There are things I would like to see the Isles and Laviolette do. They must get tougher. Too many times the Isles were pushed around, even with Asham, Goddard and Cairns. Laviolette obviously doesn’t like the fighting but sometimes the Isles are a better physical team than their opponent and they should play that way.

The Isles definitely need to have more faith in some of their players. Watching LaPointe go to Philly and be successful only showed that if you put some of these 4th line players out there with some talent, they can succeed.

The Isles need to get deeper. They need another solid d-man and at least one sniper to play with Yashin. They then can bring Hunter, Papineau and Weinhandl along. These three look to be the most promising of the minor leaguers. Laviolette needs to find the balance between letting these guys learn at the NHL level and not bench them if they make a mistake without making them feel the pressure of having to carry the team like he did with Weinhandl at certain points.

Finally he will have to manage the goalie situation very carefully. It is obvious that DiPietro is the future, but Snow was very solid last year. If they bench Snow in favor of the kid, you lose the ability to have two solid goalies. Laviolette needs to play both guys for the first half of the year to get a good feel for who is playing better and then ride the hot goalie down the stretch into the playoffs.

Milbury needs to acuire a few players and give Laviolette 1 more year. If Laviolette can’t get through the first round, than I think most Islander fans would say a change is needed. But to have a coach who has been with the team only two years, and who is second in wins on the Isles get dismissed considering where this team has come from would not only be unfair, but a waste of money paying the coach to not work.

Yashin is a huge quesition mark and shoud rebate some of his salary.

If they did not have to pay the ridiculous amount of money they give to Ya$hin, they’d have the free cash to go out and get a scorer.

He’s paid double the amount he’s worth. That was by far the most ridiculous contract given to a player…apart from the Ranger$ players (Holik & Kasparaitus).

Ya$hin is not the cornerstone player. Peca is by far a better player overall. No wonder Ya$hin was on the 4th line for a while last year. *lol* 10 million player on the 4th…*lol*

Second, to blame Milbury for trades 3, 4 & 5 years ago is ridiculous. Every single Islander fan at the time of the Bertuzzi trade, hated Bertuzzi. He was a lazy, soft player, and all he did was complain that people expected him to be a Gillies-type player. It was the same situation with Isbister the last two years. Who the hell knew he would blossom into a top power foward in the NHL. Not one of us. As far as Jolkinen, the guy had one career year. Before we bow down before him and consider him a great player, let’s see if he can keep it up.

People need to remember that when we traded Bertuzzi and Jolkinen and a host of other players, those players brought nothing to the table night in and night out. They were lazy, out-of-shape and had no motivation or fire. Milbury brought in a lot of good players. Yeah we gave up Luongo, but we added a 30 goal scorer we desperatley needed. You can’t judge that trade until we see how DiPietro does. And we did get Ozzie who played awesome last year and for stretches this year. Milbury solidified the D-corps, added a true captain and a top goal scorer in Yashin. He added role players like Bates, Blake and Wiemer and also added a great player in Dave Scatchard…for nothing! He added Asham, who may not score 30 goals, but he brings an intensity every night for every game.

The Islanders can’t spend money like the top 5 teams in the league. They can’t overpay for players. They traded everyone in salary dumps because the owners before Wang & Kumar wanted a $15-million dollar payroll.

All the fans calling for Milbury’s head must not remeber the nightmare called the Don Maloney-era. Kirk Muller! – Our Savior…

The Islanders have some good, young talent ready to make the jump to the NHL in Weinhandl, Mapletoft, Hunter and Papineau. They have 4 picks in the first 2 rounds in what some people are calling the deepest draft in decades. There is no doubt that the Isles will add a first line scorer this off season.

As for the coaching, yes, Laviolette needs to improve things. He is a very young coach with limited experience. But I know for a fact that Milbury will not fire him. He knows it will be a step in the wrong direction. The team is on the up and they need a few years of stability. Geez, it’s only been two seasons of success. Two offseasons ago, we had the 2nd overall pick and our leading scorer was Czerkawski. Ask all the Habs fans what they think of him now! The team has come a long way since then, in a very short period of time.

I don’t think any coach could have made Shawn Bates and Jason Blake produce as much as they have the past two seasons.

Who was the last Isles coach to get them in the playoffs?

Who fault is it the Milbury makes horrible trades? (Bertuzzi, Luongo, etc).

I feel sorry for Islander fans that Milbury would get rid of the best coach the Isles have had in a decade all because Milbury isn’t getting the headlines anymore.