A New Ice Age on Long Island

Hockey Digest, Nov, 2001 by John Kreiser

With a new coach, two new centers, and a new philosophy, the Islanders hope to make their old losing ways a thing of the past

FOR MIKE MILBURY, THE FUTURE is now--or never. That's what happens when your team hasn't made the playoffs since 1994.

The years since the New York Islanders' last playoff appearance have been filled with musical owners, bad personnel decisions, and empty seats at the Nassau Coliseum, the NHL's most outmoded facility.

The one constant has been Milbury, who was hired to coach in the summer of 1995, became general manager by year's end, and has yet to get the team into the postseason during his tenure. It's been tough to watch for the few remaining Islanders faithful--many of whom remember the early '80s, when the Isles won four consecutive Stanley Cups and were a model for the right way to build a franchise, not the poster boys for running a team into the ground.

The Islanders looked to be on the upswing last summer after showing signs of improvement during the second half of the 1999-00 season. The team finally got stable local ownership when it was purchased by Computer Associates magnates Charles Wang and Sanjay Kumar.

Milbury wheeled and dealed in the summer of 2000, adding veterans to a talented core of young players, then proclaimed that his neck was on the block if the team didn't improve markedly.

Luckily for him, Wang and Kumar didn't take him up on it when the Islanders tanked in 2000-01, opting instead to give Milbury not only a vote of confidence but the money to back it up. So much for potential, they seemed to be saying--it's time for results.

Armed with resources for the first time in his tenure as GM, Milbury went on a weekend whirlwind at the entry draft in Sunrise, Fla., turning the No. 2 overall pick, towering defenseman Zdeno Chara, and forward Bill Muckalt into Alexei Yashin, one of the NHL's elite centers but a player who had numerous contract battles during his time in Ottawa. One day later, he dealt a pair of 1999 first-rounders, Tim Connolly and Taylor Pyatt, to Buffalo for center Michael Peca, who captained the Sabres to the 1999 Stanley Cup Finals but sat out last season in a contract dispute.

The deals represented a 180-degree switch in organizational philosophy and were made with a specific goal in mind: Win now.

"We haven't made the playoffs in a long, long time," says Milbury, who has two years left on his contract and has refrained from putting his neck on the line this year. "We wanted to be a competitive team as fast as we could without giving up the future. We knew we'd have to sacrifice some of the players we'd accumulated through our pain. But we're certainly a much better team than we were."

That's an understatement. Yashin's skills are undeniable--he sat out the 1999-2000 season in a contract squabble, then came back and rang up 40 goals and 88 points. His presence should be a boon for wings like Mariusz Czerkawski and Brad Isbister, whose productivity has been limited by the lack of a skilled playmaker in the middle. Yashin hasn't done well in playoff competition and, thanks to his contract battles, comes with enough off-ice baggage to fill a 747's baggage hold, but at 27, he's a premier player still in his prime.

So is Peca, whose value goes far beyond the 20 goals and 50 points he's likely to contribute or the checking skills that earned him the 1996-97 Selke Trophy as the league's best defensive forward.

More than his on-ice skills, the Islanders wanted a player who could provide leadership in the locker room, something that's been missing on Long Island for years.

The team finished last season without a captain after Kenny Jonsson stepped down in November. Jonsson, a skilled but quiet defenseman, was miscast as a captain anyway--he was reluctant to take on the roles of team spokesman and leader that go with the captaincy. The result: There was no accountability in the locker room as the Isles stumbled to last place in the overall standings.

Milbury spent the spring harping about the need for a player who could step up and take command of a team, someone who "wants to make other guys play better" and would accept the challenge of helping to revive a dormant franchise. He thinks he's found his man in Peca.

"It's an unfortunate thing in pro sports these days--guys don't want to help a situation," says Peca, who's expected to be wearing the captain's "C" when the Islanders take the ice on October 5 at Tampa Bay. "They want to go in where everything is hunky-dory and be in a winning situation right away. I think there's a lot more pride in turning something around."

Coming to the worst team in the NHL "is a challenge, and any self-respecting athlete wants to tackle a challenge like that. One of the things that's sad about pro sports these days is players who insist on going where everything is roses. That's not what I'm all about. I take a lot of pride in helping turn a team around."

Getting things going in the right direction is the assignment handed to new coach Peter Laviolette, who also prefers to look at what the Islanders want to become rather than what they've been.