NOW AVAILABLE! New York Islanders: A to Z will introduce a new generation of fans to the legendary players, magical moments, and colorful 50-year history of the Islanders.
Contributions from Brendan Burke, Stan Fischler, Chris King, and Jiggs McDonald.
You can purchase it HERE
A portion of the proceeds goes to the Islanders Children’s Foundation.
Good Morning, Islanders Country.
The New York Islanders are an easy target.
To an extent, we get it. The Islanders were a dysfunctional franchise post their dynasty years, and if it weren't for those four consecutive Stanley Cups, they would have been an even bigger laughing stock than they were. Fisherman logos, multiple corrupt owners, one an outright fraud, a dilapidated arena, and miserable teams on the ice.
Then there was 'Mad' Mike Milbury making erratic trades, hiring a backup goalie as the GM, said backup goalie handing out the longest contract in NHL history to Rick DiPietro, and so on. Even if the Islanders had playoff-caliber teams, no one really took them seriously.
That shouldn't be the case anymore, but for some reason, it feels like it still is.
You can criticize Lou Lamoriello for every move he makes and each extra year of term he hands out, but he instantly changed the culture around the franchise and brought a seriousness to it. The Isles have an ownership group that allows the GM to spend to the cap ceiling each season and did the impossible - build a new arena on Long Island! The team has been in the playoffs four of the last five seasons since John Tavares left for Toronto in 2018. They made the Conference Finals/Semi-Finals in consecutive seasons.
And perhaps the best example of how this franchise has turned a corner is that nobody wants to leave. Over the last two seasons, RFAs Mathew Barzal and Ilya Sorokin, both All-Stars in the prime of their careers, signed eight-year contract extensions to remain on Long Island.
Bo Horvat signed an extension before ever stepping onto the ice for the team - and they were out of playoff position at the time! Sure, they haven’t landed the big name in free agency, and Alex DeBrincat wanted to go home to Detroit, but they are in conversations now. They weren’t before.
Yet, for members of the national hockey league media, they remain a punching bag. Take Paul Bissonette and Ryan Whitney constantly taking cheap shots at the team for views and clicks. “I think the Islanders are going to be f–king horrible,” Whitney predicted during the latest episode of Barstool Sports’ hockey podcast.
“I feel like Lou has just given up,” said Bissonnette, who played parts of six seasons in the NHL and has blossomed into a hockey media star. “He has checked the f–k out,” Bissonnette added. “The Islanders are going to get relegated after this season; that’s how bad they’re going to be.”
It’s not just them. NHL Insider Frank Seravalli said the Islanders had an “atrocious” few days to start the off-season. Really? That bad? By signing all their free agents and extending Sorokin? That’s atrocious?
The Athletic enjoyed giving Lamoriello low grades for his long-term signings of Pierre Engvall, Scott Mayfield, and Semyon Varlamov. “Don’t let his rules on jersey numbers, facial hair styles, and sideburn length fool you; Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello has a sense of humor,” the story started.
Yes, how else could you explain these moves? Lamoriello must be trying to be funny and love to laugh. That was the sarcastic explanation given. There could be no other reason.
This type of discourse about the Islanders isn’t going to end. It’s too easy for media members, especially those from a certain geographical location (Toronto), to bait fans into defending their team against the argument that they are “boring” and “nobody wants to play there.”
As fans, we can either engage or ignore them.
Or even better, the team could shut them up.
Coming up, a new head coach is in at Bridgeport, and their new schedule is out. Plus, Thomas Greiss puts his career on ice, and it’s Tonelli to Fischer at the New York Hockey Hall of Fame this weekend.
Let’s dive in.
📰 NEWS: Bridgeport had a 2023-24 schedule before they had a coach. On Thursday, the Islanders announced today that Rick Kowalsky has been named Head Coach of the Bridgeport Islanders (American Hockey League).
Per the press release, Kowalsky served as Bridgeport's Assistant Coach for each of the last two seasons. Prior to joining the Islanders organization, he spent three seasons as a member of the New Jersey Devils coaching staff from 2018-21.
Kowalsky was the Head Coach of the Devils' American Hockey League affiliates, Binghamton Devils (2017-18) and Albany Devils (2010-17). He led the Devils to back-to-back playoff berths in 2015-16 and 2016-17. Kowalsky was the recipient of the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award, given to the AHL Coach of the Year, in 2016. That season, Kowalsky led Albany to a 46-20-0-10 record.
📆 SCHEDULE RELEASE: As mentioned, the Bridgeport schedule was released on Wednesday. Kowalsky makes his regular-season debut as the B-Isles coach on Friday, October 13th, on the road against Rochester.
You can see and watch the entire schedule HERE.
🥅 HANGING UP THE GEAR: After 14 seasons in the NHL with six different franchises, goaltender Thomas Greiss has called it a career. Greiss, 37, told NHL.com German correspondent Stefan Herget that he would not be signing with another team this off-season.
Though Greiss played for six different teams during his career, he had his most success while playing on Long Island.
In 2019, Greiss, and Robin Lehner, earned the William M. Jennings Trophy as the tandem to allow the fewest goals in the regular season. It was only the second Jennings Trophy in Islanders history and the first since 1983 when Billy Smith and Roland Melanson were presented the award.
In 2016, he was between the pipes when the Islanders advanced in the playoffs for the first time in 23 years. Then, in 2020, he won Game 7 against the Philadelphia Flyers to send the franchise to its first Eastern Conference Final in 27 years.
📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, when Thomas Greiss shutout the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals on September 5, 2020, he became the first Islander since Chico Resch (1975 vs. Pittsburgh) to record a shutout in a game 7. Greiss was the first NHL goalie to record 16 or fewer saves in a Game 7 shutout since Gilles Gilbert (BOS) blanked Los Angeles on April 25, 1976.
🗓 ISLES REWIND: Thomas Greiss stopping Aleksander Barkov on a penalty shot in the 1st OT of Game 5 vs. the Florida Panthers in 2016. It was only the third OT penalty shot in playoff history and saved the game for the Isles as they went on to win in 2OT on Alan Quine’s PP goal.
🎧 Nassaumen Hockey Podcast: Episode 158: All's Quiet in Belmont - New York Islanders Strike Out on Alex DeBrincat “This week, NHP dives into another swing and a miss by the New York Islanders, and asks - is it different this time in Belmont? We discuss what the other options are, what we thought about the potential trade package of J.G. Pageau and Oliver Wahlstrom for Alex Debrincat, and answer Twitter questions.”
🔗 Will running it back on defense trip up the Islanders? by Ethan Sears, New York Post “At even strength, the Islanders allowed 2.16 goals per 60 minutes while allowing 2.74 expected goals per 60, according to Natural Stat Trick. The expected to actual goals differential of .58 was the second-largest in the NHL, behind only the Bruins.”
And we leave you with this…congrats to Isles Legend John Tonelli, who will be inducted into the New York Hockey Hall of Fame on Sunday. He’ll be going in alongside Stan Fischler, who wrote a feature in The Hockey News about the original J.T.
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Lou hasn't won anything in more than a decade. The Islanders prospect pool has been correctly renamed a puddle not a pool. He has tripled (quadrupled?) down on a core that isn't exactly Trottier, Bossy, Potvin etc.. Some want to give him credit for bringing back the core that finished 15th last year. I guess that's because it's still a young core.....oops just being sarcastic. He did steal Sorokin in a tremendous deal for the Isles. That said, Lou has done nothing to validate the "In Lou we trust" mindset of Ledecky and Malkin. As long as the owners continue to let "System first. System always" Lou do whatever he wants the team will not win the Cup. Ledecky and Malkin got us a new arena. That will never be forgotten. However, neither will the fact that they seem content to have a bubble team and not a real Cup contender be ignored. So, with apologies to Louis XV, after Lou the deluge. There is a bright light at the end of the Lou Tunnel and it's not a train. It's Lou's one and only Sonny Boy, who I'm sure, will continue Lou's Islanders tradition of no Cup under my watch.
It's exhausting. We will see how it goes, but I'm not sure what the basis is for saying they'll be one of the worst teams in the league. They have a pretty wide range of possible outcomes but it would take quite a colossal, and likely injury filled, failure for them to be that bad.