The opportunity Islanders fans missed in John Tavares’ return
You know something? I owe an apology to Islanders’ fans for setting the bar so low before John Tavares’ return to the Coliseum on Thursday that when it had ended, I actually wrote that it had not been an ugly night at the old barn.
Because, and I knew it in my gut in the press box and even more so on the drive home after I had written, the venom and vitriol aimed at No. 91 from a crowd that acted more like a mob, was ugly, only I excused it in the name of passion and because, I guess, the game was not disrupted by folks throwing things onto the ice at their one-time beloved captain or otherwise breaking the law.
As I said, low bar.
I have written dozens of times over the last 20 years about how the Islanders’ battered fan base has been about the most abused in sports. Thursday night was an example of battered fan’s syndrome. The abused became the abusers.
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The chants John Tavares heard from the Islanders faithful
Islanders fans got to enjoy a 6-1 win over John…
And it is not that Tavares — never anything less than the quintessential solid citizen during his nine years under mostly amateurish management, the last six of which he played on a club-friendly long-term contract extension he signed after his second season — deserved more than hours of verbal abuse, even though he did.
It is that the fans deserved more from themselves. They could have been better on Thursday. They could have made a name for themselves by being classy. At least I did not make the mistake of calling them that Thursday.
Instead, they merely cleared the lowest bar that could have been set for them while defaming one of the great players in franchise history and ruining a video tribute to No. 91 that some of the innocent bystanders in attendance might have appreciated.
And don’t think just about everyone who has ever worn an Islanders sweater, including the 20 on Thursday, did not take notice.
So this fellow Pierre Dorion, general manager of the Senators, said following the deadline before which he traded Matt Duchene and Mark Stone, “It doesn’t mean our highest-scoring players were our high-character players.”
Now, I suppose it is possible the GM was not talking directly about those two players, but Stone (28-34=62) and Duchene (27-31=58) were the team’s two leading scorers before they were dealt. I suppose it could be a coincidence.
But if not, and if the two forwards were not “high-character” players, then why on earth did Ottawa attempt to sign them both to huge, long-term deals in the range of at least $80 million apiece before being rejected?
In the minutes following the Rangers’ season finale in Philadelphia last year, which would be only a few hours before he was dismissed, Alain Vigneault delivered a stunning monologue lasting 6 minutes, 4 seconds in which he defended not so much his (exceptional) record behind an NHL bench and his (very successful) tenure in New York, but his ability to coach and develop young talent.
And so if Vigneault, living in Florida and with one year at $4.25 million remaining on his contract with the Rangers, wants to get back in the game before people forget his name (and it happens, quickly, especially so in a league that is leaning younger even behind the bench, never mind Ken Hitchcock) that would be his pitch to Ottawa, which created a vacancy this week by dismissing Guy Boucher.
Because the perfect job for Vigneault — veteran team on the cusp of winning and in need of a change from a brow-beating coach — may never come along. The perfect job may be the next one he is offered.
Which begs the question: With the Flyers having gone 19-11-4 with Scott Gordon behind the bench after replacing Dave Hakstol, and 15-3-2 since Jan. 14, does Philadelphia need Joel Quenneville more than ever next year so that the team can take the next steps, or not at all?
When we talk about great/dreadful trades, just where does the one rank in which the Sharks acquired Brent Burns (and a second-rounder) from the Wild in exchange for Devin Setoguchi, Charlie Coyle and the 28th-overall selection in the draft that became Zack Phillips?
Yes, the Leafs were without the injured Jake Gardiner and Travis Dermott on Thursday for the 6-1 beatdown on Long Island, but if you didn’t come away from that game wondering why Toronto GM Kyle Dubas did not supplement his team’s blue line at the deadline (even after jumping the market weeks earlier to get Jake Muzzin), you were probably the only one.
Vegas’ signing of Stone to an eight-year contract at an annual $9.5 million per after acquiring the winger from the Senators is yet another illustration of why the league’s extremely favorable rules for the expansion draft were so unfair to the preexisting 30 clubs.
Because, as the first expansion team of the hard cap era, the Golden Knights were always going to have an advantage no other novice entry ever had. They were going to come away from the draft, and their first season, with an enormous amount of cap space with which to retain their own players and woo free agents.
And after constructing a team of scrappy overachievers with chips on their shoulders after having been left unprotected, general manager George McPhee has taken advantage of that benefit. The Golden Knights signed Paul Stastny to a three-year deal worth $6.5 million per after his rental stay in Winnipeg. They signed Jonathan Marchessault, who earned $750,000 last year, to a six-year contract at $5.0 million per. Vegas traded for Max Pacioretty and gave him a four-year extension at $7.0 million per. And now, Stone.
This from a team in a no-tax state that started ahead in that regard, too.