12/18/24
January 12, 2006
Islander coach Steve Sterling fired.: Constantly underachiving in season in which they had high hopes, Milbury was forced to fire Sterling to "send a message". This comes on the heals of trading Janne Niinimaa for a bag of pucks.
Scapegoat Steve Sterling. Well at least he got a chance to coach in the NHL. So I guess they just fired him instead of sending him back down to the AHL. We all know it's always the coaches fault and never the GM. Unless your in Philly, there you can also blame it on the goalies. "If the game was that easy we wouldn't need coaches, we would just need players" - Larry Robinson, 2000 playoffs
posted by njsk8r20 at 10:32 AM on January 12, 2006
Milbury is letting himself go as well. I wonder who will want to come in and clean up his mess? Also, current assistant coach Shaw will be taking the reins.
posted by garfield at 11:04 AM on January 12, 2006
Milbury is letting himself go as well. "New York, fourth in the Atlantic Division, has lost three straight and finds itself four games under .500 with a record of 18-22-2" That third number is OT/SO losses and not ties, so they are actually 6 games under .500 Why does everybody pad that stat?
posted by njsk8r20 at 11:18 AM on January 12, 2006
I wonder who will want to come in and clean up his mess? Brent Sutter?
posted by DrJohnEvans at 11:18 AM on January 12, 2006
Milbury's made a real mess of it there. I hope they find someone good. Charles Wang seems like a good owner. I had a lot of concerns about him & Kumar when they started, but I'd trust him to hire a good GM and give him the room to overhaul the Isles and make them good again. Brent Sutter would be a fine choice for GM or coach, but not both. (That trick doesn't work anymore. The workload is too great.)
posted by chicobangs at 11:22 AM on January 12, 2006
Milbury is letting himself go as well. I thought you meant his weight, then I clicked on the link.
posted by HATER 187 at 11:25 AM on January 12, 2006
That third number is OT/SO losses and not ties, so they are actually 6 games under .500 Why does everybody pad that stat? Technically, you get half the points for an OT/SO loss as you would for a win, so it's not padding stats. You could have a team go 0-0-82, and they would be a .500 team, by virtue of getting 50% of the maximum 164 points... On the subject of who should take over, I say it's time a pro team hire a collective of fantasy owners to GM their team, and the Islanders right now are as good a place to start as any. I mean, the 20 people we have in the SpoFi league couldn't cock this team up any more than it already is, could we?
posted by MeatSaber at 11:27 AM on January 12, 2006
Milbury is letting himself go as well. About time. You could have a team go 0-0-82, and they would be a .500 team, by virtue of getting 50% of the maximum 164 points... Which is exactly why that sometimes-3-points-a-game system is absurd.
posted by qbert72 at 11:51 AM on January 12, 2006
Brent Sutter would be a fine choice for GM or coach, but not both. (That trick doesn't work anymore. The workload is too great.) Brother Darryl seems to be doing okay out west. I mean, the 20 people we have in the SpoFi league couldn't cock this team up any more than it already is, could we? Sure. Then again, my roster features four Calgary Flames, who apparently have signed a pact with the devil offering them guaranteed wins in exchange for not scoring more than TWO BLOODY GOALS A GAME. So it might take some work.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 11:54 AM on January 12, 2006
I mean, the 20 people we have in the SpoFi league couldn't cock this team up any more than it already is, could we? I would trade for Mogilny, of course. That kid is red hot.
posted by qbert72 at 12:08 PM on January 12, 2006
I've actually got Rick DiPietro on IR right now. Can we hold off until he gets healthy again? It'll look good on our record. Let the interim guy, Shaw, take the heat until then, and then we can step in like the cavalry or something and ride this lame duck a few rounds into the playoffs DON'T THINK IT WON'T HAPPEN
posted by chicobangs at 12:22 PM on January 12, 2006
I thought you meant his weight, then I clicked on the link. glad i'm not the only schmuck who thought that. (i also thought that DrJohn wrote Bruce Sutter.)
posted by goddam at 12:30 PM on January 12, 2006
Happy to hear Milbury's out. Worst GM EVER. You could fill out an entire All-Star team roster with the players he's cast aside. Now if only Yashin would agree to a contract, er, "restructuring", this team might have a chance in the next twenty years.
posted by Succa at 12:52 PM on January 12, 2006
You could have a team go 0-0-82, and they would be a .500 team, by virtue of getting 50% of the maximum 164 points... The .500 stat is win%, not point%. Which is exactly why that sometimes-3-points-a-game system is absurd. I have to agree. Brent Sutter would be a fine choice for GM or coach, but not both. (That trick doesn't work anymore. The workload is too great.) W/ the right assistant coaches I think it could work. Lou Lamoriello seems to be doing an O.K. job.
posted by njsk8r20 at 12:59 PM on January 12, 2006
Well, as a short-term thing it's fine, but one job or the other tends to suffer. Lamoriello's only been in both jobs for a month. Come the first slump or the trading deadline, I'd wager he's going to drop the ball somewhere, either behind the bench, at the practice rink, or in the office. If Darryl Sutter's doing alright, well, good on him, but I'm just naturally wary of that kind of setup.
posted by chicobangs at 01:03 PM on January 12, 2006
Happy to hear Milbury's out. Worst GM EVER. You could fill out an entire All-Star team roster with the players he's cast aside. Me, I'll miss Milbury. The Sens have him to thank for Redden, Chara, and Spezza, not to mention taking Yashin off our hands.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 01:06 PM on January 12, 2006
The Islanders need a coach like this.
posted by njsk8r20 at 01:28 PM on January 12, 2006
Well, after last night's sorry excuse for a performance, he might be available.
posted by chicobangs at 01:42 PM on January 12, 2006
Is it just me, or are hockey threads around here ridiculously awesome?
posted by DrJohnEvans at 02:08 PM on January 12, 2006
I've been petitioning to ban all other sports because hockey is far and away superior to them all.
posted by garfield at 02:18 PM on January 12, 2006
But then what would we watch during the offseason?
posted by njsk8r20 at 02:24 PM on January 12, 2006
Classic NHL games, without ads on the boards or ice, of course.
posted by garfield at 02:33 PM on January 12, 2006
Also: Eric Brewer, Ollie Jokinen, Roberto Luongo, Brian McCabe, Kevin Weekes, Todd Bertuzzi, Darius Kasparitis, Ziggy Palffy. And didn't he take DiPietro over Heatley in the draft?
posted by fabulon7 at 02:50 PM on January 12, 2006
Classic NHL games, without ads on the boards or ice, of course. I have the entire 1972 Summit Series on DVD. Digitally restored original footage.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 02:57 PM on January 12, 2006
I have the Devils' 1995, 2000, & 2003 championship videos, but superstition will not allow me to watch them during the NHL season & playoffs.
posted by njsk8r20 at 03:04 PM on January 12, 2006
We may not be able to keep the discussion level high in every thread, but when it comes to hockey talk, I don't believe anyone does it better. (I'm sure it's just coincidence that the Espen wags often find bon mots in their mouths that were first typed out here, especially about the NHL. Word seems to have gotten ... Around.) Actually, without looking, it's possible that DiPietro is the closest thing to a success story Milbury's had. (Is Luongo a better goalie? Well, yeah, but that could have gone either way, and DiPietro's a top-15 goalie even now, well, after her gets off the injured list.) (Did I mention he was on the IR? I did. It pisses me off.)
posted by chicobangs at 03:26 PM on January 12, 2006
I'm sure it's just coincidence that the Espen wags often find bon mots in their mouths that were first typed out here, especially about the NHL. Word seems to have gotten ... Around. Are you serious? I did not know that. Milbury is definitely the worst GM in my lifetime. I'd agree with chico about DePietro being his only good legacy. As for the Isles' coaching gig, how come we haven't mentioned Ted Nolan yet? He'd be the SpoFiGM pick for sure.
posted by qbert72 at 03:40 PM on January 12, 2006
chico, got any examples? qbert, thanks for keeping his name near the top of the list. NOLAN! NOLAN! NOLAN!
posted by garfield at 03:46 PM on January 12, 2006
Not at hand, though the Habs-intruder discussion on AtH mentioned both the untended rebound and crashing a NASCAR race, and the Bruce Sutter segment was as much about Blyleven missing out and McGwire waiting until his second year as it was about Sutter (or even Gossage), which I found kind of curious. It might just be in my mind. I'll start monitoring it a lot closer, now that my rep is on the line.
posted by chicobangs at 04:56 PM on January 12, 2006
I could write a bookmarklet which you would use whenever you found a potential piece of such plagiarism on a mainstream sports news site. It would automatically create a Locker Room thread for discussion about, and, I don't know, speed-dial the lawyers or something.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 08:55 AM on January 13, 2006
The Islanders are a team in need of a MAJOR overhaul. Short of executing Yashin, Kavasha and Satan they're stuck with these of soft, floaters I ususally think firing a coach because of personell problems is wrong but in this case Sterling deserved it. He could not stop his defense men from taking bad penalties. Milbury's ass is all wet for the Laviolette firing. I'm the only one who thinks Mad Mike is the worst GM in the NHL?