(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Top Comments: NY Islanders Update Edition [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-05-27

With all the Fascist Felon and his henchmen are doing to destroy the country and my life, I am not really in a writing mood. However, I do not want to put up an open thread; thus, I will go back to an old standby: my favorite hockey team.

Over the past month, quite a lot has happened to the NY Islanders. They won the draft lottery and moved from picking 10th to picking first this year. In fact, this will be the 5th time we will draft number one overall. The first two times we drafted number 1 over, it lead, directly and indirectly, to our run of 4 straight Stanley Cups; the last two times, on the other hand, ended in disaster even if the players performed well while on the team. Let’s hope we go back to the winning ways of the first two picks.

This month also saw the team announce it would not be renewing the contract of our GM. This was 4 years too late, imo. While I wasn’t thrilled with him being hired in the first place, he did make a solid coaching switch that brought us two trips to the conference finals which hadn’t happened since 1993. Unfortunately, he was so wedded to his outdated ideas for building a roster, it probably cost us an actual chance to win our 5th Stanley Cup. His commitment to continuing to ice virtually the same roster year after year while trading away most future assets has put the team in a massive hole going forward. Had not been for our top FA player refusing to sign an extension, the GM likely wouldn’t have traded anyone is what was the most insane trade deadline in recent memory. We have a couple of other players who could have fetched ridiculous prices to help restock the cupboard so to speak. Just true mismanagement.

This brings us to last week with the owners doing a search for a new GM, president of hockey operations or both. One big problem with the NHL and probably major league sports in general is the amount of recycling coaches and managers. So many teams are afraid of doing something even slightly outside the box or willing to give new people a chance. I was very worried the owners would go with a retread who would likely not bring a truly fresh perspective to roster and front office building. It seemed very likely the owners were looking to Ken Holland, who had been GM of the Red Wings and Oilers. Holland would mostly likely just be a continuation of the problems we had under Lou Lamerillo, who was the GM let go. Holland opted to take the open LA Kings job leaving the field open for the Islanders. I, and many people I know, were pushing to hire someone who is AGM from a winning culture most looking to Mathieu Darche of the Tampa Bay Lightning, who has a resume that includes being a former NHLer, an NHLPA negotiator during a previous CBA fight and worked outside of hockey using a degree he received from McGill University in Montreal. In a shocking move, that is exactly who they hired.

As someone who always suspects the worst from my hockey team, it is quite surprising they did exactly what I wanted. I do not know if Darche will end up being a good GM or not, but it does show the owners are willing to go in a different direction than owners of the past who continued to put the team on a path to mediocrity or worse. For the first time in a long time, I can honestly say I am proud to be a fan of the New York Islanders. Yeah, that’s strange to say.

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day!

Diarist reserves all rights to his original writing only. Community material is not covered by this ©

Now a word from out sponsor and onto the Tops!

Here at Top Comments we welcome longtime as well as brand new Daily Kos readers to join us at 10pm Eastern. We strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site's best, funniest, most mojo'd & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail or to the Top Comments group mailbox by 9:30pm Eastern. Please please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find!

Top Comments for may 27, 2025

Unfortunately, none.

TOP MOJO may 26, 2025

First comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/5/27/2324649/-Top-Comments-NY-Islanders-Update-Edition?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.