Mike Milbury should probably be kicked somewhere, preferably out on his ass.
Oh how I long for those good old days.
Goaltending was the least of the Isles worries. Although he is no Battlin'
Billy, Salo was a decent solution until Roberto is ready to go. Brian
Berard may not have been that great defensively but Brian Leach isn't
exactly going to be confused with Rod Langway either. Unfortunately young
players do not get much time to develop any more. Milbury has traded away
too much young talent. You can never have too much depth, especially if the
players are young and have their best years ahead of them. McCabe and
Bertuzzi are only a couple who come to mind.
There is no longer any tradition in this once proud organization. They have
become a laughing stock, much like the Rangers have been for most of the
past fifty years or so (with the exception of a few unforgettable seasons
like 1994).
From The Great White North.
FIGGAZIG wrote in message <19990120020836.06363.00000
...@ng152.aol.com>...
>By MARC BERMAN
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>THAT Mike Milbury will stand behind the bench tonight coaching the 13-28-3
>Islanders against Florida is one of the biggest disgraces in sports.
>Clearly failing as an on-ice leader, having allowed losing to choke the
locker
>room, unable to motivate these players to win a hand of gin rummy, Milbury
is
>by far the most ineffective head coach in the league.
>It is time - out of mercy and for the sanity of everyone involved - to stop
the
>madness and yank Milbury back to the front office at Friday's All-Star
break.
>It is time for president David Seldin and co-owner Steven Gluckstern to
>recognize their colossal mistake in bringing Milbury back in a dual role -
one
>Milbury resisted last summer.
>Since he returned to the bench, Milbury's stock as a GM has plummeted, too.
He
>seems to have lost sight of his big-picture plan for this club. You don't
trade
>Bryan Berard to marginally upgrade the goaltending position that - if all
goes
>well - will be entrusted to Roberto Luongo in a couple of years anyway.
>Perhaps Milbury is too involved in the trenches, too worried about beating
>Calgary on a Tuesday night.
>The Isles have one of the bright, young coaching prospects in the game on
their
>deluxe staff in Bill Stewart, the AHL Coach of the Year last season for the
St.
>John's Flames. Florida interviewed him in the offseason, but balked at
hiring
>him because Calgary would have demanded a first-round pick as compensation.
>Stewart will surely get more interviews in the offseason. Let him run what
is
>left of this scrambled season and determine if his head-coaching future is
>here. Surely, Milbury's is not.
>Milbury's presence behind the bench is more egregious than his trading
docket.
>Sure, most of Milbury's moves don't look too appealing now, but everyone is
>playing lousy due to the losing virus.
>Please, don't blame this utter mess on the Bryan Smolinski trade. Remember,
the
>owners didn't let Milbury improve the club in the offseason through free
>agency. Signing their own free agents - Trevor Linden, Kenny Jonsson, and
Ziggy
>Palffy - was deemed the end-all and be-all. As if last season's team had
done
>something.
>When you can boast landing a franchise defenseman and franchise goalie,
Jonsson
>and Luongo, in a trade for Mathieu Schneider and Wendel Clark, it helps
offset
>the marginally bad ones that can quickly turn good with a Linden, Mariusz
>Czerkawski or Robert Reichel surge.
>Kill Milbury instead for accepting the five-year, $4-million contract he
had to
>know was not in the best interests of the organization. It was the best
thing
>for his bank account, which he will be shelling out for college educations
soon
>for his four children. Milbury took the money and sold out the fans. When
he
>looked into this team's future before the 1997-98 season, when he had
something
>pretty good going here, the last thing he saw was himself behind the bench.
>They were the up-and-coming Islanders then. I don't know what they are now,
>besides laughingstocks.
>Milbury knew in his heart his coaching days were over. He loved the GM
life,
>the freedom to make his own schedule, to work his travel around seeing his
>kids. It wasn't like he ever was a standout head coach in Boston, anyway.
>Milbury had to know the players would always view him as a management type
>here. He got them to play hard for the first 20 games, creating an
>us-against-the-world mentality following Hoistgate and the Palffy holdout.
That
>wore off. Partly because of his GM duties, he missed too many morning
skates
>and practices, didn't always travel on the same plane with the team. They
>noticed. And when trade rumors flew, they noticed Milbury's absence, too.
>Milbury took the money and the security because that's what his bosses
wanted.
>He's a good, loyal company man, despite all the stinging words that emerge
from
>his lips. If you are paying his salary, don't worry about Milbury
embarrassing
>you in print. He turns into a puppy dog.
>But in good conscience, Milbury should've stood up to Seldin and told the
owner
>this is not going to win him a Stanley Cup. He should've told him that two
good
>men named Terry Murray and Ted Nolan were out there for hire. If he no
longer
>was needed to run the hockey operations, fire him. He would've received the
>final two years on his old contract (about $1.5M) and moved on to Colin
>Campbell's job.
>Seldin is probably going to the Redskins with Howard Milstein, so the Isles
>need a good contract man in place. I know of a pretty good guy, the one who
>negotiated Palffy's bargain of a $26 million deal. His name is Milbury,
general
>manager. GM only.
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