The Last Days of Bedlam | The 2006-07 New York Islanders

The Last Days of Bedlam | The 2006-07 New York Islanders

The New York Rangers are the most valuable NHL team in the United States. Anybody who’s a huge name in New York shows up in the Lower Bowl during playoff games. But the Rangers are also an American NHL team, so there’s not the crazy amount of pressure on them the same way there would be on like the Yankees, the Knicks, the Giants, or Canadian NHL teams. It’s a pretty ideal environment if you’re an NHL star. Money, exposure, not an obscene amount of pressure. You better believe anybody who is anybody was on the Rangers in days gone by. The Rangers are far and away the biggest fish in a very small pond of three teams in the tri-state area. One of the other two teams, the New Jersey Devils, has three relatively recent Stanley Cup championships to celebrate to the Rangers one. And even then, they just don’t have the same clout that the Rangers do. Attention is a zero- sum game, and there’s just nothing anyone can do to stack up to the blue shirts. Any team in their same state is going to have a tough time. Any team that shares even a part of their name, is going to exist only in relation to the Rangers. Any team that has anything newsworthy happen to them, even so much as the last insanely wild season in NHL history, is going to struggle to get out of the Rangers long shadow. But that’s just as well. It’s a long island. [Music] The story of the 2007 Islanders really begins roughly a decade prior with their general manager, Mike Milbury. While Islanders fans are bleaching their eyes, let’s go over his tenure with the team. Hired in 1995 as a general manager, the team’s ownership mandated that he run the team with an austere budget. What followed was a train wreck in slow motion or the Titanic sinking. But at least the Titanic had prestige and was above water for a little bit. Despite some things outside of his control, Milbury is only really remembered for making disastrous trade after disastrous trade with the slimmest of successes just being enough to justify continuing his gainful employment in the eyes of ownership. The players Milbury would get back in the trades were decent. They contributed and every once in a while the Islanders saw a modest success, but the guys they gave up, that’s what made the trades disasters. Milbury quickly became the most loathed figure in Islanders history, the poster child for self-destructive leadership. How was Milbury a GM for so long, you ask? It was an ownership decision, or rather the lack of one, because ownership was just as much of a clown show as the management. Here’s the inbrief. The owner of the Islanders through their 80s dynasty was John Picket, who ended up moving to Florida in 1985 and for a decade was generally a non-factor for the Islanders whatsoever. In 1994, men named Steven Walsh, Robert Rosenthal, Ralph Plesi, and Paul Greenwood purchased a 10% stake in the team and oversaw their day-to-day operation until 1996. They were called the Gang of Four, which sounds badass, but they weren’t badasses. They were frauds. Starting in 96, Greenwood and Walsh defraed hundreds of millions of dollars under the pretenses of using the funds for investing in the Islanders. They went to federal prison. John Picket rolled out of bed in 1997 to sell the team to John Spano. But having forged documents claiming assets, he had purchased the team fraudulently and was sent to federal prison. After that debacle, Picket finally found a non-felonious buyer in Howard Milstein and Steve Gluck, who ordered that the team be run on a shoestring budget in order to turn a profit. So, the team sucked because they couldn’t spend any money and thus lost money. In 2000, billionaire businessmen Sanjaykumar and Charles Wong became the majority owners of the Islanders. Do you know what happened to Sanjaykumar in 2004? Yep. He went to federal prison for fraud. So, with all this crazy crap going on between people who only care about dollar signs and not hockey, they couldn’t give two hoots what Mike Milbury was failing to do as an executive. All who was left after the dust settled was Charles Wong. Two things are true at once about him. One, he was a philanthropist and a loyal guy dedicated to keeping the team on Long Island, going so far as to offer to pay out of pocket himself for a renovated arena. And two, he knew absolutely nothing about running a hockey team. Quite famously, he once asked Mike Milbury if the Islander should invest in a sumo wrestler as a goalie. So Mike Milbury, a former player and coach and 5-year GM when Wong took over, was the voice in his ear explaining the game to him and thus was indispensable. In logic, we call this valid but not sound. We’ll get more into how this affected the 2007 Islanders in a minute, but for now, let’s close the book on Milbury. To fully understand the 2007 Islanders, you really have to understand the desolation of a team that Milbury left behind, which can be approached by nothing short of a hazard suit and a geer counter. The Islanders were a laughingstock. It didn’t matter that they’d made a surprise turnaround in 2002 to make the playoffs or another surprise appearance in 2004. They had nothing to show for it. Milbury had given away so so much talent and let go quite a few coaches in very short time spans. Each new one even more exasperating than the last. And it was incredibly disheartening for the Islanders to be that way going into 0607. Why? Because after the uncertainty of the fully canceled05 NHL season, the league’s return and the Islanders return in 2006 meant that the team had survived despite being the woeful younger brother of the glitz and glamour Rangers who could survive anything up to and including World Wars. But after crashing and burning to end that season, the Islanders were forced to remember that they were under the thumb of one of the most disastrous management cores in NHL history. If you had a terrible general manager that felonious or incompetent owners never held accountable and your team was really bad and ridiculed year in and year out and possibly on the verge of relocating or closing up shop, how would you feel? Because that’s how Islanders fans felt. It’s how they’d been feeling for over 10 years. But with one final development, we can finally dive into the story of the ’07 Islanders. Because in the 2006 off season, Mike Milbury was booted upstairs. Charles Wong could have named Santa Claus the new general manager of the Islanders. To Islanders fans, it would have been an instant success because Father Christmas would have fulfilled the one job requirement of not being Mike Milbury. But before we get to him, it’s important to note that just because Milbury was gone doesn’t mean his leftovers weren’t still on the table. The most notable of these is Alexi Ashen. Once again, two things are true about Alexi Ashen at the same time. One, he was a tremendously talented and exciting offensive player and actually pretty well-liked by his teammates. Off ice, he was a socialite and was often out and about and thoughtful with the fans. and two, his reputation was in the gutter because he was part of an absolutely awful trade that sent Zedeno Charara and the pick that would become Jason Spettza to the Senators and then signed a ludicrous $90 million 10-year anchor contract. Yashin is a really good player, but that’s like prime yogger money. To make things worse, Yashan had suffered a gruesome skate slash to his wrist in 2003 that would decimate his shooting ability. He was still pretty good, but he wasn’t prime Alexi Yashen. And even prime Alexi Yashen wasn’t worth that contract. So, the 2007 Islanders and the Islanders for the foreseeable future had to deal with Yashin’s enormous contract cuffing the team in the young salary cap era. A less controversial holdover from Milbury’s tenure was Miro Shatan, a crafty and subtly intelligent playmaker who you could always rely on for a 50 to 60 point season. He and Yashen brought an exciting skill to the Islanders forward core that they hadn’t really had since Ziggy Py. There was a huge turnover on defense in the offseason, so that could only leave one other big mainstay from the Milbury era. [Music] Rick DePietro was a first overall pick. He was as talented as he was young. He was the goalie of the future. And in Charles Wong’s mind, he was going to be the face of the franchise. The tandem of him and backup goalie Gar Snow wasn’t going to be a cause for concern. But the question was whether or not DPro would become a gamebreaker. But in that off season, DPro’s contract was expiring and he was getting into some holdout drama. But don’t worry, that’ll probably get sorted out by the new GM soon because now the Islanders have an actual adult in the house. Neil Smith is perhaps best known for being the GM of the Rangers when they won their first Stanley Cup in forever in ’94. But ironically, he was a product of Long Island. He was an Islanders draft pick in 1974 and later would become a longtime scout for them. But all that history with the Islanders was just gravy to the fans because he had already completed the task of not being Mike Milbury. Smith was not only ecstatic to work for the Islanders after an absence from the game, but he was also a proven winner. Homegrown and competent, you could hardly ask for more for the Islanders in 2006. That summer, Neil Smith went to work. At the draft, he picked Kylo Poso eighth overall, which would benefit the franchise for about a decade into the future. In the free agent market, things got spicy. He signed some sandpaper, namely Brendan Wit, a crease clearing banger and fan favorite wherever he goes, who once got hit by a truck the afternoon of a game. He didn’t miss the game, of course. The truck didn’t make it. The other slab of meat was Chris Simon, a big tough son of a gun who could offer secondary scoring during a full moon. More on him later. In the coaching market, Charles Wong and not the GM as would be customary, hired Ted Nolan, who holds the distinction of being out of a job after a season where he won the NHL coach of the year award. By all accounts, Ted Nolan is a really great guy. He was out of that job because he stood up for himself. He was offered a pitiful lowball contract by the Sabres in 1997, again after winning coach of the year, and just flat out refused it. Islanders fans saw him as an outlaw Rebel type, a perfect fit for a hodgepodge team like that year’s Islanders would become. Weird that Wong chose the coach and not the head of player personnel, but whatever. The Islanders were grooving. They felt like an actual NHL team. No Spano, no Milbury, no gang of four. After 40 days of Neil Smith’s leadership, the shadow was lifting. [Music] We’re back to being the godforsaken islanders. It was literally unbelievable. You’re not reading that wrong. Wong fired Neil Smith after 40 days and replaced him with G Snow, the backup goalie. Walking into work to hear this news is brain leioning enough, but the reasons behind it only add to its legendary senselessness. Neil Smith was so eager to return to the NHL that he didn’t do quite enough research on Charles Wong. Wong has been described as having a hands all over approach to leadership. He was in on every decision when that’s just not how it works for an NHL franchise. But under Wong’s Islanders, everything was done by committee. Signing players, which would have been Neil Smith’s job alone, had to be vetted by either Wong, the owner, Nolan, the coach, and special adviser Pat Leaf Fontaine, who also quit because of this. According to Smith, he knew he’d made a mistake from day one. And the setup was just so wrong and unrewarding that it really depressed him to the point where he couldn’t really function. So on cut him. So that brings us to the craziest piece of this puzzle. G Snow. There have been one or two players that immediately retired and became coaches. Never have they become general managers. But Snow was actually a finalist to fill the Milbury vacancy. He was tight with Wong. And Wong is a little too loyal of a guy who wanted to give his articulate and degreeholding friend the chance to fulfill his postplay career dream of being an executive. Wong was talked out of it then, but this is now. G Snow is not a bad guy in the slightest. He wasn’t a terrible goalie either, but he had no executive experience whatsoever. He did, however, have a favor he owed Wong, and that was to resolve the contract dispute with their franchise player that Neil Smith refused to give into. Boy, did he resolve it. [Music] [Music] What kind of being does this? Whatever demon had possessed the Islanders franchise’s hollow corpse since the early ’90s clearly had not forgotten how to surprise or terrorize the good people of Long Island. The contract has been commented on to death, so I’m going to keep it to just one paragraph. Few things are guaranteed and unfortunately health isn’t one of them. DPro accumulated a slew of injuries that ultimately cut his career short. Now, I’m not blaming DPro for that. If someone offered me this money, I’m Rick Dpietro. I could go into the merits of signing a longerterm contract to lower the cap cost of a player you expect to improve, or Wong wanting to lock in a superstar that the island so desperately needed to have, or just the fact that Wong as a businessman appreciated Deep Rietro as an employee, so he compensated him graciously. But every single one of those justifications is a big stretch. And altogether, they add up to just not being worth it. At the time it was a massive risk and now it’s a massive failure. It is the failure. But for now we’ll reserve judgment on this season. Let’s see how DPro does with all those crushing expectations at their most fresh. Thank god there was no social media at the time. Twitter looked like this. There were far fewer talking heads back then, but they said about this what you’d expect them to say. Elliot Freriedman absolutely eviscerated the Islanders, calling them the most volatile and clueless team in the NHL. Yeah, the subjects of this video, the ‘ 06 to07 Islanders, have not even met for training camp yet, but that’s all the executive turnover. Snow would be the GM for the year, Nolan the head coach, and Wong the owner slashGM/coach/ everything. Now the team had to focus on the players and build on the progress that Neil Smith had made. The Islanders needed to attract as many fans as possible. They needed money. They couldn’t rebuild as that was very difficult to do in the first years of the salary cap and they couldn’t stay on the woeful course they’d been on. So they had to try to make the playoffs. So the Islanders signed whoever would play for them. Shawn Hill, score of the first goal in Mighty Ducks history, and a shutdown defenseman when he wasn’t putting up random 13-goal seasons for the Hurricanes. I’ll take him. Tom Cody, a mobile D brought in on the cheap to help quarterback the power play, but never uses his huge frame. Why the heck not? Mike Dunham, a fellow member of the main mafia with Gar Snow. Sure, Aaron Asham, an enforcer with a crazy good slapshot. Resign him. Done deal. There are more and we’ll get to them, but that gives you an idea of just who exactly the Islanders got. Anybody who wasn’t nailed down to another team. The players were so random it was almost like they were Islanders on accident. Odds and ends and bits and bobs that now all united on a team that had both no pressure on it and all the pressure in the world. There were a few internal young guns who could carve out an NHL role this year, but nothing earthshattering. That cupboard was fairly bare. They were never going to attract big names. Credit to him, G. Snow knew the Islanders at best could only hit singles at free agency, but he hit them all. The 2007 Islanders were essentially mercenaries. The mission, by hook or by crook, get this team to the playoffs. All the fresh blood was exciting, but as for what the dogs breakfast of a roster would look like on the ice, nobody had the slightest clue. But they were fairly sure they wouldn’t outright suck or that they would be really good. Which brings me to The Big Duck. The Big Duck is a ferro cement shop in Flanders on Long Island. It’s so unique, it’s even got its own website. It was originally meant to be a dairy shop and has relocated a few times across the island like some sort of crypted. But what it is isn’t the point. The point is that it’s a big duck. Is the duck an achievement in architecture? Not really. It was cheaply made and built by a stage director. Is it a massive money draw? No, probably not. Does the duck have a legacy? Well, it’s a duck. All this is to say, the duck is just there. It’s just a novelty of Long Island. But it doesn’t have to be anything else for their people to love it. The 2007 Islanders are akin to the Big Duck. They were cobbled together with four higher, inexpensive, and unremarkable pieces. Not many knew about them or wanted to see them, and that was that. The islanders were just there. But very much like the big duck, just being there is all that was needed for Long Islanders to love them. [Music] The already decrepit Islanders would start their season in a way most wobagon out west. In what were probably the least watched and lowest rated games in the league that season, the Islanders went 0 and3 to start the campaign, which was somehow a franchise worst. Knee-jerkers everywhere surely thought this meant the G Snow experiment was a failure and that the Islanders were doomed to iniquity forever. But on local TV on an October night with teams that have no history together, at least nobody saw it. A short trip to Anaheim later, the Islanders played their first game against the undefeated 2007 Ducks. Mike York sealed the game to give the Islanders their first W of the season off the back of 46 saves from backup Mike Dunham. Finally, the road trip was over and the Islanders were headed home. Will on by the home crowd, they beat the Bruins 4 to one off the back of a breakout game from a player who would continue to surprise the team as the season went on. Say hello to US Olympian Jason Blake. In the NHL, there are few more impactful skills than tenacity, and Jason Blake had that in spades. While not the largest guy, he made up for it with powerful skating and an energetic persistence that opened up a lot of scoring opportunities for his teammates. But in ’07, he was the one getting those chances. His production against the Bruins was only an early sign. His scoring fortunes were starting to turn, and as they did, completely out of the blue, he would become a more and more admired player for this Islander squad. But despite his efforts, in the immediate future, the Islanders spent the next halfozen games scraping together standings points and wins and losses that weren’t particularly convincing either way, except for one spanking by the powerhouse Sabres, bringing them to an appropriate four and four and two record. The Islanders were just kind of there. They were getting drips and drabs of offense. But really, it was DPro in net that was keeping the Islanders even because the Islanders were the third worst in the league for shots against, hemorrhaging chances against and not doing much at the other end of the ice. But then the wind started to come and more decisively. Aside from a brief clunker of a home stand, the Islanders kept their heads well above water up to game 23. November saw the Islanders sort of settle into a pattern. Most everyone was just playing their roles and playing them well. The Whit Hill defense pair was euthanizing the opponent’s attack. Tom Pody was running the power play splendidly and depth guys were doing just about as well as you could ask for them in their roles. DPro was looking sharp. Gier on a breakaway. Simone Gier saved by DPro. In that 23rd game though, Alexi Yashen sprained either his knee or his ankle depending on which report you look at. The slashed wrist he had sustained in 2003 forever limited his ability to produce. But this knee sprain would have similar long-term consequences for his health. For this season, with longtime linemate Miro Chitan, he had 10 goals and 18 assists for 28 points in the team’s first 22 games. That’s great and good enough for tops on the team. It had looked like throughout November that he was finding his game, that production was coming and was going to stay even in spite of his past injuries. But then he was felled again. It was cruel, but the Islanders would have to rely on other options for scoring. Fortunately, they did an adequate job of doing just that. They maintained their win loss pace more or less up until mid December, where they sat at 16 and 12 and three. Better than anyone thought they’d do, and they had some pretty great performances along the way. One in particular stands out, both for its magnitude and for the opponent it was wrought upon. Any matchup against their New York rival is going to be mustsee TV. In case it wasn’t clear, the Islanders despise the Rangers. They are everything the Islanders are not, except Homo sapiens and inhabitants of New York State. With a lot of rivalries, if one team is a lot better than the other, it’s easy for the rivalry to diminish. But with these two, it wasn’t even a jaunt to get from one arena to the other. So, there’s always going to be a lot of visiting infiltrators for every matchup. And that was very much the case on December 3rd, 2007. In one sense, it didn’t look good for the Islanders. Brandon Shanahan hung a three spot on them. But one of the Islanders mercenaries just happened to be an ace in the hole, just like he happened to be an Islander at all. Victor Klov was a huge guy who didn’t use his huge body all that much, but instead his hands and wicked all wrists shot. As an offensive-minded player, you could rely on him for a solid 50 or so points in his season. He was one of the funnier signings of the Islanders that year because by his own admission, he didn’t really have anywhere else to go. Really speaks to what the wider league thought of the Islanders at the time. In any case, something about the Rangers and Brendan Shanahan scoring a hat-tick awakened something vile in the Russian because he did this. Oslo moves in. Cross size pass controlled. Broken up in the middle by Straa and in trying to center. It’s in on Weeks and a score. The Islanders Cos and on the other side Richard Park centers and a goal. Cos Victor Cos answers Shanahan’s hattick with one of his own. Wing centers Cos and he scores again. Putting up four goals on your arch rival is a great way to get Islanders fans to offer you their firstborns. And even better, after that game, the Islanders somehow were first place in the Atlantic, first place in the division. After all the crap that happened in the off season, who would have seen that coming? Getting close to halfway through the season, it seemed like there was enough evidence to claim that the Islanders could swing a middle tier playoff position if they were clicking. But that claim was admittedly tenuous. DPro can’t stand on his head forever. On paper, the team is fairly weak. Future injuries could always occur. Or your backup goalie GM could be forced to shed salary money. Halfway through December, defenseman Alexi Jitnik, valuable but expensive and aging, was traded to Philadelphia for Freddy Meyer, which was odd because if the goal was for the mercenaries to make the playoffs, why did Gar Snow give up a top pair or top three Dman when they had none to spare and no real room for error? The cap space wasn’t so immediately needed, nor large enough to free up a big move. Four days later, Snow sent the expensive Mike York away for Randy Robbitai and the 2008 fifth that would become Matt Martin. Randy Robbitai is a very skilled player, really great with the puck and underrated because he had the misfortune of playing on and only on really bad teams in his NHL career. Pre-T Thornton Bruins, pre Crosby Penguins, the inaugural Predators, the Thrashers. More Randos for the Rando collection. On Boxing Day, the New York Islanders rose to a very respectable 19 and 13 and three. On that day, Rick DPro orchestrated his third consecutive home ice shutout. 180 straight minutes at Nassau Coliseum without letting anything pass. Rick Dietro has his second straight Coliseum shut out. Stopped by Deep Pietro as time runs out. The Islanders have made it three out of three over the New York Rangers. Three is the operative number. It’s Rick Dietro’s third consecutive home ice shutout. The superstar had arrived. All along the way, he was solid in net and the biggest reason the team was this far above 500. Good games were routine for him and that’s such a huge boon for any team is to know what you’re going to get from your goalie. Any worries Island Islanders fans had about him after the 15-year contract were kept quiet for now. But it wasn’t all him. The scoring burden was shouldered in Yashin’s absence by Jason Blake and to a lesser extent Miro Chhatan and Victor Klov. That includes a Jason Blake hat-tick against the Rangers. Just his early Christmas gift for them, you know. Power play goal that’s tied for third in the league. Blake scores. Jason Blake answers right back. Blair Betts that deflects in. There’s the five on three goal. Hill again. Back pass. Chan score. It’s a hattick for Jason Blake. For some reason in December, everything Blake touched found the back of the net. The man was unable to refrain from scoring. It certainly helps when you can get absolutely unreal passes like this one from Miro Chitan. The Islanders were hanging around. If they can give their faithful meaningful hockey in late March or April, that’s everything because everyone wants to be in Nassau Coliseum for the big games. It’s an experience to die for. So, naturally, what happened next? The Islanders fell into a franchise record worst scoring abyss. [Music] The Islander scoring was nothing special whatsoever. No offensive black holes in the bottom six, but no scoring machines either. Blake had been doing incredibly well by Islander standards, but he was 19th in the league in point scoring. The team had 106 goals to that point, good for 14th in the league. It would stay at 106 for the rest of the calendar year. All in all, that’s over three full games of playing time without scoring once, and it sent them into a tail spin. On Boxing Day, they were sixth in the Eastern Conference. 3 weeks later, after a dismal two win, eight loss in one tie stretch, they were 12th and only two points out from being second to last overall. Any question of respectability had instantly evaporated. What made it so upsetting was how steady the climb to 19 and 13 and three was before the 2 and 8 and1 gainer off a cliff. The longest streak of either wins or losses the Islanders had was three. They’d survived a Yash and injury scare, two fairly significant trades, and even all the offseason drama. It just wasn’t fair that they could drop off so quickly. They were lucky to even get three of the meager five points in that stretch as they came from behind against the Devils and Bruins to force overtime in games they were never really in. Furthermore, a lot of the teams they played during this streak were real contenders. The Senators, Devils, Sabres, and Penguins would all have 105 or more points that season. The Rangers, and the Lightning weren’t far behind. Losing to them consistently was a reminder or even proof that they weren’t really going anywhere even if they made the playoffs. The Islanders were two points out of a playoff spot, but weirdly at the 12 spot in the 15 team Eastern Conference. There was no form at the time to say, “Hey, the team has to sell at the deadline.” So, as that trade deadline approached, the Islanders were sort of stuck in limbo, especially regarding one Jason Blake. As mentioned, Blake was having a whale of a season. But now that the playoff prospects of the Islanders weren’t a given, that threw him into trade conversations since he was an upcoming UFA. His scoring success was bittersweet in that it might just price him out of the island come free agency, even if he wasn’t traded. The haziness around Blake’s future was a microcosm for the team. They kind of been hanging in there for a while until they crashed out. And if they didn’t make the playoffs, what was the future of the team going to look like? Were they the 19 and3 and3 DProled Islanders? Or were they the franchise worst scoring drought Islanders? Were they the ragtag group of castoffs that pulled themselves up by their bootstraps? Or were they the team that fired its first competent GM in a decade only to hire their backup goalie? Who were these Islanders? Straight up. What was the Islanders franchise? Something had to give. Either way. Okay, folks. Hold on to your hats. Aside from the off season, it hasn’t really been a standout campaign in the NHL. I appreciate your patience because we’re already almost at game 50 and it’s been relatively uneventful. But in the last 32 games of the Islanders regular season, the proverbial is about to hit the fan. again against the Sabres on the 27th of January. The Islanders were 22 and 21 and five going in, playing Buffalo in their throwback retros. With a win, they leaprogged the Rangers and the Maple Leafs to be right back in one point out of a playoff spot. But it would be a tall order. The Sabres were a powerhouse and against Ryan Miller, the Islanders had only scored one goal all season. Aaron Ashim wore an afro wig complete with headband during warm-ups to honor the 70s isles on retro night. And the Isles played with the gumption that defined the teams they were honoring. Hunter getting around one towards the net. He scores with a goal in this game. Let one go. He scores. It’s not out. Robbitai scores. Hunter follows. Miller down. He scores. [Music] After blowing a lead against the best team of that decade, the winds just started coming. Atlanta, Montreal, Philly. The goals were coming from the likes of Blake, Yashin, Klov, and Chitan to be sure. But there was one line in particular that went on an absolutely torid pace right when the team needed them to have one. the third line of Trent Hunter, Andy Hilbert, and Mike Celinger. This line was money down the stretch. The unsung heroes of the team in February. I kid you not, seemingly every game they scored a timely goal. Andy Hilbert and Trent Hunter were very similar players. Both were 26 and were known as hardworking, defensively responsible bangers with a sneaky good shooting stick. The only real difference was their pedigree. Trent Hunter was a Calder runn runner up in 2004 and wasn’t too far removed from a 51-point season, while Hilbert was more of a career role guy and started this season on the fourth line. That brings us to Mike Cllinger. 3 years and change after the start of this channel and he’s finally made it into a video. Hooray. Everybody knows Mike Cinger as the guy who played on an NHL record 12 teams. the Red Wings, the Mighty Ducks, the Canucks, the Flyers, the Lightning, the Panthers, the Senators, the Blue Jacks, the Coyotes, the Blues, the Predators, and finally the Islanders. What everybody may not know is that he spent 15 seasons in the league and parts of another two and was traded a league record nine times, mainly because his salary never broke the bank and he had a plethora of sought-after skills. Like Hilbert and Hunter, he was a defensively responsible two-way threat, but he wasn’t always that way. In juniors, he was a skilled scorer and only through learning defensive ropes by necessity, such as playing on the penalty kill in Detroit, because with all their superstars in the 90s, there’s not a prayer he was getting a look anywhere else, did he become the ultimate Swiss Army knife of the dead puck era. On the Islanders, he’d be getting power play time and was far outpacing his dead puck era production. And that rising tide also raised the ships of Hunter and Hilbert. On their own, they were trivia answers. together though, something just worked. The clearest example of that was on February the 3rd against the Canadians. Trent Hunter scored the game-winning goal with a few minutes left, and they just kept rolling. [Music] A week later, Mike Cylinger has the gamewinner. After that, Hunter has two goals and the gamewinner. February was just their month. Andy Hilbert didn’t score as much, but he was more snake bitten than anything else. He still made plays for the other two. There’s something about watching guys who you don’t know for scoring score. Even if it doesn’t last very long, even if it’s in quotes, just the regular season, it’s how the fans felt about Jason Blakes towards scoring. The vibes were good from this. Islanders fans being in the position they were, and in some sense still are, identified a lot with the castoffs and ramshackles that composed their beloved team. And now those castoffs from the head coach on down were making it happen which was rare for the Islanders and they were making it fun which was even more rare. Furthermore, DPro was still white hot. He had a thrilling shut out against the Flyers on February 8th and later had an incredible performance against Toronto on the 13th. Park on the clocks the sun bounce it in shot. What a save. Looking for something coming in. Oh, by speed stop by DPF and a huge win for the New York Islanders that moved them into only a two-point trail behind the Canadians for the final playoff spot in eighth place. Things look like they might come down to the wire in that wildcard playoff race. Let’s keep an eye on that. But with every flow must come an eb. And during this resurgence, the Islanders had to take some pretty significant lumps. There were four pretty significant changes to the roster in due course. During the All-Star break, young defenseman Bruno Jer sprayed his ankle. The upandcomer would be done for the rest of the regular season. Chris Campoli would get more ice time in hisstead, getting top pair minutes for a while, but a man down is still a man down. Considering Joel Buchard was already out for the season and hadn’t played a game, the blue line was depleted. It would get depleted. In the affforementioned game against the Canadians, top four defenseman Radic Martinez suffered a broken leg on a check by Guam Latras. Another brutal blow to the blue line. And on January 30th against Detroit, Yashin is out injured for all of February and a chunk of March due to reagravating tendonitis in his right knee lingering from his December injury. He could have kept playing technically, but coach Nolan decided to bench him to get him back to 100%. A pretty rare decision by a coach to rest a star player in this scenario, fighting for a playoff spot, staring down the barrel of the home stretch. This was an eb and flow team. And now, despite man games lost and a grievous prognosis for the Defense Corps, they were flowing, at least by their standards. Remember, this Islanders team was not being asked by anyone to compete with the Devils or the Rangers or even the Ascendant Penguins. They were just being asked to play meaningful hockey throughout the whole season. They were staying afloat at least through Valentine’s Day as the playoff race became fully formed. For sure, the most exciting win was the midmon master class DPro orchestrated against the Maple Leafs, who were looking to be a competitor for some of the last playoff spots alongside the Islanders. So, that was a super important win. They were two points out of a playoff spot with one of their two immediate competitors, the Canadians, in freef fall. They might be able to do it, but they’d need help if they were going to go the distance. So, trading was on the table. But at the same time, Yashin, Martine, and Jery were all injured. Jitnik had been dealt away earlier in the season. Brendan Wit was hurt for a spell around this time. No one could have known where the team was going to go next. The papers called for the Islanders to play it safe and sell players for assets. G Snow had to make a choice with the approaching trade deadline. have faith in his overachieving patchwork group that he cobbled together to make the playoffs and trade for more players or preempt an inevitable collapse and get assets back while he still could. If you remember the mercenary’s mission for this season, you know there was only one way he could go. And on February 18th, 2007, Gar Snow pulled the trigger. [Music] Mark Andre Berseron filled an immediate and pressing need for the Islanders being a defenseman, but specifically an offensive puckmoving defenseman with a lot of time on the power play. Back then, everybody that wasn’t the Capitals had two defensemen on the power play. So Shawn freaking Hill was the guy trying to feed Tom Pod at the point. No longer. Berseron gave the power play a completely different look. A threat from both points. Berseron saw that man advantage time because he was a small guy that carried a very, very large gun. Gomez to Berseron. He scores. Back out to Berseron. He’ll fire a shot. He scores. Suan flies it. Score. Berseron to Bers the room quick shot scores scores takes another look here’s Berseron wines fires a shot scores Berseron from his years as a regular 2004 to 2012 didn’t get that much ice time he was not very good in the defensive zone and neither very large nor physical but he was really really efficient with the time he got especially with that kind of shot. He’s up there in scoring rates with the likes of Mike Green and Dustin Bufflin. At even strength, he had an element of unpredictability that players just don’t have anymore because they all get trained so efficiently. Conditioned, taught, and drilled from youth to do this and that and the other, which by and large is a good thing. But barring superb talent, they lack that unpredictability or element of surprise. Berseron didn’t. Now, you don’t want your teammates thinking, “What the heck is this guy doing?” But he was certainly entertaining. In 2007, he was in the public mind for being on the finalist Oilers the prior year and uh taking out Dwayne Rollison. In Edmonton, he was subject to a lot of scrutiny because a his style of play is very high risk, high reward, and b it’s Canada. But once again, on Long Island, the only 12 people that watched you all loved you. As a maverick and a weirdo, he would fit right in. He walked in there just like half the team had that off season and just went to work. The Islanders won their next four games after acquiring him. The first game against Pittsburgh was huge, facing down the Penguins and their 16game point streak. For the first time in NHL history, a player scored a goal in each of the first minutes of a period. Ryan Malone’s hat-tick wouldn’t be enough though. In the final minutes, peak Sydney Crosby had the puck in the offensive zone for like 20 seconds and Trent Hunter followed him all around the ice, covering him stride for stride, giving him nothing. And it led to the Isisles game-winning goalby. But back come the Islanders now for Siler. He shoots. He scores. the Islanders needed anything else to bond them any tighter and to further ensure that this is a legitimate playoff contender. Knocking off a team that had gone 140 and2 since the 10th of January is about the last little link in that chain. Let’s go. This team can do it. It doesn’t feel like a fluke anymore. With this team, you can’t really feel much better than how they’re doing. Furthermore, the Isisles’s power play had sparked to life. The Islanders D had five power play goals all season. Berseron by himself had six. New York was on a 1 for21 drought on the power play and they saw instant success with Berseron. Power play time here. So they really changed up the personnel on the power play. Ashim, he scores. The Islanders continued to gain ground in the standings against the wildcard rival Maple Leafs. They won again in the shootout off the back of two goals by Trent Hunter and some studying of Andrew Ray by the shootout hero Randy Robbitai. Two days later, they beat the other team in the hunt for the last playoff spot, the Montreal Canadians. On the last day of February, the New York Islanders sat happily in seventh place in the conference. They weren’t out of the woods by any means, but they had earned themselves a little margin for error by the day of the trade deadline. A scrappy underdog team of strangers, John Doe’s, and John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidz was fun. The vibes were great. I’ve used the metaphor before, but it really felt like a rising tide raised all ships. It’s hard to put into words, but you’ve probably experienced this feeling for yourself across various regular seasons where individual success from any player merely added to the excitement of watching all the others as well. Pretty soon, the 2007 Islanders roster would be finalized. Any last boosts Gar Snow could get for his team, he had to go for now. There were 25 trades within the last 6 hours of the deadline, the busiest in NHL history. But the Islander’s name never came up. At about 2 or 2:30 on deadline day, if you were playing hookie from school to watch the TSN live panel on your attic computer, you would have heard rumblings about one of the league’s biggest upcoming free agents unthinkably being on the move. A few potential takers kind of got kicked around the panel half-heartedly because there was no way this guy was really going to be traded. And then the news broke. Improbably shockingly, he was headed to Long Island. [Music] Former Edmonton Oiler Ryan Smith was an outandout star, one of the most skilled power forwards in the league for a long time and a perfect topline fixture for any playoff team. The fact that a true number one forward, particularly him, was coming to the island was just insane. It wasn’t so much that the Islanders were able to land Smith as it was that the Oilers GM Kevin Lowe was already familiar with trading with the Islanders. So he kind of sheepishly orchestrated this trade at the 11th hour. Why sheepishly, you say? Because Ryan Smith is one of the most beloved non-generational talents in NHL history. It should say something that on Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier’s team, he bears the nickname Captain Canada. He was drafted by the Oilers 13 years prior, a bluecollar type player for a bluecollar city. He’d won gold medals for Canada in 2002 and IHF Worlds in 2003 and 2004. He was magnanimous to the fans and active in the Edmonton community. It cannot be understated how important he was to the city of Edmonton, how important it was to him. Nobody in a thousand years thought he would ever wear a uniform other than that of the Oilers. In the prior season, Smith, Berseron, and the Oilers were one game away from winning the Stanley Cup. And now, their most beloved player and their best player was gone less than a year later. Edmonton tabloids put it best. Unimaginable. Appropriately for everything going to hell for the Oilers, before Kevin Low could take the podium to announce the trade, the rods holding the media backdrop collapsed. [Music] This is not the type of player that comes to Long Island. Great free agents don’t sign with the Islanders. They just don’t. Even if they narrow their prospects down to the Northeast, Long Island is hiding in the shadow of Madison Square Garden and the most valuable NHL franchise in history. Free agents do not sign with the Islanders. This was the scene when Smith left the Edmonton airport. That’s where my heart is. And this was the scene at LaGuardia. I would add crickets, but that would make it sound more lively than it was. He went from a place where he was the most beloved athlete to somewhere that to the hockey world was barely even a place. And yet, despite being such a low-key environment for hockey, somehow New York was able to swing the biggest upcoming free agent and the one who nobody actually expected to be on the market at all. but purely because it made absolutely no sense that this mercenary rag tag bubble playoff team would land the most unlikely trade piece in Edmonton’s history since Gretzky. It made perfect sense because this was the team where senseless chicainery found its home. Bunkham and Hoie and other tom foolery attract each other like magnets. The 2007 Islanders were just too goofy for something goofy to happen in the NHL without including them. As unique as this situation was, it had an even more unique effect on the fan base. Everyone was elated to know that they were going for it, that they had a true star now, that they were going to keep Blake, that they had a good chance of making it. There was this surreal giddiness to it all. Enjoying the 2007 Islanders is enjoying hockey at hockeyy’s purest and enjoyment’s purest. Both things for their own sakes. What sort of shape are the Islanders in now? Well, as the AP put it, the New York Islanders kept their leading scorer and stole the one that made the Edmonton Oilers go. Jason Blake, grateful for staying put the evening after the trade deadline, scored a hat-tick against the Flyers as a thank you. Yashan returned to the lineup and Smith, who is a New York friaking Islander, by the way. Berseron and the Hilbert Hunter cylinder line flowed in two games against Washington. Smith gains the blue line down low for Robbitie. Back in front, Smith scores. Ryan Smith, there you go. Nose down straight to the net and he’s there to cash in. His first goal as a New York Islander by Robbitai. So here’s Smith to Blake. He’s in. He backhands. He scores. [Music] Was it going to be solid normal hockey from here on out? Would the 07 Islanders be a normal good team? Of course not. [Music] Still at a solid 33 and 23 and 9, the Islanders go into MSG on national TV and just get stomped. But DPro holds the fort. He almost gets a shut out, but they lose in the shootout. But that’s not what anybody remembers about this game. The puck just missed the stick. Now it comes back in front. Punk bats it away. Simon was knocked down and then he loses his cool and goes after Hullweg. Bets goes to Simon. Then so does Rakun. Hweg is down flat and whatever happened to Chris Simon initially, Chris didn’t want to wait to retaliate and that is certainly going to cost him and the Islanders. I wonder if they’re going to call a major. I wonder if they’ll call Major. There was the typical media flare up about hockey players or animals and it’s only a matter of time until someone gets killed, yada yada yada, and then everybody calmed down. Simon was suspended indefinitely and after further review, the penalty would be for 25 games. It was the longest suspension in Islanders history. Chris Simon was drafted 25th overall by the Flyers in 1990, and boy was he the perfect fit for them. tough, big, and mean. But the reason he was able to play in the NHL at all was a testament to the personal reformation he had disciplined himself to complete as a young man. In his teen years, he had fought an addiction to alcohol. It greatly affected his personality on and off the ice in juniors to a point where he showed up to practice smelling of the stuff. After asking his coaches for a trade on Halloween of 1991, Simon was traded to the Sue Greyhounds, which were then coached by one, Ted Nolan. Ted Nolan had Ojiway heritage just the same as Simon. And being a substance abuse counselor and just the personal guy he is, he helped a young Chris Simon battle his alcohol problem. One-on-one after a practice that fall, Simon and Nolan had a heartto-he heart about making a change. Said Nolan, we made a 24-hour commitment to him, and he really turned it around. He was willing to change. Simon once said that every single time he called Nolan’s house for curfew, he would pick up. Nolan also would encourage Simon to not forget his heritage in the bright lights of junior hockey, but to reconnect with it. In the end, not only was Simon successful in his recovery, but he also came to counsel other First Nations youth over the dangers of alcohol. The president of communications for the Islanders had to deal with the fallout of the Hallwick slash. He said he asked Chris after the game, “We’re not going to parade you in front of the media, obviously, but what happened there?” Simon said he didn’t know. He just remembered being angry. He remembered being hit, but after that it was just black. Knowing what we know about Chris Simon today, that sounds like a concussion. I wish I could say it was the only one. Simon’s career took a toll on his brain that would grow and grow until ultimately it cut his life short. On this team made mostly of bargain bin specials, random encounters, castoffs, and last chances. The one player who had joined out of a brotherhood, out of a real relationship, was expelled from playing for the Islanders for the final games of the season. It was all down to the mercenaries. With Simon gone, the team’s roster is locked in. And right at that moment, the Islanders started to lose because they suffered what would turn out to be the most fateful blow. not only of their season but likely of their entire franchise [Music] and then fails to and DPro is going to challenge Bejan. DPro got to the puck and also got hurt. So did Bejian. That was quite a collision. Ricky is stunned. He and Bejian are both down. Now, DPro thought his only chance was to beat Bejan to the puck. Now, the question is, what did it cost him? In Montreal against a team that’s fighting them in the playoff race, Steve Bejan collides with DPro and concusses him. It was made worse by the fact that DPro had a concussion the prior year. The Islanders best player had suffered the worst kind of injury. It was a massive, massive blow to their playoff hopes. D’Pietro had started 18 consecutive games to that point. Now it looked like it would be the last Long Island would see of him that year. Nondescript backup Mike Dunham drew in. If you needed proof as to how valuable Rick DPro was to this team, let’s see what happens when somebody else takes the net. Good hit by Campoli following Kelly. He scores. Flips it back now for Corvo. He scores. Neil with Dunham down. Wraps it around and scores. Comry chips it off the side. It’s pounded in. Cam and now it’s Spencer and five to nothing Ottawa the goal post rebound score to Pelin wait backand score on the angle drops it back for Tilly score here’s Dunham with a save rebound score and the wrap around here by Yoken and he stuck it in well first here’s a steal by Yoken a shot score holy after a pathetic loss to the Panthers the Islanders dropped from seventh to ninth in the East DPatro did briefly return a week later to start against the Lightning in a valiant loss despite a 16 save first period. The defeat dropped the Islanders to 11th, but in the following game, he orchestrated an incredible 37 save near shutout victory over the Penguins. It was the biggest moment of a massive season for DPro. But once again, his concussion symptoms returned and he had to get pulled for his own good. The net is occupied once again by Mike Dunham. Down the home stretch, the door began to close on the Islanders season. They tack the shot saved up. Rebound in front. Breezy trying to get it home and good. Smalling play made by Camp. Then they put it in. [Applause] [Music] Spencer to Schubert and he scores. Montgomery hustles up left wing, makes a move on Quinn, gets in, shoots, he scores. Alfredson drops Mckame in. He scores. Four to one. New York had 15 games in March and won four of them. They won exactly one game against a team that didn’t suck. Like watching a car wreck in slow motion, the Islanders lost their position lead, destroyed their confidence, tumbled out of the playoff picture, and now had only four games remaining in the season. The Montreal Canadians, who had gone on a tail spin earlier in the calendar year, had about faced gone on a tear and vaulted over the Islanders to take eighth place. Toronto was right outside looking in, but the Islanders and Hurricanes were almost mathematically eliminated from the playoffs with four games to go. If the Canadians even won one game, the Islanders had to win out and not let the Maple Leafs outdo them in the home stretch. Now it felt like after all that the team would have no reward. It wasn’t fair to anyone. Not to DPro who had put the team on his back. Not to Jason Blake having a career year. Not to Ryan Smith who had been through so much already. Not to any of the role players on the team who had done so much to endear themselves to the Islanders faithful. And it wasn’t fair to the fans most of all. The Islanders were limping to the finish line, whatever that would bring. And they were going to get there with whatever warm bodies were left to throw up on the lineup card, whoever that might be. [Music] At the beginning of April, the Islanders sat in 11th place. Nominally, three playoff spots remained, but the Lightning and the Rangers were all but guaranteed to secure two of them. It was statistically impossible for the Isisles to get any more than 92 points. Desperate times call for drastic measures. If the Islanders couldn’t stop their goalie from hemorrhaging goals, they’d have to change the goalie. Hell, change the defense. The Islanders just needed warm bodies, anybody to change the direction of the team. So to bolster the defense for this final week, they tried to sign Todd Simpson. But Simpson was suspended in Germany for abusing an official in a playoff game. And the NHL upheld that league suspension for some reason. So Gar Snow had to pivot and signed another expat in Europe, Darren Quint, to a fivegame contract. He was in the NHL for a few years around the turn of the millennium, but had been playing in Europe for the last 3 years. Since it was past the NHL trade deadline, he was ineligible to play in the playoffs, even if the team made it, hence the 5-game contract. All he was allowed to do for Long Island was finish the regular season. If there is a more hilarious emergency contract given out, I haven’t heard of it. He’s the closest thing you’ll get to a ringer in the NHL setting, but what other kind of player would play for this team? Here’s how brutal the defensive depth situation was for G Snow this year. Joel Buchard missed the whole season. Alexi Jitnik was traded and Radic Martineik was out injured for the whole back half of the season. And almost every backup option Snow could have had failed. Plan A was Chris Gampoli, but he started the season injured. Plan B was Bruno J, but he ended the season injured. Plan C was Freddy Meyer, but he also ended the season injured. Plan D was minor leaguer Alan Ror, but he just didn’t cut it. The best their AHL squad could offer was a 20-year-old Andy McDonald with three professional games of experience. So, let’s go overseas. Plan E was Todd Simpson, but he was suspended. So, at best, Darren Quint was plan F. Quint would play limited minutes on defense. But what about goalending? Mike Dunham obviously wasn’t hacking it. So, what was plan C in net? Unlike at defense, goalending in the Islanders minor league team was not a bare cupboard. Backs stop, Wade Dublowitz showed up in obligatory Dunham relief appearances, allowing only one goal on the 30 shots he faced across three partial games. He was okay. He was better than Dunham. But to go 4-0 in your final four games of the season, you can’t just be better. Dublowitz made his first start of the spring against the juggernaut senators right at the end of the previous poetry in downwards motion. And despite a valiant 42 save effort, the team was sunk by third period goals against. But that was March. This is April, the final week. Rangers, Leafs, Flyers, Devils. The Devils and the Rangers were in the dance by then. The Flyers were out, but the Leafs were right there in the hunt with the Islanders. Four teams were battling for this final playoff spot available in the Eastern Conference. That many teams fighting over one spot with only four games left is exceedingly rare. This is what it was all about. Meaningful hockey in April. On the 1st of April in the Hurricanes game, the Wizard Ray Whitney scores an overtime goal against the Panthers. That hurricane’s wind creates two points of space between themselves and the Islanders. The Canadians and Maple Leafs stay where they are, backs to the wall. The Islanders would be eliminated with a regulation loss and a Montreal win that day. They stay alive if they get any point or if Montreal loses. Aaron Asham notched an early tally to give the Islanders a little bit of breathing room, but the star of the night was Wade Dublowitz. One of many highlights for him was when he came up big to stop Marty Stra as one of those ships from Independence Day slowly swallowed the camera. The Islanders held their lead by the thinnest of margins. And out of town, the Habs also led 1 at intermission. Miro Shatan, consistent as ever, scores on a kind of a fluky goal. The kind of break every successful team needs though. Giving up their lead and facing down sudden death, the Islanders saved their season with a perfect penalty kill. And then the shootout right in and he beats him. Wade Dublowitz isn’t a large goalie, but he is mobile in the crease and especially so one-on-one. Dublowitz took it all the way to the third shooter. And he comes at Dublowitz. Jogger moving well. Jogger denied by Dubluitz and the Islanders win it. Wade Dublowitz. The Islanders beat both the Rangers and one of the knockout conditions. So, they were still alive. This win put a loud, proud stopper on the losses they’d been hemorrhaging against the Rangers, no less. But Dublowitz and his guys weren’t out of the woods yet. All three of the other wildcard teams played that night. Carolina lost and that loss knocks them out of playoff contention as their season max would be one win short. But Montreal, they held on to that 10 lead and won their game. They’re at 90 points. Toronto won as well. They’re at 89. Up next was the biggest game of the season to that point. Desperate team versus desperate team. With a win, the Islanders could close the points gap to one with a game in hand. But with any loss and with any point gained by Montreal that night against the Rangers, the Islanders would be eliminated. They need a win or a Montreal regulation loss to stay alive. To start the game, Toronto wanted it more. Dublowitz was under siege, but he stopped everything in the first period. In this most desperate scenario, the Islanders best shooters needed to be their best shooters. The rebound shot scores in front down low to Hunter looking in front scores. Blake eludes Gilbert now trying to find some room. works back to the blue line [Applause] and plays his 40th goal of the season. Hard pass tipped in and gone by Ash. [Applause] A bullet from Aaron Asher and the Islanders. Just down the road in Manhattan, Montreal was down 3-0 against the Rangers in the third. The Islanders would live to fight another day. and Dublowitz took it from there. Montreal would never surmount their deficit against the Rangers and were stuck at 90 points with a single game remaining. With their loss, the Maple Leafs were stuck at 89 points with a single game remaining. The Islanders still trailed, but they had one extra game in hand, their ace in the hole. And now they face the easiest competition of the fourame stretch. To make it in, the Islanders have to win both of their final two games. But there was an extra condition that was required that was entirely outside of their control. Check the out of town scoreboard again because the Islanders playoff hopes depended on the result of Montreal’s final game and Toronto’s final game, whoever they were playing against. And wouldn’t you know it, [Music] while the Islanders were playing Philly, Toronto had to beat Montreal to keep Montreal from getting points 91 and 92. If they did, or if the Islanders lost, Montreal would take the final playoff spot. The Islanders would not let that happen. through the hole and fins. And now Chatan got it back to Berseron. 15 to the power play. Shatan with room. Fires. She scores. Power play goal. One to nothingers. [Music] Was indecisive about a pass or a shot but had the effect of a pass. And now Yashan scores. A sizzler from Yashan on the power play. And it’s two to nothing New York after Alexi Yashen scores on the best shot of the season. They bombed out of the high. Fires work down low. They score. Kanye squeezes it far side. Richards. Richards gets through and he scores. [Music] In the final minutes, the Flyers, the worst team in the Eastern Conference, came so close to tying it, but a Tom Pod empty net saved the Islanders. And in Toronto, the Maple Leafs win 6 to5. Theirs and the Habs 82 are up. Montreal is eliminated from playoff contention. Toronto sits in the eighth playoff spot. After everything that happened in the past week, only one team has had its fate decided. But now for the Islanders final game of the season, the playoff qualification condition is as simple as it gets. It may have been the only time that season that the players had control over their own fates. No meddling owners, no crazy injuries, no impending trades, no suspensions, no nothing. Just them and the goal lights. East Rutherford is not far from Long Island, both geographically and spiritually. Like the Islanders Arena at Nassau, Meadowlands Arena had been the Devil’s home for decades. But that night, it was the last game the Devils would ever play in that storied arena. So, isn’t it weird that Scott Clemenson takes the net for the Devils, not Marty Broadd? Yeah, they were 107 point team and this was a meaningless game, but it sure helped the Islanders mood to not have to face Martan Broadd. Toronto’s mood, well, a stink was made about how it was bad for the spirit of the game. It was cheap. blah blah blah. Typical Toronto stuff. But because it wasn’t Brod, the Islanders felt like they still had a good shot. On Easter Sunday, more than once a fateful day in Islanders history. The final game of the regular season was played with everything on the line. So much relied on this game, and it was started pretty tentatively by the Islanders. But before the night was done, at least one person on the ice was going to be a Long Island hero. Maybe more than one. Fires it in front. It’s loose. They pound away. Park with a shot. Blocked. Rebound. Score. Richard Park. I have it on good authority that Richard Park was the best 10goal per season player you could ever ask for. He was a hard worker, defensively responsible, great with the puck, and thus never made any kind of play that made you shout at your TV. Four years ago, he scored what was at the time the biggest goal in Minnesota Wild history. P scores. It was also probably the shortest tenure biggest goal in a franchise’s history because minutes later he did this side. Here’s P from the score. Richard P. death over time. And that would also be a short tenure biggest franchise goal because it was outdone in their very next game. His strike against Clemenson wasn’t the biggest franchise goal for the Islanders like it was for the Wild, but it was just as short-lived before it got superseded. Yes. And steals. Put it in front. It bounds away. Comes to Park. He scores. Richard Park. His second of the game. Is Richard Park the guy? He’s scored eight goals all year, which is pretty typical for a depth player. But on the biggest stage of the season, he increases his output by 25%. That’s clutch. But though there were only 10 minutes to go, the ghosts of game 81 looked like they might come back. Ando has it on his stick, sends it towards goal. Score. John Madden scores off a nutty deflection. That’s tough, but the Devils are already in the playoffs. They’re not playing for their lives like the Islanders are. Minutes separated the Islanders from one of the most improbable playoff births in modern NHL history. Minute and a half to go in regulation time. The Pereiz gets it back. Elos back to Zack Pereiz. Back to the point for Elos. Drive, block, and a big one by Smith. Lays it down low. Pereiz back to the point. Langenbrunner has it. Langener drive. Blocked again by Smith. He’s come up huge twice in that spot. Devils keep it in though. 14 seconds to go. Madden centering try deflected in front into the corner. Zack Pereiz sends it in front. Here’s Langener trying to crash the net. Piz with 5 seconds. Back to the point. Elosh plays it. Langen runner backhand loose in front. Star. Will it count? [Music] [Music] Brendan Wit has the chance to clear the puck out with about 10 or 20 seconds left, but he doesn’t. It’s caught in midair. He comes back in and something happens. Who cares what? And the Devils score with 2 seconds left. [Laughter] [Music] Overtime. Palpable trepidation. Nothing happened. More tense than anything else, the Devils never really threatened as a mostly uneventful extra frame expired. The game went to a shootout, which the Islanders were generally pretty good in that year. Chatan was automatic. One nothing Islanders in the shootout. Listen to that crowd, but Pereiz was also automatic. Dubit far out. Piz makes his move and hits the top shelf. Victor Kosov has an insane release. Wide. Klov right in. He scores. And he scored too. Brian Gianto again. Dublowitz way out. Gian stopped. An aggressive Dublin. Stopped. Poke checked by Dublowitz. But a poke check in this situation is just so so risky. He pulled it off against the Rangers in an equally important game, but his luck had to run out at some point. Don’t do that again, Doobie. The man up next for the Islanders couldn’t have been more perfect. The stars aligned. Ryan Smith could be the hero. If Ryan Smith scores here, Islanders fans love him forever. Ryan Smith in on goal. Clemenson stops him. And now the pressure will fall on Wade Dublowitz. Sergey Breland is up against Wade Dublowitz on the 3-2 count. If he’s stopped, the Islanders win. has ever seen comes down to this confrontation. Sergey reel it in on goal. The blocks awome. The New York Islanders are headed to the Stanley Cup playoffs in as dramatic a fashion as you could envision Doobie. supremely confident going in for a poke check a second time against back-to back shooters with everything on the line. A silly end to the silliest regular season. A team that was the world’s laughingtock seven short months ago was now laughing their way into the big dance on a team of castoffs, last chancers, and hitchhikers. the very last one to appear on the scene was ironically this season’s longest lasting image. And as is appropriate for this odds and ends hodge podge team, Wade Dublowitz’s backstory isn’t terribly glamorous. He was 28 and as good as he was ever going to be. He was pretty good with the Islanders minor league team that year, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. He was the AHL rookie of the year three years back and was a Hobie Baker finalist for Denver in O2. So, it’s not like he was a nobody, but in the NHL, he wasn’t yet somebody. To followers of every other fan base, he still isn’t. But there are few cult heroes more dear to the Islanders than this man. He didn’t even look much like a goalie. He was a little short and moved quite compactly, but as he says, neither does Yoda look like a Jedi master. What a baller. After all that, if you were an Islanders fan, you couldn’t be convinced that the Islanders aren’t going to go on a playoff run. A deep one. They owed it to the Islanders fans after everything they’ve been put through, not just in 2007, but for at least the past decade. You have all the Cinderella feelgood stories armed and loaded for bear. You felt you could beat the best. Well, you’d have to. You’re playing the Sabers. After the first 10 games of Buffalo’s 2007 season, they had won 10 games, scoring an absolutely insane 49 goals in them. Now, they did eventually lose this season, but only a few times. Their 53 wins, league best. 66 differential, league best. their 308 goals, league best by leaps and bounds. President’s trophy win for the league’s best regular season team. Of course, not only thank you for coming, but please come again. Perhaps brashly, the Islanders fans were still giddy enough to think that they could do anything. Anything. You hear me? When you’re riding a high, you’re high. And anything can happen in the playoffs, man. When a team with a chip on its shoulder rides a hot goalie and team momentum into the playoffs, a recipe for disaster. As fate would have it, game one kind of brought everybody back down to earth. The Islanders had no offense in the first period. The Sabers swarmed to uporious applause. Another god tier poke check from Dubau had saved the Islanders from being in an early deep hole. Richard Park had a great opportunity, but nothing came of it. And those kinds of chances would be few and far between. Meanwhile, the Sabres skated circles around the Islanders. And it’s fired up to center. And the Islanders come back again in over the line with Blake clearing it across. They score. Asham on the pass from Oh my gosh, this is the greatest team ever. The Islanders are winning the cup. Back it comes to Campbell. Campbell in front of the net. Rebound. They score. Return to full strength. Cross ice. Campbell. This team was fraudulent all along and it’s going to be fired into the sun. But in all seriousness, in the face of the dreadnot sabers, the Islanders lost whatever composure they had and had almost nothing to show for it through 60 minutes. An unwelcome but not entirely unexpected 10 series hole. In game two, Wayade Dublowitz actually drew out of the crease even though he was the best Islander in game one. In the third period, he kept the game from becoming a joke, but that meant someone else was returning to the crease. Rick Dpietro returned and some say game two was the best of his career. Chances were pretty even with the Islanders finally matching the Sabres intensity to the point where old man Mike Cylinger got the first goal early and not too long afterwards. Sitan won that the score. Jery took the shot after Chatan won the draw. Oh, it’s Bruno Jery. He’s back. Good for him. We go up by two early and then the Sabres come roaring back with a late period goal from Tony Ludman being the fruit of a minute-long push. Through a long slogging second period, the Islanders held the fort. It took their defense literally disconnecting their brains for anything else to get past DPro. They work at it again. Another shot. Oh, and Priier hits DPro. They score. As time elapsed in the third period, the Sabres started to connect on scoring chances more and more and the Islanders seemed to be flagging. But the wy miro Chatan drew a very suspicious hooking call on Maxifan again off setting up the Islanders power play and a long overdue return of a bomb drop. Off the pod once more, he scores. Berser letting the shot go. On the ice to celebrate were the wonderful Mr. Berseron, Mike Sylinger, Ryan Smith, Victor Klov, and Tom Pody. None of those five were on the Islanders a year before. Ryan Miller had about 400 different people blocking his view, but that does nothing to take away from Burggeron’s shot, which was perfectly placed. It gave the Islanders an improbable and tenuous lead over the Sabres. If they can hold on and split the series in Buffalo, that’s a huge success. And that’s exactly what Rick Dpietro ensured. Boy, in over the line cleared it in front back. What a save by DPro. Connelly to Zubris again. Took his shot right on. That’s going to be held. Gets in over the line. Finally as Miller heads to the bench. Connelly rolls it in front of the net and jumps up in the air and is cleared back to the corner. That’s why he’s going to be the guy for the next 15 years. Game three. back over to Nassau Coliseum, one of the most storied and energetic arenas in NHL history. It was ready to explode from puck drop. And predictably, the home ice was tilted in favor of the Islanders, but they just couldn’t capitalize on any of their chances. They went wide, got shots blocked or otherwise whiffed on most of their looks. They played well, but Buffalo’s defense just wouldn’t allow agrade looks or sustained pressure. As soon as the game started to open up, the Sabres took advantage. Back for Celind in front, they score. Right out in front, Adam may the Islanders couldn’t escape a goal review against which put Thomas Vanic on the board and them in an 02 hole. But Trent Hunter got it right back as Nassau desperately needed a sign of life from the Islanders. Oh well, it’s playoff Danny Brier. Not much you can do. Oh, Ryan Smith. Would someone take control of the game already? But the game was already 2/3 of the way over. And from then on, it was Miller time. The Islanders had a smattering of good chances, but no great ones. D’Pietro was solid, keeping the deficit to one in the third despite facing 17 shots, but he didn’t have the biggest saves, and the Islanders lost. In game four, the Islanders pressured early with Blake being stonewalled by Miller in the opening minute. Of course, it was a temporary setback. Across from Blake, he chips it. He scores. Jason Blake is on the board. But some questionable officiating, which carried over from the end of game three, came back to bite the Islanders where it hurt most. Tie game. And less than a minute later, blown coverage in front of DPro put the Islanders behind the eightball. Somehow with their own man advantages, the Islanders couldn’t hit per to respond. Siler with a back handoff alone and it’s blocked in front. But once again, the problem was temporary by Ryan Smith. Now it’s centered. They score. Mike Cinger set up beautifully by Victor Klov. But yet another Savers power play and another breakdown in front of DPro blew the tie once again. There were too many breakdowns in front of DPro on the hole, but he held the fort. Time bled and bled off the clock in the third until Brendan Wit jammed home a game-tying goal in the final minute, but it was waved off. The ref lost sight of the puck and Miller was pushed into the net. Seconds later, another defensive breakdown and the dagger. Adding insult to injury, there would be one last controversy to plague the Islanders before all was said and done. Defenseman Shawn Hill would be suspended indefinitely, later defined as 20 games for performance-enhancing drug use. It’s not like he was juicing up on steroids or anything, but the NHL runs a tight ship. The Islanders would be without one of their grittiest defensemen for game five. And in that game five, the inevitable maintains control, walks in front on a back end. He scores. What a job by Drew Stafford here in Buffalo for game number five. A chance right out in front. They score. Jason Palenville. I’ll take it. Another chance. Go to late. TPro doesn’t see it. They score. Derek Roy Thomas sets up a man. They score. Max of cutting it off gets the answer. New York notched a few tallies to make it respectable, but with one final incredible save, Ryan Miller shut the door on the ’07 Islanders. [Music] And that’s it. That’s all. Curtains. A roller coaster for the ages. A season of utter bedum dies in the middle of April in one of the most unremarkable ways with the president’s trophy winning Sabers beating an eight seed in five games. In the end, this season was rendered a faceless footnote. [Music] After everything, who couldn’t help but feel like the Islanders deserved better? Maybe not the cup, maybe not even the series win, but at least a longer or closer series. And it wasn’t to be. Just as quickly as their season had ended, the team was scattered to the win. Ryan Smith was a free agent and he left. Jason Blake was a free agent and he left. Victor Coslov was a free agent and he left. Tom Pod was a free agent and he left. Sean Hill was a free agent and he left. Aaron Asham was a free agent and he left. Alexi Ashen had his contract bought out and never played in another NHL game. The most notable folks to stay were the goalies DPatro and Dublowitz. But in the end, at the beginning of the ‘ 0708 season, the Islanders were back to square one. In the NHL’s rich history, there’s been a lot of craziness, a lot a lot of bad ownership, and sometimes downright malicious and vile ownership that players and fans were powerless to combat. There have been insane contracts and money scandals, gambling suspensions, player disappearances, esqueologgical player emergencies, league dynasties, powder keg riots, earthshattering trades, and storybook endings to magical seasons. And most of these things happened in the 20th century. The earlier back you go, the more insanity you’ll find. But how on earth could all of this happened in one year in 2007 to the islanders? It defies all sense. Over the course of the back nine of the 20th century, recordkeeping and information superighway meant that there was less room and time for mistakes, confusion, cover-ups, and the like. So, the sport became more refined and more defined. This season can’t happen again. Nothing like it will ever happen again. It is the last of its kind. In the age of social media, the revelation of a backup goalie succeeding a 40-day proper GM will never be sudden. A third string goalie will never be able to save the season because his predecessor became a GM out of the blue. 15-year contracts are now impossible. Nobody’s ever going to sign a fivegame contract again. Nobody’s ever going to try back-to-back poke checks in a win or go home game. Going for the playoffs via scrap heap trades when you’re supposed to be tanking would get you eviscerated. A player trying to decapitate another would have seen him assassinated. A city’s most beloved player being traded to a cloutless franchise over pennies would never be tolerated. And all of these things happened at once. This season is never going to happen again. These are the last days of Bedum. And you know what’s funny? To Islanders fans, this felt like a very solitary experience. Nobody watches the Islanders but Islanders fans and whoever they’re playing that night. Especially not in 2007. eyes would every once in a while wander to the tabloids where they’d take up headlines for whatever ridiculous story they were a part of then. But not to the games, not to the zeitgeist. But that may be why this season matters so much more to Long Islanders. Wade Dublowitz fell off the face of the planet when his tenure with the Islanders was over. But the thing is, even for just the four games he won at the end of one season, Islanders fans would love to hear from him. He sent a video message of well-wishes to the island a few years ago in the playoffs. And I don’t think Dublowitz realizes how beloved he is by Islanders fans. I don’t think any of these people do because they did all they could do for the people that they played for. Isn’t that funny that a season like this after seasons like that could unfold before people who still cared, who would still be there? Who would root for them? Who could stomach it? Well, every single game, whose name did they wear? Thank you all so much for watching. I really appreciate it. If you appreciated the video, feel free to like and subscribe. I would also like to thank my patrons, especially FZ, Aiden, Pru, Sarah, Shimu, RJ, Balling, Kitten43, Len Nicoloi, Pier Connor, Wolfie 256, Infernos Gaming, Steelely Dan 32, StuckMund, Pylon, Zin, It’s Me, Kowalsski, Ethan Johnson, Gabriel Orrigo, Amazing Cook 143, and Eric Sheldon.

The further back in NHL history you go, the more insanity you will find. As technology and society have developed, there has been less and less room over time for insane contracts, crazy leadership, off-ice drama, and storybook finishes. The 2007 New York Islanders had all of that happen to them, and then some. They are the final team to court bedlam.

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I want to shout-out some very helpful conslutants for this video: Dan Saraceni and Mike Leboff at @islandersanxiety Jack at @IslesDen and @Sab for the footage. This video wouldn’t get to where it is now without them!

CHAPTERS
00:00 Haunted By Something He Cannot Define
18:50 Reluctantly Crouched At The Starting Line
28:14 No Trophy, No Flowers, No Flashbulbs, No Wine
39:43 Engines Pumping and Thumping In Time
58:42 Fuel Burning Fast On An Empty Tank
1:17:14 Long Ago, Somebody Left With The Cup

Pinholes Graham Hockey is creating long-form, deep-dive hockey documentaries that explore the game’s rich history, weird stories, and statistical analysis & oddities. From legendary rivalries and forgotten Stanley Cup playoff series, to bizarre trivia, to pivotal moments in NHL history, I deliver long-form storytelling that entertains and educates. Whether you’re a die-hard fan or a curious newcomer, I hope to offer a fresh perspective on NHL history and the weird, wonderful world of hockey.

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