Mail Responses

Well, I figured since we are all sitting around twiddling our thumbs and waiting for 12:01 tonight, I'd take the time to respond to some of those who were kind (?) enough to send me their opinions. Here we go:

To BLAKE55--No, I have not forgotten about Jason Blake. I like Jason Blake and I love the energy he brings to the ice. It's just that everything I have read said that he and his agent want a lot of money (I seem to recall 4-5m a year) and to me, that is too much to pay for a guy who is 34. I know he just had his best season as a pro and has been a mainstay on the Island through tough times. But that is just a lot of cash. My guess is that he goes to Toronto or Minnesota. Either way, he will always be an Islander and I bet he'd be the first to say that.


To GomesGrrl in NJ: Scott Gomez would be a great addition to whicher team he picks. I am thinking he goes West Coast since he is from Alaska and anywhere in the west is closer to Alaska than New Jersey.


To GoLefsGo: I TOTALLY brain-farted when I said the Leafs got Toskala from the Predators. Mea culpa. I must be as stupid as you said I am. One thing I know is that I can properly express myself in words and I also learned how to capitalize the first word of a sentence in school as well. I might not be genius but I am smart enough to know that JFJ is not one either. Why else are the Leafs trying to bring in a "hockey guy" to hold his hand? Isn't JFJ a hockey guy? Just wonderin'. Good luck Leafs.

To John in Halifax: GREAT to hear from the Maritimes! I hope to visit someday.

Chris Benoit may have been a troubled dude for sure; but I am hopeful that the docs doing the autopsy check his brain out. Too many chairshots and diving headbutts from the top rope can't be good for your mental health. I bet they find that he has the brain of a 80 year old guy with the onset of Alzheimer's. That would definitely increase the paranoia effects from painkillers and muscle relaxers.

Of course, anything is speculation at this point. We won't know much until the toxicology reports and autopsy results are made public.

One thing about the media speculation that sticks in my craw is the way that a lot of these so-called experts on TV obviosuly have no idea as to what they are talking about. The worst offender in this has to be Geraldo. Nancy Grace is no genius either.

Another thing: nobody thought that football made OJ do what he did. No one pinned football as the thing that made Rae Carruth do what he did. A lot of people think wrestling is to blame; which is ridiculous. You can probably pin a lot of stuff on the McMahon family but you can't pin a guy flipping out and killing his family on them. Wrestling itself is not to blame at all. Now the pressures of the game and the way in which these men and women put their bodies on the line could very well have contributed to his mental state. No denying that. But to toss a blanket on "wrestling" itself is disengenuous and a scary characterization.


To all that asked: My favorite Islander player of all-time is probably Mike Bossy or Denis Potvin. Gotta throw Steve Thomas in there too. Stumpy totally rocked in NHL 93 on the old Sega Genesis. I could score with that guy from anywhere in that game!


Pete in Long Island asked about Pierre Turgeon. Yeah, I was totally a fan of Turgeon's. I still hate Dale Hunter and what he did to derail the Isles in 1993. And yes, it's weird that one of my favorite current Islanders, Brendan Witt, wears #32 to honor Dale Hunter. But Witt rules and he is so fun to watch.


That's it for today. Keep the letters and comments coming. Well be back with more free agent fallout this weekend.

Ready for Crazy Times?

The free agent spending frenzy will begin at 12:01AM this Saturday night/Saturday morning. Are we ready?

I've got a great family trip planned for Sunday but I still have a buddy standing at the ready to give me any big news. I'm not much of a cell phone user, but open season on NHL free agents may be the best reason to have a cell phone aside from auto emergencies.

I know we all are crossing out fingers that the Isles can work something out with Ryan Smyth. From what I've been able to read, the team is really making a great effort to bring him back. And I have to say that I wholeheartedly agree with Newsday's Greg Logan on his point about the trade for Smyth at the deadline. Some people grouse about the fact that the Isles may have given up too much for someone who may end up being a late-season rental but after being an Islander fan for 3/4 of my life, I think it was a great statement that showed that the Islanders are committed to winning...or at least making an honest effort to do so.

I always get a weird kick out of hearing some people who complain about trading away really young players for established superstars in the NHL. I mean, the NHL draft is probably the most inexact science there is. Back in the day when the league was drafting guys who were 20 years old, it was a bit different. There's so much that changes for anyone in the two years it takes to go from 18 to 20. At 18, some of these players are like Al Bundy--at their peak--and that's where they are going to plateau. By the time you're 20, you have a good couple of years of personal, mental, and physical development to go with your experience. Saying that, we don't know what is going to happen with Ryan O'Marra and Robert Nilsson and whomever the Oilers picked in this past draft. The kids are super-young and think about it--are you the same person now that you were when you were 18? Did you have a ton of pressure on you that early in life? If so, how did you react? All I know is that I would hate hate hate to have been typecast (for lack of a better word) at the age of eighteen. Maybe it's time we lay off these kids a little bit.

Somebody asked me about Scott Gomez yesterday. Would he be a good fit on the Island? Well, sure. I think he'd be a very good player for the Islanders. A lot of the so-called experts think Gomez is fixing to have some kind of offensive outburst once he's freed from the Devils patient game plan. I've always thought he was a creative player who looks like he is having a great time on the ice. That sort of attitude can be infectious.

One red flag: Gomez has already won some Cups. Why is that a red flag? Well, after years of (perhaps) feeling offensively stunted in the New Jersey system of play and payroll, if I am Scott Gomez, I am looking to get paid. Does Gomer sell himself to the highest bidder regardless of playoff opportunity? Is he in it just for the money now that he has had some of the glory? Does that make him selfish? All questions that I would need to be able to answer for myself before I make any kind of offer to Gomez if I am Garth Snow; or any free agent for that matter. This is not to disparage the career of Scott Gomez either. It would just be a concern if I were the GM.

One guy I hope we stay away from is Paul Kariya. I just don't know that he has been the same since he got crushed by Gary Suter of the Flames a few years ago. Kariya was great in the 2002 Olympics for Canada but that was five years ago. I am sure everyone figured that he may end up back with the Ducks now that he has decided to leave the Nashville circus behind. If his good buddy Teemu Selanne retires, GM Brian Burke may have a good solution in Kariya. The champs have a lot of gritty youngsters on the roster who can do the dirty work so that a guy like Kariya can hang around the circles and score some goals.

Besides, we all know that Gomez is going to the Rangers and that Kariya will end up on the Maple Leafs anyway!

Greg Logan also reported that Tom Poti is going to test the waters. Can't blame him one bit after that contract the Flyers game Kimmo Timonen. Timonen is reportedly the second highest-paid player in the NHL right now. Wrap your head around that one for a minute. Kimmo Timonen, a guy even the most hearty of hockey fans probably couldn't pick out of a police lineup, is just behind the mulletless Jagr in pay as it stands right now. Guys like Tom Poti owe it to themselves to look around and see if they can get some of that six-million dollar pie. It would be pointless for the Islanders to overpay for a guy like Tom Poti--who I became a big fan of, by the way. But you need to proceed in a careful, calculated manner in free agency. Sure, you can go all Crazy Eddie like the Flyers--where the prices are INSAAANE!--or you can try to build a contending team without the potential salary headaches in the room from players who aren't pulling the rope with the rest of the guys. The Isles just got rid of that guy. No need to make another mistake.

I'd make some predictions but I am notoriously bad at this sort of thing and besides, I don't want to jinx anything. We'll see what happens Sunday and on Monday we'll have some sort of recap and/or update from the weekend on Monday. Hold onto your seats and cross your fingers.