The New York area has been no stranger to divided loyalties when it comes to sports. Baseball, for instance, had its ‘Golden Era’ in the first half of the 20th century with three local squads. Contrary to popular belief, the Big Apple hockey scene has also typically been a multiple team region.
Who was the first New York franchise to play in the National Hockey League? It’s okay; take your time with this one.
If you answered the New York Rangers, you would be wrong. The New York Americans were not just the first local team in the NHL, but were also the inaugural team of Madison Square Garden in the 1925-26 season. The Americans continued playing at the World’s Most Famous Arena, as a co-tenant with the Rangers, until folding after the 1941-42 campaign.
The Rangers had New York to themselves for 30 years until 1972 when Long Island was granted an expansion team. In an ironic twist, the NHL awarded the Islanders to the area in order to keep the WHA (a rival league at the time) out of the newly built Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. More on the arena later.
The Islanders started off like most expansion teams, and served as a doormat for the rest of the league. Things quickly changed in Nassau through strong amateur drafts led by General Manager Bill Torrey. Bob Nystrom, Denis Potvin, Clark Gillies, Bryan Trottier, and Mike Bossy, among others, were selected and would serve as the core of one of the most dominant teams in professional sports history. The Isles went on to win four consecutive Stanley Cups and 19 straight playoff series from 1980-1984. As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Potvin and Bossy suffered from nagging injuries and the players brought in to replace others that had departed were good, but not great. By the 90s, the team was in a rebuilding phase and times were tough. 1993 saw the lone deviation from what has been a perennial disappointment. In a modern day David vs. Goliath, the Isles knocked off Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, and the rest of the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins to make it to the Conference Finals. Unfortunately for Islanders fans, the team has not won a playoff series since.
It’s been kind of like the on-air progression of The Simpsons. The show started off slow for a couple of seasons and was nothing special, just different. Then unprecedented years of greatness and acclaim would cement its spot in the history books. And what followed? Years of minimal entertainment and not much laughs.
And so here we are, almost 18 years later and the team is no closer to winning a playoff series than they were in 1994 when they got swept by the Rangers and were outscored 22-3 in the four games. Also, the Nassau Coliseum (currently the 2nd oldest NHL building behind Madison Square Garden) has become severely outdated and an utter eyesore for anyone in the Uniondale, NY area.
Every ownership regime has claimed poverty due to the ridiculous lease that John Pickett (owner during the dynasty era) signed with SMG over 30 years ago. Current owner Charles Wang has run the organization on a shoestring budget but has still managed to lose around $200 million since purchasing the team in 2000 for $180 million.
Who could forget Mike Milbury, who served as the team’s General Manager for close to 10 years? “Mad Mike”, anointed by members of the media, was known for having an itchy trigger finger. Sure some of his moves were forced as a result of owners not wanting to pay high salaries (Ziggy Palffy), but most of his transactions were head-scratchers to say the least.
An All-Star squad can be made of the players Milbury exiled from the island: Bryan McCabe, Zdeno Chara, Bryan Berard, Eric Brewer, Darius Kasparaitis, Todd Bertuzzi, Olli Jokinen, Tim Connolly, Tommy Salo, and Roberto Luongo to name a few. One move that continues to negatively impact the Isles was his decision to draft Rick DiPietro 1st overall in the 2000 NHL Draft, opting to pass on elite goal scorers Dany Heatley and Marian Gaborik.
Milbury finally stepped down (no, he wasn’t fired) in 2006 and was replaced by Neil Smith, the architect of the 1994 Stanley Cup champion Rangers. Smith lasted a whopping 40 days before being fired (yes, he was fired) and replaced with the team’s backup goalie at the time, Garth Snow (yes, the backup goalie).
Snow still holds the title of General Manager and spearheaded a full-blown rebuild that started following the 2007-08 season. Since then the roster has been made up of young, unproven players and cheap, over-the-hill veterans. The organization has no Team President, no Director of Amateur Scouting, no Director of Player Development, and no home when the lease ends, but they have Garth Snow and Charles Wang.
D’oh!
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