Um, I am an Islanders fan...it has been 3 and a half months since I watched an Islanders game. I am a dyed in the wool sweater lslanders fan. More than any team, they are by far the favorite. How does someone become an Islanders fan anyway? Well for me it worked this way:
1975, I was in the 4th grade. Billy Harris - the Isles 1st ever #1 draft choice came to my school for father and son night. My Dad, my brother and I watched as Harris played game film from the years improbable playoff run. The Isles beat the favored Rangers in OT on JP Parise's game winner. That would have been as much as an Islanders fan could have asked for. But they had more...The next series, they fell behind the Pens 3 games to none and came back to win the series. Then in the next series they fell behind 3 games to none against the Flyers...rallied to tie the series and then fell to the team that would win the cup. Exciting stuff for a young fan...it was fun watching and hearing Harris comment. I also won a street hockey stick for a door prize...it was cemented...an Islanders fan for life.
The team was up and coming ...Potvin, Gillies, Nystrom and Resch. Add Trottier and Bossy in the next 2 years and the epic battles with the Canadiens of Dryden, Robinson and Guy LaFleur. (Drydens book "the Game" is a great read for an Isles fan).
1980 they finally win the cup and become 4 time champs in 1983. It is a great time on LI! 1984 - the drive for 5...falls short. Was it Bossy's bad back, Potvins dad's death or the inevitable changing of the guard to the Oilers young talent (Gretzky, Messier, Fuhr, Lowe, Kurri).
Then the decline...hard time for Isles fans a brief glimpse of hope in 1993...possibly derailed by a cheap shot from Dale Hunter on Pierre Turgeon...and then more disappointment. Currently we have an exciting goaltender, a nice prospect in Okposo and until today a coach who squeezed some respectability out of a clearly lower echelon team. They competed. Despite not having the sniper or the prototypical power play QB. The guy who was a backup goalie a couple of years ago fired the best coach they had in years. Did he have an ego - sure probably. Will they find someone who will do a good job...maybe, but somehow I doubt it.
How much longer can I get excited about a team that loses and when they start to make some moves to improve, shoot themselves in the foot? Wang is no Islander...I am an angry fan right now