A Loyal Subject
Lou Lamoriello is loyal to his ways
Good Morning, Islanders Country.
If you go to Lou Lamoriello’s lengthy Wikipedia page, it says the GM has fostered a "unique corporate culture" that has encouraged player loyalty.
Back in 2001, when speaking to the Sporting News, Lou was quoted as saying “I like to think of my players as a family. And I like to think the success we’ve had through the years shows that the players value that as much as they do the Stanley Cups, knowing that the two go hand in hand.”
Over 20 years later, the GM hasn’t changed nor has the player’s response to his loyal ways. Even a player he traded, (days after his wedding!) lauded Lou’s devotion and allegiance. “Lou’s loyal,” Devon Toews said earlier this season. “I love him for it. If I see him later, I’ll give him a hug.”
Time will tell whether Lou’s loyalty to this group of Islanders pays off with the ultimate prize. To some extent this summer, Lamoriello will be weighing his loyalty to a player against their shortcomings when evaluating how to make the team better.
Coming up, the rising price you pay to watch the Isles and Autu Räty ends his regular season on a high note. Plus, Ziggy Palffy and Scott Matfield have something new in common, Mike Bossy surpasses 60 goals, and the legend of Wade Dubielewicz is bigger than you remember.
Let’s dive in.
📰 NEWS: The Isles were off after their 3-0 victory against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night at UBS Arena. On social media, there was speculation that Scott Mayfield might miss extended time with an injury suffered when blocking this shot late in the third period that led to Zach Parise’s empty-net goal. There was no announcement from the team on the off-day, but if an injury occurred, we should learn the extent Thursday morning along with which defenseman would get called up from Bridgeport in his place.
🤔 BIG Z INTEREST: In Elliot Friedman’s 32 Thoughts, he covers the fallout from Monday’s trade deadline and dropped a nugget on Isles at No. 9.
9. Lou Lamoriello said he kept promises to Zdeno Chara and Andy Greene that they would stay the season with the Islanders. There was a lot of interest in Chara, in particular.
◾️ WHY DID Z WANT TO STAY?: I am less surprised by the reported level of interest in Chara as I am that he wanted to remain with the Islanders for the rest of the season. At age 45, you would think part of the reason Chara keeps playing is to get one more crack at a Stanley Cup.
Yes, he’ll likely play more with Isles than he would as a seventh defenseman somewhere else, but to turn down a playoff opportunity at this stage makes you wonder if he doesn’t see himself as done after this season or if ending his career with the team he started with is fulfilling symmetry.
🤝 THE LONG GAME: On the latest Jeff Marek Show, Marek stated that it was “typical Lou” when he stood pat at the deadline, and he didn’t mean it in a negative connotation.
"He's not just gonna take a 7th round pick for Zach Parise or Greene. He does not want that on his resume, because long term it's gonna pay off for him and the team he's managing."
◾️ PRICE NOT RIGHT: That’s a much more favorable view of Lamoriello’s approach than from some in the Islanders’ fan base. The NHL media has been complimentary of Lamoriello’s management style given his track record and the belief that his action (or inaction) on Monday makes the Islanders are more attractive organization to go to and perhaps just as importantly, to stay with.
At the same time, it would be a dereliction of duty to refuse to trade players - at any price - out of loyalty. That’s not what happened here. Rather, in all four scenarios (Clutterbuck, Parise, Greene, and Chara), Lamoriello determined that the return was not worth more than roster certainty going into the summer or keeping his word to veterans providing mentorship to his younger players.
🤑 PRICE HIKE: There was always going to be an obvious spike in ticket prices after the Islanders moved from Nassau Coliseum to UBS Arena. The one thing we didn’t know was just how much.
Well, in The Athletic, their 2022 Fan Cost Index tells us …
The biggest ticket price hike this season was by the New York Islanders, whose average is now $72.59 per ticket after leaving Nassau Coliseum for the $1 billion UBS Arena that opened in November. It’s common for teams to crank up prices when moving into a new venue. The Islanders, by the way, rank 15th with an Fan Cost Index of $445.84.
◾️ A LOTTA MOOLA! An increase of 15.70%! The next biggest yearly change in Fan Cost Index is the Vegas Golden Knights which saw their ticket prices increase 8.20%. The average cost for a ticket to a game at T-Mobile Arena is $649.72, the third-highest in the NHL.
⏭ NEXT UP: The Islanders are back at UBS Arena welcoming Thomas Greiss and the Detroit Red Wings tonight. Face-off is set for 7:30 pm.
📊 STANDINGS:
🇫🇮 STRONG “FINNISH”: Over at Eyes on Isles, Michel Anderson writes how Autu Räty, the Islanders 2021 2nd round pick (52nd overall) proved his doubters wrong with a strong season in the top Finnish hockey league.
He's proven that last year was some sort of adoration. That it wasn't the true Aatu Räty. He's still not a first overall candidate, but a number of teams will regret passing on him now. Guaranteed.
◾️ GOOD COMPANY: Since being loaned Mikkelin Jukuritt Räty scored 40 points in 41 games (0.98 points per game). That's tied for the 7th-best DY+1 Liiga season ever and sandwiches Räty nicely between Aho (1.00) and Lundell (0.96)/Granlund (0.92). He finished the regular season in the Liiga with a six-game point streak helping Jukurit finish second and get into the playoffs with a bye into the semifinal with home-ice advantage.
📚 SOUND SMART: Scott Mayfield and Zigmund Palffy might never be mentioned in the same breath as players, but how about a stat? Per Eric Hornick, Mayfield is the first Islander with six points in a season series with Ottawa since ‘Ziggy’ also had six (3-3-6) in the 1995-96 season. Prior to Mayfield, Devon Toews (4 points in 2019-20) was the only Islander defenseman to have more than three points in a season vs. Ottawa.
🗓 ISLE REMEMBER: On March 23, 1982, Mike Bossy scored goals 59, 60, 61, and 62 in an 8-1 rout of the Washington Capitals at Nassau Coliseum. The eight goals gave the Islanders 359 for the season, which broke the team record of 358 set in 1978-79. Bob Bourne registered two goals for New York, with Brent Sutter and Bob Nystrom also scoring for the Islanders.
From the New York Times: Bossy's big night allowed him to share in some elite records. He and Phil Esposito are the only players in National Hockey League history to score 60 or more goals in two consecutive seasons, as well as the only ones to score that many three times, with Esposito accomplishing it four times.
And with 141 points, which extended his N.H.L. mark for most points in a season by a right-wing, Bossy joined Esposito and Wayne Gretzky as the only players who have reached the 140-point level, though Esposito and Gretzky have also done that twice.
🎧 Weird Islanders: The Podcast! - Episode 7 - Wade Dubielewicz (with Isles Fix’s Joe Buono): “Mike and Dan talk with Isles Fix’s Joe Buono about goalie Wade Dubielewicz, a cult Islanders legend with a one-of-a-kind career arc. Mike, Dan, and Joe talk about Easter Sunday Magic, Dubielewicz’s history of poke checks, waiver shenanigans that foreshadow future Islanders waiver shenanigans, and much, much more as they remember the Islanders version of Yoda.”
🔗 Grading The New York Islanders Non Existent Trades On The Deadline, by Luiza Vidal, Last Word On Sports: “The biggest question for Isles fans after 3 P.M on Monday was ‘Where are the Islanders trades?’. The answer to that question came quickly: they didn’t make any.
And we leave you with this…on national puppy day, the best acquisition of the off-season, the Islanders’ own ‘Monte.’
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