Islander country is still waiting for the rest of the chips to fall. I believe in this Mgmt. group. I know how much money we have left under the cap (almost to the penny.. issues). I am happy with the additions of Tank, Comrie, Guerin, and Sim. I am still waiting for one or two more announcements to really start to get excited. I am hoping that Garth and co. has there eyes on a big blue liner to take the place of Sean Hill (It killed me to see him sign with the Wild this weekend... I loved that guy). I am really hoping the Islanders do exactly what they did last year at this time of year. They stole a bunch of quality guys late in the free agency period (Kozlov, Sillinger, Simon, Hilbert, Park, etc). So if they can do that again to solidify this team to a quality 4 line team... how can you not be happy? Sprinkle in a few of the young guys that have to get a shot (Bergenheim, Comeau, Tambellini, Nielson, Okposo, etc). The bottom line is this is not a "basement" team as everyone is assuming again. Remember where they had this team last year?
Here are my thought on the loss of players in the last couple of weeks. The only two I am upset at all about is Smyth and Blake. Zednik spent too much time not playing and in Nolan's dog house for me to really have issues with losing him. Kozlov was a "loaner" player that really was too slow to throw a ton of money at him... I will miss him on the shootout, but with the signing of Guerin I am o.k. with him moving on... As Far as Blake is concerned he was a Phenominal Islander, but how can you blame Garth and co. for not signing a 37 year old for 5 years? They offered him a 3 year deal. He went to Toronto for the 5 year deal. To lock up 5 mill a year for 5 years is just too risky. Last year was a career year for him. I would love to have him back, but in all I think the decision was the correct one... Let's see how Toronto feels in 3 years about the signing... especially if the NHL expands and brings the cap down (cap is percentage of revs divided by amount of teams). Smyth was a gamble worth taking. Anyone who says we gave up too much does not understand the depth of this Islander organization. We have quite a few guys who are trying to break there way into the line up. How many of the Names I typed above will make it this year? Is Nillson better then Neilson? Is O'marra better the Okposo? My point is it was worth taking a shot on Smyth. My hope is we go farther in the playoffs then he does in the very near future. I am glad he signed with Colorodo for no other reason then every Ranger fan in the world told me he wanted to go back to Canada.... guess not.
I don't really care about the Rangers signing the top 2 free agents out there and if you are upset at that you shouldn't be.... Remember the other times the Rangers signed the top free agents in the past.. how did that work out? How many cups did Gretzky win? how about Holik? Bottom line is they still need defense and giving 2 guys over 7 mill a year is going to make signing Princess Lunquist a lot more difficult (how do you give 3 guys over 7 mill and your best player under 5).
I remain Patient. The signings last week have me a little happier. I am still hoping for a lot more from Wang and the gang. IN GARTH (and Ted) I TRUST!!! Go Isles!!
