Islanders Point Blank: Botta on Snow

[C24]

Yea sounds like you have some real concrete information and facts.

Lol try some common sense. Snow is still allowed to call the shots.

 

[13th Floor]

Fact is that the new owners clearly support Snow. Not my fault that you are one of those fans who cannot deal with the reality of the situation. That is on you.

Yea, man -- you got me all figured out. How can I be so stupid.

 

[periferal]

Yea sounds like you have some real concrete information and facts.

You're shining your spotlight on the wrong human. The question is...Do you believe that Chris Botta has some "real concrete information and facts?" Because he's the one today who reported that Ledecky/Malkin have thrown their support behind snow.

 

[C24]

Yea, man -- you got me all figured out. How can I be so stupid.

It was not hard. The new owners have experience with hockey. Wang did not, so they are even worse than he is.

 

[Doshell Propivo]

Lol try some common sense. Snow is still allowed to call the shots.

 

[Jester9881]

The fist thing they should have done is find and hire a president. Before holding onto Snow, before retaining Weight and allowing him to hand pick his own staff.... before allowing Snow to navigate another draft and before allowing him to decide on the expansion draft.

You hire a competent team President, then step back and let them handle the rest. This is management 101, only poorly managed teams/businesses try doing it any other way.

 

[13th Floor]

You're shining your spotlight on the wrong human. The question is...Do you believe that Chris Botta has some "real concrete information and facts?" Because he's the one today who reported that Ledecky/Malkin have thrown their support behind snow.

You bring up a fair point (as in, other poster was not bringing up any points besides calling me stupid). To be honest, I really don't know what to make of Botta. He clearly has an axe to grind, so I wouldn't be surprised if some of this is more opinion than fact. On the other hand, this organization is a joke and he's seen it first hand, so there's probably some truth to it. So a little of column A and a little of column B?

 

[Jester9881]

Whoever is handling the teams defensive system, needs to be strapped to a rocket and shot into space. Half the time I'm watching this team I expect a clown car to come out on the ice after the whistle to make the next line change after the other team pins this listless group in it's own zone for minutes at a time.

 

[Jester9881]

Any of this sound/look familiar?

Unique Team Traits: The Toronto Maple Leafs “swarm” defense pushed the first domino to disaster

Systems Analysis: Different Looks at the Swarm

 

[13th Floor]

Whoever is handling the teams defensive system, needs to be strapped to a rocket and shot into space. Half the time I'm watching this team I expect a clown car to come out on the ice after the whistle to make the next line change after the other team pins this listless group in it's own zone for minutes at a time.

For me, I am even more angry at the breakout and transition out of the zone. It's f***ing absurd how much of an adventure it is. I really think their game plan is to have a good skater skate it out on their own. Watching other teams positioned nicely for quick easy passes and immediately get speed into the neutral zone makes me want to punch myself in the face.

 

[periferal]

The fist thing they should have done is find and hire a president. Before holding onto Snow, before retaining Weight and allowing him to hand pick his own staff.... before allowing Snow to navigate another draft and before allowing him to decide on the expansion draft.

You hire a competent team President, then step back and let them handle the rest. This is management 101, only poorly managed teams/businesses try doing it any other way.

I'd love to go add an "applause GIF" here, but really don't want this post to get overlooked as it's so obvious that it's pathetic.

Ledecky was widely reported to be looking for a team president for months last year only to back out and return to...Leaving things as is under wang.

For an owner who spent 100's of millions of dollars just to own the team, was incredibly aggressive in surrounding himself with competent people on the arena/development side, and also continually spouting off about the Isles "winning their 5th Cup," something just doesn't add up that Ledecky could be so on point in off-ice dealings, and so pathetic with the on-ice ones.

 

[periferal]

Whoever is handling the teams defensive system, needs to be strapped to a rocket and shot into space. Half the time I'm watching this team I expect a clown car to come out on the ice after the whistle to make the next line change after the other team pins this listless group in it's own zone for minutes at a time.

100%. Every time I watch the Isles in their own zone I am screaming out, "Close down" as in, "close down the space between you and opponent."

Almost every single Islander gives other teams WAAAAY too much time and space to create offense. It's so widespread it's either coached now or was coached and Weight & Co never fixed it. You need to get up on your man more and more the closer he gets to your goal, but the Isles don't do this.

 

[PK Cronin]

Any of this sound/look familiar?

Unique Team Traits: The Toronto Maple Leafs “swarm” defense pushed the first domino to disaster

Systems Analysis: Different Looks at the Swarm

Those are absolutely wonderful breakdowns, especially the second one. I believe in breaking out lower in the zone, but I don't like the swarm style defense. Capuano's problem was the dumb stretch pass and Weight's problem is he's having three #7 defenseman run a system that magnifies mistakes when they're made and leads to prime scoring chances. There is a middle ground, they just don't do it.

It also perfectly illustrates how some systems fit particular players more than others do. A lot of fans tend to forget that. It's the reason why some terrible players on one team can go someplace else and have success.

 

[MJF]

Those are absolutely wonderful breakdowns, especially the second one. I believe in breaking out lower in the zone, but I don't like the swarm style defense. Capuano's problem was the dumb stretch pass and Weight's problem is he's having three #7 defenseman run a system that magnifies mistakes when they're made and leads to prime scoring chances. There is a middle ground, they just don't do it.

It also perfectly illustrates how some systems fit particular players more than others do. A lot of fans tend to forget that. It's the reason why some terrible players on one team can go someplace else and have success.

This is the defense Scott Gordon had us playing. It ended badly for us, and him.

 

[YesCubed]

I read botta every day for years. He was the waiter delivering the koolaid. He was staying on memo...what snow Wang wanted 99% of the time. Last place teams..hed be telling us how great things are going. dipietro being forced as the starter all the time...never would point out that wang is best friends with dipietro like a son...Eventually botta had a few of his own opinions not snows...and got booted from locker room I thnk..99% sure thats what happened. Botta left to do other work. But i cant give Botta much credit when he was busy preaching wangs BS to us for years. Most of you ate that stuff right up.

not really. i remember he was mocked for a long time for calling freddy meyer a warrior for playing through a broken finger

ever since his IPB days he's totally redeemed himself

 

[aronjudge11]

Botta had thousands of islander fans still paying money to go to games for a couple russians teanagers that they drafted that i dont think ever went to the NHL..I never paid attention to them because it was all a salespitch from wang and snow ...but the thousands of posts about these great russian wingers...combinations of ziggy pallfy and mike bossy lol Many bought it...Botta had a HUGE following, I think Botta got canned not for what he wrote or said, but because his fan base was so high, that it was a threat to wang and snow..because they wanted to control the message through the islanders website...and mostly just not have a message. But botta was really big, IPB was really big. It used to have thousands of posts for each botta article about the great youth thats on its way...that never came really.

 

[redbull]

it shouldn't take the media to point out futility. If it's not obvious to these owners then they are stupid (when it comes to hockey decisions). Making the Isles future (arena notwithstanding) unclear and unsuccessful and not likely to re-sign John Tavares or build a winning team. In other words, more of the same.

 

[BelovedIsles]

Botta knows the innerworkings of NYI dysfunction; he was Snow’s puppet for years. So if there is anyone who knows shit about how they are run, it’s him.

If I were L and M, Botta wouid be on my list of ppl to poll.

 

[CupHolders]

I never liked the way Snow and the organization handled Botta or Billy Jaffe. It was petty and unnecessary. Especially when there were (still are) far more important issues to focus on... like making the team better.

While, I think Botta does have a very large axe to grind... I don’t think anything he wrote was unreasonable... to say the least.

 

[ichabod13]

"On Wednesday to Marcus, Snow obliterated his own record for unleashing quality bullcrap in brief time, making Calvin de Haan a $10 million-a-year defenseman in the process by citing his injury as a primary "fact" behind his team's mediocrity."
since when does de haan make ten million a year?

 

[GrandmaSlices51631]

"On Wednesday to Marcus, Snow obliterated his own record for unleashing quality bullcrap in brief time, making Calvin de Haan a $10 million-a-year defenseman in the process by citing his injury as a primary "fact" behind his team's mediocrity."
since when does de haan make ten million a year?

He's basically saying that Snow is citing the void of CdH to be as detrimental to the team as if he were a true #1 D.... that's at least what I made of it.

No doubt the team has been worse without him, but they were still getting blown out with him. Boychuk is the most important blueliner to this team, Leddy has fell off in a major way without him.

 

[ichabod13]

i see where i misunderstood what was said.

 

[Strummergas]

Yea, man -- you got me all figured out. How can I be so stupid.

THINK!

 

[macleod50]

I never liked the way Snow and the organization handled Botta or Billy Jaffe. It was petty and unnecessary. Especially when there were (still are) far more important issues to focus on... like making the team better.

While, I think Botta does have a very large axe to grind... I don’t think anything he wrote was unreasonable... to say the least.

Jaffe got royally screwed. I remember when he first came on and was going along with the script, being the absolute biggest homer there could be. The next season a little less, and then the gloves were off. He called it like it was, Wang didn't like it, so out he went. Another good hockey mind that wasn't allowed to be within a mile of Wang.

 

[seabass45]

Botta knows the innerworkings of NYI dysfunction; he was Snow’s puppet for years. So if there is anyone who knows **** about how they are run, it’s him.

If I were L and M, Botta wouid be on my list of ppl to poll.

Botta was with the Isles for 15 years (1993-2008 I think) and only 2 of those were under Snow before he moved to IPB. I don't know if I'd frame him as Snow's puppet, given those circumstances.

Anyway I like the guy and don't mind that he's got an axe to grind. He's not wrong about any of this. He prob still has sources in the front office, and he's still passionate about the team and the fans. So yeah he's fine with me.