Sorge Georos
Registered User
Hello All...so obviously this is a vent thread.
When I was a little kid, my brother and dad told me I was an Islander fan (and that we respect the Devils) and that was that. This was around 2002 and I knew nothing about the nightmarish decade that began after the OTLs against Roy and finally gave way into this decent team with Yash, Parrish, and Peca. To me they were just a reasonably entertaining playoff team.
Then Yashin went on the Newsday milk carton, Kvasha was Kvasha, Brad Shaw happened and I realized the team was kind of stagnant. The end of the 2006-07 year was obviously one of my high points of being a fan because of the miraculous play of Dubie and the mathematical unlikelihood we overcame (therefore stats are for dumb basement dwellers right ). But my brother didn't even give a crap when Dubie made that pokecheck and would rather watch an early season Yankee game than Game 1 against the Sabres. What was the point? We all knew the team was going to lose 4-1 in the first round. He basically checked out when Wang hired our disturbingly long-tenured backup goalie GM after firing a Cup Winner 40 days in. He grew up during the Palffy/Milstein/Spano years and just when the team finally looked like a contender, they plateaued into an average team with a couple veterans who scored 25 goals at best.
Fast forward another painful 7 year rebuild later. I had enough of the 8th seed nobodies and the rebuild was the only way we would ever be relevant, so I followed faithfully. Once again, this was the first Islanders rebuild in my time as a fan so I could afford to. Fast forward again to the Boychuk/Leddy trade and this was the happiest I'd ever been as a hockey fan. And the arena nonsense was finally over!! Halfway through the season it looked like it was our time, we routinely outshot our opponents, played a sustainable style, and had a bunch of youngsters in the wings. It was only gonna get better.
But then Okposo's eye injury happens and the team just isn't the same. Teams like the Caps, Bruins, and Rangers--older teams that were less talented than us are STILL better than us 3 years later. That's what frustrates me the most. The Rangers have been good for 10+ years and they trade away their picks every year, but the few prospects they do have ALWAYS pan out. Meanwhile we trade away the fruits of entire losing seasons for scrappy lunch-pail guys like Clutterbuck who can be found in free agency every year. Or guys like Strome, Hamonic, and De Haan plateau at best. Why can't we have a Pastrnak for a change? I don't expect that immediate outcome from a late 1st rounder, but none of our fully developed top ten picks have come close to what he's done as of now! And I hate to jump the gun, but the Leafs had had the same picks that we had and they've all become dynamic stars. It just makes me sad.
It's nice that we finally spend to the cap ceiling, but Snow has wasted this freedom on overrated "soul" guys, declining veterans, and Jordan Eberle. I'm still furious at Snow not even attempting to sign a young, core player like Okposo who loved it here because "we weren't winning with this core..." and he replaces him with a 31 year old for .5 million less and an extra year. That offseason might have been the kicker with me.
All this is to say I know what my brother was talking about a decade ago. You wait out years and years of a painful rebuild, and just when it looks like you're finally on the cusp of competing (2001 and 2014), the team regresses to mediocrity. Regardless that we won another game where we blew a 2 goal lead in the 3rd, I feel like this team is maxed out even if JT resigns with us. Barzal and Ho-Sang are good kids but the Isles are like the Yankees with Joba, Hughes, and Kennedy--they cannot develop players at the NHL level.
To be fair, I was like this with the 2013-15 Yanks. It's hard to follow a team that you know is headed in the wrong direction, that you know is staving off a rebuild to its detriment. Fortunately, the Yankees made wholesale changes to their player development system and Cashman is a freaking Ninja while Snow is not. And the Yanks were good for 20 years so of course they're inevitably going to suck for a few years. With the Isles, it's just one long-ass rebuild with a glimmer of false hope and ANOTHER longass rebuild. And the boards here are unbearable with all our prospects being labeled busts after 5 games and every snakebitten player (*cough* JT *cough*) having their hearts questioned which drives me crazy. I understand the prospect pessimism but I REALLY despise the latter thing and every lazy, baseless narrative that comes with it.
If you read through this poorly written slog then thank you and god bless you. I obviously don't begrudge anyone who disagrees with me on something. Just saying how I feel with the team. I seriously, SERIOUSLY applaud the older fans who went through every single god-damned fail of a rebuild but still watch every game. Then again, you fellas got to see the Cups lol.
On the brightside, hockey teams don't necessarily improve linearly. Teams like the Blues and Lightning have had these disappointing stretches before becoming consistent contenders. Maybe we're just a little win streak away from me loving hockey again.
When I was a little kid, my brother and dad told me I was an Islander fan (and that we respect the Devils) and that was that. This was around 2002 and I knew nothing about the nightmarish decade that began after the OTLs against Roy and finally gave way into this decent team with Yash, Parrish, and Peca. To me they were just a reasonably entertaining playoff team.
Then Yashin went on the Newsday milk carton, Kvasha was Kvasha, Brad Shaw happened and I realized the team was kind of stagnant. The end of the 2006-07 year was obviously one of my high points of being a fan because of the miraculous play of Dubie and the mathematical unlikelihood we overcame (therefore stats are for dumb basement dwellers right ). But my brother didn't even give a crap when Dubie made that pokecheck and would rather watch an early season Yankee game than Game 1 against the Sabres. What was the point? We all knew the team was going to lose 4-1 in the first round. He basically checked out when Wang hired our disturbingly long-tenured backup goalie GM after firing a Cup Winner 40 days in. He grew up during the Palffy/Milstein/Spano years and just when the team finally looked like a contender, they plateaued into an average team with a couple veterans who scored 25 goals at best.
Fast forward another painful 7 year rebuild later. I had enough of the 8th seed nobodies and the rebuild was the only way we would ever be relevant, so I followed faithfully. Once again, this was the first Islanders rebuild in my time as a fan so I could afford to. Fast forward again to the Boychuk/Leddy trade and this was the happiest I'd ever been as a hockey fan. And the arena nonsense was finally over!! Halfway through the season it looked like it was our time, we routinely outshot our opponents, played a sustainable style, and had a bunch of youngsters in the wings. It was only gonna get better.
But then Okposo's eye injury happens and the team just isn't the same. Teams like the Caps, Bruins, and Rangers--older teams that were less talented than us are STILL better than us 3 years later. That's what frustrates me the most. The Rangers have been good for 10+ years and they trade away their picks every year, but the few prospects they do have ALWAYS pan out. Meanwhile we trade away the fruits of entire losing seasons for scrappy lunch-pail guys like Clutterbuck who can be found in free agency every year. Or guys like Strome, Hamonic, and De Haan plateau at best. Why can't we have a Pastrnak for a change? I don't expect that immediate outcome from a late 1st rounder, but none of our fully developed top ten picks have come close to what he's done as of now! And I hate to jump the gun, but the Leafs had had the same picks that we had and they've all become dynamic stars. It just makes me sad.
It's nice that we finally spend to the cap ceiling, but Snow has wasted this freedom on overrated "soul" guys, declining veterans, and Jordan Eberle. I'm still furious at Snow not even attempting to sign a young, core player like Okposo who loved it here because "we weren't winning with this core..." and he replaces him with a 31 year old for .5 million less and an extra year. That offseason might have been the kicker with me.
All this is to say I know what my brother was talking about a decade ago. You wait out years and years of a painful rebuild, and just when it looks like you're finally on the cusp of competing (2001 and 2014), the team regresses to mediocrity. Regardless that we won another game where we blew a 2 goal lead in the 3rd, I feel like this team is maxed out even if JT resigns with us. Barzal and Ho-Sang are good kids but the Isles are like the Yankees with Joba, Hughes, and Kennedy--they cannot develop players at the NHL level.
To be fair, I was like this with the 2013-15 Yanks. It's hard to follow a team that you know is headed in the wrong direction, that you know is staving off a rebuild to its detriment. Fortunately, the Yankees made wholesale changes to their player development system and Cashman is a freaking Ninja while Snow is not. And the Yanks were good for 20 years so of course they're inevitably going to suck for a few years. With the Isles, it's just one long-ass rebuild with a glimmer of false hope and ANOTHER longass rebuild. And the boards here are unbearable with all our prospects being labeled busts after 5 games and every snakebitten player (*cough* JT *cough*) having their hearts questioned which drives me crazy. I understand the prospect pessimism but I REALLY despise the latter thing and every lazy, baseless narrative that comes with it.
If you read through this poorly written slog then thank you and god bless you. I obviously don't begrudge anyone who disagrees with me on something. Just saying how I feel with the team. I seriously, SERIOUSLY applaud the older fans who went through every single god-damned fail of a rebuild but still watch every game. Then again, you fellas got to see the Cups lol.
On the brightside, hockey teams don't necessarily improve linearly. Teams like the Blues and Lightning have had these disappointing stretches before becoming consistent contenders. Maybe we're just a little win streak away from me loving hockey again.