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ISLES MUST KICK MIKE UPSTAIRS

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FIGGAZIG

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Jan 20, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/20/99
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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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Ziggy Stardust

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Jan 20, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/20/99
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I really think that this is in the minds of the owners-management.Bill Stewart is a
class act and we'll lose him to another team if he's offered a legidimate coaching
position eleswhere.Whenever I see Mike on the bench it looks as though he's always
conferring with Stewart and or Henning etc...The look in his eyes isnt one of a
confident coach ,and believe me ,that rickels down to the players.I agree with you
,let Stewart coach the rest of the season to see if he can turn the ship around ,if
he does ,well ,then we know who the coach will be in the future wont we.....Mike
needs to be upstairs ,away from the team as much as possible.

Patty16LaF

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Jan 20, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/20/99
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I do agree with a lot of what he wrote, but also remember Milbury accosted Marc
Berman a few months ago when Berman wrote a bogus kiss-ass article praising the
owners for "going after" Bure. These two do not like each other....just
thought I'd bring that out..

MMR

Patty16LaF

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Jan 20, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/20/99
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accosted may be too strong a term......he cursed him out the day after the
article ran......so I'm sure Berman dislikes him something awful.

MMR

Allan M. Cohen

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Jan 20, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/20/99
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A very well written treatise. I wholeheartedly agree with most of what
was written. But don't ever forget that Milbury wants to coach. Wasn't
it about this time a year ago that we lost 10 in a row, and the then GM,
Milbury, fired the then coach, one Rick Bowness. Milbury wasn't happy
when he was forced off the bench to start with.

And if he remains as GM, he will never fire himself as coach! HE MUST
GO!!!

Bob DeLucie

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Jan 20, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/20/99
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Milbury has to go period. He has clearly demostrated over the past few
years that he can't coach the Islanders. After the Berard for Potvin trade,
he has proven he can't be a good GM.


brent magnus

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Jan 21, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/21/99
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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.

Sitting way the heck up here in Saskatchewan I don't get to here as much as
about my team as I would like. Being a lousy team the Isles do not get much
TV exposure up here so I am lucky to see them once a year. Being a long
time Islander fan, twenty years at least, I am disheartened by a team that
appears to lack any kind of vision at all. The organization is just going
around in circles like a dog chasing its tail. You know your team is in
trouble if Craig Janney is playing on it. Expansion was made for guys like
him (along with Joe Murphy). It keeps them employed.

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...@ng152.aol.com>...


>
>By MARC BERMAN
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>------
>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.

Jen4Jimmy

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Jan 22, 1999, 3:00:00 AM1/22/99
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>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.

the thing is that the media and the fans want these players in our lineups as
soon as possible...which is ok sometimes...but the coach shouldnt give into the
fans all the time...like fitch...he was brought up cus of the fans wanting
him.....

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