Tanking

This has nothing to do with Ruslan Fedotenko...or, does it?

Right now, Islander fans, our team is in disarray. There are eleven regulars injured and half of the team that will take the ice tonight against the Penguins is going to look like the Bridgeport Sound Tigers roster. That's because it is, for the most part.

We all know how the Toronto media is practically begging the Leafs to tank the season out so that they can solidify a better chance at landing the top overall draft pick this year, a young man of estimable talent named Steven Stamkos. In fact, Leafs fans are probably surrounding a water cooler right now swearing at coach Paul Maurice under their breath, wondering why he keeps playing a goalie that gives them a chance to win every game they play, Vesa Toskala.

Of course, the Leafs and their fans believe that they are the center of the hockey universe so they believe that Stamkos (or, to be fair, rising defenseman Drew Doughty) are all but wrapped-up-and-promised to the buds so that they can try to stop the blood that's been trickling for over forty years now.

On Long Island, we don't have the luxury. Our boys have been putting in a fair effort night after night in often losing causes. One has to feel for young Joey MacDonald--the goalie who made his Islander debut the other night vs. the Flyers--as he was facing more rubber than half of the nominees for AVN awards do in a given year. And yet, what else can you do? The boys are trying--they have to--because everyone is on audition. Ted Nolan is not going to just throw his hands up and stop trying to coach the boys to victory. Bill Guerin isn't going to stop encouraging the young guys like Matthew Spiller and Steve Regier to step into roles that might make them into full-time NHL players. It just doesn't happen.

Remember back in the day when the Devils and Penguins put on that embarrassing game of chicken to see who could suck more, just so that the team in last last place could draft Mario Lemieux and turn the entire organization around? That's why we have to have these dog and pony ping pong ball shows today: so that no team makes a complete mockery of the entry draft. The Senators tried to do it in the 1990s so that they could pick Alexandre Daigle, of all people.

See how embarrassing this whole tanking thing can be? We are talking Alexandre freaking Daigle here, people!

Call me crazy, but I would rather put up the good fight and lose than just pack it in like a quitter and go home. Good luck tonight, boys. Go get 'em.