought-out pieces seem to be delegated to other sites these days, I have a feeling this site will increasingly focus on the little stuff, which by far is the most fun to write about, and gets the most interest.  I’ll be sure to post links to any sites that print my work, and will include those pieces somewhere on my site once they’ve served their duty as “original content” somewhere else.  So on with today’s drivel!

SkyMall is the foremost leader in “What the f is that/I want one” items.  I’ve become fairly familiar with it in my travels, and it never ceases to amaze me.  There are great inventions,  fancy gifts, and I-can’t-believe-somebody-took-the-time-to-invent-that toys.  Then, there’s the items in a class of their own.  And all I can think to say about these items is…. really?  You really sell that?  Here’s three of those.

#3   

  The Electronic Feng Shui Consultant: because feng shui wasn’t already bullshit enough.  PS it’s four hundred bucks.

#2 

   Maybe you’ve seen infomercials for the Stealth Secret Sound Amplifier.  “It looks just like a bluetooth cellphone headset”, but its actual purpose is for the hearing of people’s conversations that aren’t meant for you to hear.  The commercial shamelessly promotes your ability to “hear conversations about you from a hundred feet away!”  I love products that prey on people’s insecurities.

#3

  Don’t worry, now you can hang yourself from your door and not die.  At Home Chiropratic Kit.  Noo, no, I don’t see anything wrong with that.  Looks safe to me.

That magazine holds a bounty of jaw-dropping products that I can’t believe exist, but actually has some beauties I want (not so much need).  Okay, topic switch.

I just hate Taylor Swift so much I need to write it.  Okay, I feel better. 

Alright, same topic, new object of evil. I imagine hell to be something like the time I spent at the Long Island DMV yesterday.  I have an Alaska drivers liscence, Utah plates, Idaho insurance, New York inspection and a Canadian home address.  I now understand murder.  I watched the guy write up the list of reasons he couldn’t do what I needed done while I fantasized my escape from the place if I were to jab my pen in his ear.

 The poor video quality only serves to further emphasize my point.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2494443066906086178]

I’m continually disappointed by the trade deadline.  In every league.  I’m not sure why I keep thinking I’ll hear something earth-shattering like Crosby, Malkin and Stall for the entire  team of the San Jose Sharks, but I do.  “At 2:59 today, Mark RandomD got traded for James FarmTeam and a draft pick.”  Ooo, just snuck in that blockbuster.

Bri and I picked up Clark at the airport last night, and we got talking about agitators in hockey on the way home.  The real truth about these guys is that they can’t be effective unless they actually drop the gloves once in awhile.  You can’t bluff everytime, occasionally you have to be holding the cards.  Being gritty is a nice attribute in a player with other skills, but if your skill is being gritty, once in awhile you better have a full house.  Here’s Kip, my roommate in Bridgeport last year, you tell me if you think he’s bluffing.  He’s the one in orange that starts the fight with his knuckles intact.

 

     

Royallll flush.

And lastly, a little update.   www.islanderspointblank.com,  the site that recieved over 2 million hits a day around the time of the Guerin trade, will be running the piece I wrote for him a week ago…. a tribute to Bill Guerin.  Crapples.  Anyways, I’ll post the link when it’s up!

Isles trade details:  Bill Guerin to the Penguins for an autographed Crosby jersey and tickets to Six Flags.  Sigh…. I think they might’ve thrown in a fifth round pick too (fourth if the Pens make the playoffs, third if they win a round).

Sim sent to Bridgeport.

Snuggie Snippet

 

It’s Trade Deadline Eve. 

Bloggers and pundits are snug in their beds, while visions of blockbusters dance in their heads.

I for one just want to know where Guerin is going, and for whom, so I can get my crying over with.  Last Saturday went like this for me:  Wake up, eat NY bagel.  Put the finishing touches on my Bill Guerin tribute for Isles media, eat NY deli sandwich.  Watch golf on the couch, eat NY pizza.  Drive to the Islanders game, get NY stabbed in the heart by insider information.   Billy was being dealt.  Um… guys?  Still wanna run my article?  Guys?

F.

In the morning I’m gonna get to blogging about the most important thing I’ve ever put my highlighter on… a SkyMall.  I thought I stole it, but it turns out it clearly states on the cover that you can take it from the airplane and they’ll replace it.  Kinda stole my thunder there, but whatever.  In the meantime, (due to Snuggie related email overload), I wanted this on my blog because I figured some of you nay-sayers would get a chuckle out of it.  I know, I know, it’s a backwards robe.  And lame-looking.  And great.  This is the real promo they should’ve run:

 

Short Shifts

 

More Bourne blurbs on random topics:

Jim Rome spends the majority of his hour-long program offering sage wisdom to athletes who messed up.  My advice to him:  You aren’t “hip-hop”; stop calling people “suckers”, “chumps” and “fools”.

Here’s a sentence not many people have uttered in their life:  Clark Gillies bought me a Snuggie for Christmas.

I had a phone call with Stan Fischler tonight, and was fully entertained.  You can’t help but love a man that tells a hippo joke within 12 minutes of the beginning of your relationship.

                           

I vote we keep it classic and stay with calling golf clubs irons and woods.  People have taken to calling them “fairway metals”, but let’s not start describing clubs by what they’re made of, I’m pretty sure that’s a slippery slope to start heading down.  For some reason, “Pass me my nine graphite-titanium alloy” doesn’t sound right.

The Lighthouse Project on Long Island would be amazing.  Unfortunately, it involves an earth shaking volume of money and time that seems less and less likely in these sketchy economic times.  Even more unfortunate, is that the Isles can’t stay in Nassau County if they don’t get a new building; theirs is embarrassing.  What player wants to climb the impossible ladder to crack the big leagues and spend their career in a dressing room worse than the one they were in years earlier with their junior team?  Has anybody proposed just building a new arena?  Why does it have to be billion-dollar city-changing overhaul or nothing?

 

I tend not to believe in coaches and managers that get hired straight to the NHL after playing without being tested at a lower level.  I’d rather have a coach who barely played (if ever) but was a student of the game than have a former great player be a figurehead to the team I’m a part of.  Read up ex-players, these positions involve more than just knowing the game; you have to be able to teach systems in every zone to sometimes stubborn players, not just dress nice.

         

A recent travel day:  A)  I had to rebook my flight to NY last second because the Minneapolis airport was closed.  My bags were to switch planes with a few others.  Before I boarded, I asked to make sure my bags had switched flights, but no, it turns out, they had not.  When they called down to have my bags switched, it turns out the workers thought the guy had been making some Bourne Supremacy joke… siiiggghhh.  Seriously?

          

                                            B)  The guy on the flight beside me swiped his credit card in the seat in front of him to buy a movie, then proceeded to watch it with no headphones or captions.  When offered headphones, he declined.   Huh.

And the big news of the day:  I spoke with David Kolb this morning, the managing editor of the new Max Hockey site.(www.maxhockey.com) I’ll be a columnist on their site starting after the trade deadline.  The site looks great, and includes a news wire of constantly updating NHL info from all over the internet.  There are individual team sites with recent game highlights and conference statistics available on the brand new site that’s fully committed to being the best at covering the NHL.  Check it out!

Also, my second piece “The Pro’s of Rec Hockey” is up on The Hockey News site, www.thehockeynews.com

The Islanders: Questions on Directions

 

Fans love to complain when their team trades for a draft pick, because it feels like you gave up a familiar, developed player for nothing.  And occasionally, that’s how it pans out.  Trading for draft picks is like playing five-card draw poker where you can turn in a couple of your cards that don’t fit and get new ones back.  You aren’t sure what cards you’re getting back, but you’re certain you no longer want the ones you hold.

Older sport guru’s who really follow the team can tell you how these deals turned out in the long run, and aren’t as quick to rail against these trades.  It was the way to build a powerhouse, from the ground up.

And sure, maybe it is the formula for building a dynasty, but who can afford a dynasty these days?  Salary caps and max-money-mentality from players killed hopes of those decades ago.

Trading for draft picks may be necessary to an older club who wants to prune off a few guys holding the team’s growth back, but does it make sense for the Islanders?

Developing draft picks are essential to a team’s long term success, but no team can afford to groom a whole group of young players at the same time.  There’s no financial way to keep them all at their peaks.  Teams that try this nowadays end up being a farm system for other teams, developing talent that they can’t afford to keep at its best.

And the Islanders have a team full of developing talent.  I sat at the game last night thinking, man, the Isles have a really good American League Team.  Maybe not good enough to win the Calder Cup this year, but they could contend.  At the same time, the Isles will have a good NHL team in about 5 years, assuming they could keep everyone in an Isles uniform for that length of time.  But with so much volatility in a sport where so few teams stay together, is that possible?

And what about the wait for the fans?  It’s fun to watch your team get better and better every year, but how long have they been listening to the song and dance called potential?  While the team is improving, it would be nice to have some stars to watch.  Maybe Comrie and Guerin weren’t setting the world on fire, but fans were excited when they were on the ice.

  Past Mark Streit, who’s the biggest name on the Islanders?  Doug Weight is a familiar name, and a nice player.  Then what?  Trent Hunter?  Richard Park?  What other team could you put those guys on where they’d be in the first few of the ”biggest names”?

There’s nothing wrong with trying to be good now.   Maybe the Isles are a ways off being good right away, but shouldn’t there at least be effort at winning during the season you’re in?  Aiming at the “future” is a cop out for failing teams in professional sports.

I’m going to be bummed if the Islanders send Bill Guerin to a conference opponent for more “potential”. 

Andrew Macdonald is going to be a legitimate NHL talent eventually, and so is Kyle Okposo.  Given the chance to play on deeper, more experienced teams, they would get better quicker.  Right now the Islanders have a few players that are interchangeable with any average players in the league.  Great guys and multi-year Islanders like Andy Hilbert and Sean Bergeheim are fine, but they’ not developing our studs of next year, they’re making sure they stay in the NHL.

The Islanders have enough up and comers that they won’t finish dead last next year, or the year after that, provided they keep enough experienced players around to help those young guys improve.  The idea is to develop these young guys to help your team win, and that’s supposed to be the focus; winning.  The Islanders seem caught up in making individuals better instead of the team.  A team that struggles to keep butts in the seats can’t afford to spend another decade betting on the future.

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