Lives have been ruined, so this would not rise anywhere close to that level, but the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme that ensnared the Wilpons and has the future of the Mets’ ownership in severe doubt, is all but certain to claim another victim:
The Islanders.
There will be no arena in Queens for Charles Wang or, more importantly, a potential buyer, to move the club to when the Islanders’ lease at the Coliseum expires following the 2014-15 season.
There will be no other arena in the area to house the Islanders, whose current owner has never once indicated he is amenable to discussing an alternative to his DOA Lighthouse project.
Queens represented the best chance to keep the Islanders here, and the Wilpons, who had expressed preliminary interest, represented the best, if not only, chance to get such an arena built.
Given NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s previous testimony under oath in the Coyotes’ case in Phoenix, it wouldn’t have mattered whether Wang would have been a part of it, for a new arena adjacent to Citi Field would have been an appealing enough site to attract buyers committed to keeping the team in New York.
Now, though, the fate of the franchise seems to be entirely in the hands of Wang, who has given no indication whatsoever that he plans to do anything other than run out the clock until the lease expires and then flee.
The Islanders will be without a lease, the Islanders will be without an arena, the Islanders — or the team currently known by that name — will be in Quebec City, in a new arena almost entirely financed by taxpayers with dreams of bringing the NHL back to their wonderful city.
It’s a doomsday scenario for the Islanders, and a nightmare for their fans, who have four years in front of them to watch the sand run through the hourglass, and will have to decide whether it’s worth it to buy tickets and help defray the cost of developing John Tavares and all these draft choices, when another fan base will reap the rewards.
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Mathieu Schneider
, a long-time union activist expected to become a lead member of Donald Fehr
‘s NHLPA administration, told Slap Shots this week the issue of concussions and eliminating head shots from the game is paramount to the players and to the executive director.
“It’s the No. 1 priority on our list right now,” said Schneider, who retired last summer after a 20-year NHL career. “We’re looking to make changes through a combination of equipment changes, rules changes, and a shift in the culture that would make the game safer.”
We’re told by a variety of individuals the Players’ Association would support stiff suspensions for players found guilty of targeting the head, but want assurance sentences would be applied under guidelines requiring consistency; in other words, not 20 games for one player and six for another guilty of essentially the same crime.
We’re told as well the NHLPA is awaiting action and/or recommendations from the league GMs and Board of Governors before proposing specific rule changes through its representation on the competition committee.
It is, by the way, becoming impossible to listen to Penguins coach Dan Bylsma
continue to leap to the defense of Matt Cooke
, all the while enabling the winger’s predatory behavior even as Pittsburgh seethes about the David Steckel
play that has imperiled Sidney Crosby
‘s season.
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Carolina GM Gentleman Jim Rutherford
, whose 2011-12 budget isn’t going to budge whether the Hurricanes make the playoffs or not, is almost certainly going to have to move impending free agent defenseman Joni Pitkanen
, even if that hurts his team’s chances to qualify for the tournament.
The Rangers, who have an assortment of players on Entry Level contracts the cost-conscious ‘Canes covet, should be in on the big, powerful defenseman, who would also improve the power play.
By the way, do you think Kings GM Dean Lombardi
is still leaning back in his chair with his feet up on his desk, laughing at his and his club’s inability to sign Ilya Kovalchuk
as a free agent?
Was poetic justice, wasn’t it, that Leafs GM Brian Burke —
who testified at the Kovalchuk circumvention hearing that No. 17 was in actuality a $10 million player the Devils would be getting at an unfair $6 million cap bargain rate — to see himself proven correct (who said for a change?
) on Thursday with his very own eyes?
It’s understandable Chicago GM Stan Bowman
wants to sign Keith Seabrook
to an extension before his salary arbitration eligible Group II free agency kicks in, but is this really the best time of the year to conduct contract negotiations?
It’s not as if the Blackhawks are going to be playing into June, or anything.
Don’t know about you, but I doubt Alex Kovalev
‘s two seasons in Ottawa would have been any easier for GM Bryan Murray
to swallow no matter how the IIHF would like the NHL to spell the Russian’s name.
There have been plenty of mistakes in Ottawa, Cory Clouston
among them, but did Dany Heatley
destroy that team, or what?
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Finally, from Page Six: Which Mickey Mouse management whose team was on a road trip told a veteran player who had been waived earlier in the day to the spend the night at the airport awaiting an early morning flight to join his AHL team rather than put him up at the team hotel?