From Page Six: So who was that commissioner of a professional sports league seen exiting the Atlantic Ave-Barclays Center subway stop and then hurrying across the street to enter the new Brooklyn arena on Friday afternoon?
Why, informants tell us he looked suspiciously like Gary Bettman, who could have been trying to score tickets to the Sept. 28 Jay-Z that will open the arena, might have been checking out the location of the suite from which he would watch the Oct. 2 Islanders-Devils exhibition match if it’s not canceled by a lockout, but may also have been visiting the office of developer and owner Bruce Ratner to chat about the possibility of, oh well, an NHL team moving to Brooklyn.
Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of the Islanders at Nassau Coliseum — the lease expiring in 2015, Charles Wang seeking a new venue for his club and the overburdened suburban taxpayers unlikely to defray the cost of a new arena for the hockey club.
To be sure, there are roadblocks to consider in moving the Islanders to Brooklyn, the least of which by the way is Barclays Center’s seating capacity of less than 15,000 for hockey, because revenue is about gate receipts, not attendance.
There is the literal issue of roads, limited parking and whether folks from the Island would travel by mass transit to watch a transplanted team or whether the franchise would have to develop a new fan base within the city that has longed pledged its allegiance to the Rangers (as the Nets will do within the boroughs that are betrothed to the Knicks).
But it’s a conversation worth having. The Dodgers could have gone to Queens when they instead skedaddled to Los Angeles. It would be an everlasting shame if the Islanders were to go to Quebec (or Seattle) if they instead could move to Brooklyn.
It’s merely a subway ride, as our moles tell us the NHL commissioner took on Friday.
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Impending University of Wisconsin free agent Justin Schultz is the first defenseman on the market the Rangers will target, but if the Badger goes elsewhere, we’re told the Blueshirts are far more likely to investigate the feasibility of trading for Nashville’s restricted free agent Shea Weber than showering potential Predators unrestricted free agent Ryan Suter with a huge offer.
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With Ryan McDonagh and Marc Staal on the left side, the Rangers have pinpointed their need for a right defenseman to stack behind or beside Dan Girardi. That’s the spot played by Schultz and Weber, the spot the Blueshirts believed they had secured before Michael Sauer went down on Dec. 5. Marian Gaborik ’s rehab on his upcoming right shoulder surgery, which probably will keep the first-line sniper sidelined through November, complicates matters for general manager Glen Sather but no more so than the possibility a lockout might mean that Gaborik wouldn’t miss so much as a single game.
The potential of a work stoppage and a redesigned cap, however, also mean that a number of attractive free agents likely are to be available late in the day, the way Michael Nylander was when Sather signed the center to a three-year, $8.9 million deal in August 2004.
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In retrospect, Tim Thomas’ “Aw-shucks” body language upon yielding the winning goal in overtime of Game 7 of the first round to the Capitals on a play that should have been called goaltender interference was a clue that something was off in the netminder’s wiring.
Who knows? Thomas might choose to take an extended sabbatical from the NHL so he can play for the U.S. in the 2014 Olympics even if the league does not send its players to Sochi, which is a real possibility.
This is an issue on which the league and the Players’ Association should form a united front in negotiating with the IOC regarding rights and revenue that the NHL and, by extension, the players, should accrue from participating in the Games.
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No team extended an offer sheet to Steven Stamkos, no team extended an offer sheet to Drew Doughty, so it is impossible to believe that any team would attempt to exploit Boston’s vulnerability by extending an offer sheet to impending restricted free agent goaltender Tuukka Rask. Under the current regulations, Thomas’ $5 million charge would be applied against the Bruins’ cap as an over-35 contract if he chooses to sit out the season, but it is impossible to know the actual ramifications for 2012-13 — similar as relates to Gaborik’s absence, Long Term Injury and the Rangers — until a new labor agreement is carved out.
All of the other great defensemen in NHL history were dynamic whereas Nicklas Lidstrom was all about subtlety. Where then to rank the Red Wing, whose departure leaves a crater in the Detroit room, lineup and organization?
And does it matter beyond stipulating that this classiest of gentlemen — why can’t they all be like him? — is in the class of the greatest of all time?