Hey, Islanders fans: Boo John Tavares, but don’t go overboard

An open letter, to my fellow islanders:

I come to you this morning not as a sportswriter, a detached denizen of the press box, but as one who spent dozens of nights — maybe a couple hundred of them — where you will be this evening, in that wonderful old building on Hempstead Turnpike alternately called Fort Neverlose, the Barn, the Coliseum, now NYCB Live.

I come to you as a Long Islander. I don’t live there now. I haven’t lived there in many years. But I was born there. I grew up there. We live in different houses and apartments in our journeys through life, but where we are from is where we are home. And Long Island is home.

People are expecting the worst from us Thursday. John Tavares returns for the first time as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and there will be a terrible whiff of betrayal in the air. Tavares pledged fealty to the Islanders many times. He talked often how much he loved Long Island. And then he left. He went to Toronto, where he grew up a Maple Leafs fan.

He went home.

That didn’t sit well, and there is little question Tavares will be booed tonight, and little question he should be booed tonight. This isn’t Eddie Giacomin coming back to the Garden, or Tom Seaver returning to Shea, exiled favored sons who didn’t seek asylum elsewhere.

The Islanders wanted Tavares. They offered him at least a million dollars more per year than the seven-year, $77 million deal he signed with Toronto. Lou Lamoriello recruited him tirelessly. The Islanders didn’t trade him last year as they could have — as they should have — when it was clear he was going to let them dangle into summer.

So if you want to direct all of your anger at Tavares, that is absolutely your right. You want to conveniently forget the less-than-inspiring teams Garth Snow put around him for years, and the fact principal owner Scott Malkin allowed sentimentality to rule the day at last year’s trade deadline, that is certainly your privilege.

Boo the hell out of him.

The fear is it will go beyond booing. There are a lot of frayed emotions among the faithful. Videos are being circulated. Stories have already been written. Some are touched by sadness and regret; many others carry a distinct air of venom.

Maybe he was just being his usually cautious self, but the buzz was enough of a concern for Lou Lamoriello to tell Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts on WFAN Tuesday:

“He had every right to make the decision that he did to go and to go to free agency, and I respect that. Let’s put it this way: I hope it’s rethought. I hope it’s the respect he should be getting. I do understand the passion that the fans have. We’re talking about a quality human being who served his years here extremely well, and I hope that’s taken into consideration.”

see also

John Tavares back at Coliseum — this time as Islanders enemy

Ever since John Tavares tweeted, on July 1, a picture…

I hope Lou is wrong to worry so much. I hope Tavares is booed when he’s introduced, that he’s jeered whenever he touches the puck, and that’s that. Part of that is because Islanders fans ought to be more consumed with the players who are wearing the home team’s sweater than the one that isn’t, because this is still a first-place team (tied with the Capitals, with two games in hand) and a team that had only one fewer point than the Leafs entering play Wednesday.

Part of that is the venue: The Coliseum has been filled with joy almost every night the Islanders have played there this year (Tuesday’s loss to Calgary notwithstanding), and it has allowed a team and its fans to fall in love with each other all over again. The arrival of an ex-pat really shouldn’t change that vibe.

Mostly, though, it is because there are people who expect the very worst of the islanders who will be attending this Islanders game, and that’s a low-bar attitude I’ve detested my whole life. Long Island was the greatest place in the world to grow up: Jones Beach and Roosevelt Field and Adventureland, All American Burger and the Long Beach Boardwalk and Nunley’s, Hickey Field and Eisenhower Park, Uncle Sam’s and the St. James’ and Fezziwigs, the midnight showing of “Rocky Horror” at the Uniondale Mini Cinema.

A guy from Hicksville named Billy Joel has closed his Coliseum shows for years urging his fellow islanders: “Don’t take any [crap] from anybody!” Nobody is asking you to turn the other cheek here. Boo the hell out of John Tavares, let it out, let it be cathartic. And move on. The man missed his home. Some of us can understand that all too well.

Enjoy!

Vac