from Shayna Goldman of The Athletic,
Shaking up the front office right now may seem like a recipe for chaos considering how tricky a transition can be — and there isn’t a ton a new general manager could do, considering the cap constraints the roster is now facing. But letting Lamoriello have free rein to deepen the hole he put the Islanders in isn’t the answer, either.
When Lamoriello was brought to Long Island in 2018 to replace Garth Snow, it brought a level of credibility to a struggling team. There was the name recognition element and success as evidenced by three Stanley Cups with the New Jersey Devils.
In the NHL, reputation often overshadows actual ability. That’s been the case for Lamoriello, especially heading into his Islanders tenure. His time in Toronto and those later years in New Jersey were far from sterling, but he was essentially given the keys to running the team by being named both president and general manager. And the Islanders have paid the price since.
It hasn’t all been bad in the Lamoriello era. This team did get to the Eastern Conference final twice. And not every hurdle was self-inflicted — no one could have anticipated a flat cap that challenged a team like the Islanders.
Lamoriello’s best move may have been one of his earliest: Hiring Barry Trotz to instill defensive stability that this team sorely lacked. And with Trotz came the likes of Lane Lambert, and maybe most importantly, director of goaltending Mitch Korn.
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Busy week - but my $ 0.02 on this topic. Who is Shayna Goldman? I had to look her up. Like yours truly - she is an NYU alum....so that's positive stuff :) --- but - you have to read Stan The Man Fischler's column to see the counterpoint to her arguments. I tend to be *slightly* on the glass half empty at this point - but I think you need to get to December 11th or so before we can really tell. Shayna seems like a good writer - but - I think this was a bit of a hit piece. I went into this to put the hammer on her - trying to be a good fan of my team - but she may be right on things that have happened in the past. But every team just about is up against the cap and it's really hard to make moves of any kind. Here is the link to Stan's article https://twitter.com/StanFischl... on Lou.
It's pointless - and not on scope for Kukla's Korner perhaps - to litigate the Isles issues and provide pessimism or optimism here....The truth is somewhere between Stan's point of view and Shayna.
Let me tell you what is really pissing me off: The Athletic has dropped the Islanders from having a beat reporter.....which is exactly what was promised when the Athletic was formed - to provide coverage for NHL teams (and other sports) who were not getting enough or fair coverage from local media as they trimmed costs. I can't understand why papers in many cases - don't send reporters on the road anymore. I still subscribe to Newsday and have home delivery. I can't tell you how much it costs - its' astronomical compared to what it once was. I was a paper boy for Newsday - and that's why I still subscribe. But the cheapness of these entities is amazing to me.
Arthur Staple covered the team for quite some time. Then - the thing that bothers me the most - he gets "promoted" to cover Les Ragitants of West 33rd Street. Joe Michelletti was 'promoted to the Rag$ broadcast team - I am sure there are other examples. Then - we lose Kevin Kurz to the Flyers Athletic Beat. Now Kevin is from Philly and perhaps wanted to return home. Fine. But he is a very good writer! So now - The Athletic is using a combination of making Art Staple double dip along with fill ins from people like Shayna. What is the purpose of me continuing to subscribe? ( well, I read about just about EVERY NHL team and enjoy the rest of the content - but - every NHL team should be covered IMHO by The Athletic - each fanbase is deserving of that.)
I worry that people like Brendan Burke, Shannon Hogan and dare I say Thomas Hickey get 'promoted" to work for the Rag$. Matt Moulson is joining the Isles broadcast team as a back up to Thomas. I hope he does well The Isles have always had some talent within their broadcast teams - especially with women such as AJ Mlezcko and Jen Botterill doing some duty with the team in recent years as well as Anson Carter in recent past and Mark Parrish and Rick DiPietro in the mid term past (Mark covers teams in MN and on NHL Network...Rick is on ESPN Radio here in NY). The MSG Network treats the Isles, Devils and likely the Sabres as the red headed bastard stepchild as they cover these teams. Every Rag$ exhibition game in on TV, Isles and Devils never have a game on that is not vs. the Rag$ - the Rag$ never get knocked to the MSG 3 channel when all 3 teams are playing. This is something that fuels the fire in Isles fans and Devils fans. If I were MSG - I would probably do the same thing - but I would at least throw NJ and NYI a bone and do one home broadcast of an exhibition game just to test the broadcast team out! :)
But back to the Athletic - From what I see - the NY Times no longer has a Sports section and outsources it all to the Athletic - who I believe that they acquired. As a Newsday paper boy - I could not stand the kid that was the NY Times paper boy - so you can imagine how I feel about this :)
Off the soapbox - Happy Thanksgiving Detroit!
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