Area Fifty Wang
Just because some dust has settled on Long Island doesn’t mean the rumors/conspiracy theories aren’t still going strong.
On Leafs Lunch today Bill Watters said Neil Smith’s moment of clarity, that he wasn’t going to have the control he hoped for, came at the draft, when he wasn’t able to make a few deals.
I’ve had numerous emails sent to me about how Smith wanted to quit and Wang simply got to him first, something I’m not buying right now. Even if Smith was unhappy with his situation, he wasn’t going to jump ship after waiting so long to get back into the captain’s seat.
Right now everyone is coming off clean, even new GM Garth Snow, even after those pics floating around (after all, few current pro athletes don’t have some shot of them like that on the net). Snow can’t pass up the job and as every media man/woman is pointing out - no one else really wants the position at the moment.
Still, the rumors will keep flying that something else happened, Smith was leaving, Milbury was involved, blah blah blah.
But are the comparisons to the NY Knicks fair? While messy in the front office, the Islanders are coming off of a 36-40-6 season. 14 points away from a playoff spot, but also 21 points away from being the worst team in the league (to be fair to the Knicks, they were only the second worst team in the league; 2 games better than Portland at 23-59).
While Tom Poti’s not exactly the missing piece to the puzzle, Mike Sillinger, Brendan Witt, Chris Simon and Poti are all veteran additions to a relatively young team that was a playoff contender for a good while last season. Thinking they can add a few more wins, but also grab a playoff spot doesn’t make you a crazy person.
Winning can cure this team’s reputation, and indicators are they’re not at bottom of the barrel in that department.
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