from Daniel Friedman of CBSNewYork,

Are the Islanders doomed to continue living a mediocre existence or will they finally morph into the competitive team that ownership and management have promised is on its way for years and years? Can they finally take that next step and shake their losing perception?

The time to be patient and fix this team through the draft is over. The young core, including those not on the roster yet, is what it is now, and it’s either going to work or it’s not.

The time for refusing to part with any young talent has run out, because by now the Islanders should be able to identify most of their expendable pieces. If they still can’t, that’s another issue altogether.

The time for making excuses has passed. How often has the rationale for failing to make trades to bolster the team been that the right deal just wasn’t out there? At a certain point, you just have to ask: why is the right deal never out there for Snow?

Put simply, the answer is that it’s because he’s a stubborn GM, which is part blessing and part curse.

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