A New Ice Age on Long Island

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.

"I expect to win," says the 36-year-old, who dropped into Milbury's lap when his former employers, the Boston Bruins, opted not to hire the assistant coach to replace his boss, Mike Keenan, last spring. "I don't-want to lose-ever. You don't just play for the sake of playing. I didn't come to say .500 is good. You play to win."

Laviolette has a track record of success. He took Providence, the Bruins' AHL team, from a 54-loss season the season before he arrived to a 56-victory campaign and the Calder Cup in his first season. He was rumored to be the top candidate to succeed Keenan, but wound up on Long Island when the Bruins opted to go for a more experienced candidate, former Devils and Kings coach Robbie Ftorek.

To Laviolette, whose NHL playing career consisted of 12 games with the arch-rival Rangers, losing is not an option.

"One of the first things we have to do here is change the atmosphere," he says. "I want to reach each player so he'll, play harder than he though he could play. Most of all, you need heart, passion, and fun, with an emphasis on winning."

Like Laviolette, Peca certainly expects his new team to succeed.

"There's a lot of talent here that's dying to explode," he says. "There's a great opportunity and a great responsibility. I want to help establish that winning becomes a habit We've got to get every one thinking about winning."

Getting two big-name centers may be doing just that After resigning with the Isles during the summer, Czerkawski called the addition of Yashin and Peca, "exactly what we needed. We should be able to compete night in and night out."

But even with Yashin and Peca, the best 1-2 punch the Isles have had in the middle since the early '90s, Laviolette is going to need some time to turn around the NHL's most moribund franchise over the past half-decade. Bad teams don't turn into good ones overnight.

The Islanders still have questions in goal, where journeyman Garth Snow was signed during the offseason to hold the fort in case Rick DiPietro, last year's No. 1 overall pick in the entry draft, isn't ready for the No. 1 job. In his trial by fire during the second haft of the season, DiPietro showed that he's a terrific stick-handler; now he still needs to show he can stop the puck consistently. Milbury would like DiPietro to win the No. 1 job, but is willing to send him to the minors if it's necessary.

The trade of Chara, who led the league in hits in each of the past two seasons, leaves a hole on the blue line, and Czerkawski is the only returning forward who's ever scored more than 25 goals in a season.

But Peca, for one, doesn't feel like he's joining a team that finished 30th in a 30-team league.

"You can't look at it as joining a last-place team," he says. "the Islanders have been very young for the past few years. My new team has Alexei Yashin as its go-to guy on offense and [defensemen] Roman Hamrlik and Kenny Jonsson, plus Brad Isbister, and Rick DiPietro in goal. This is a team that was close last season, and now we're a lot closer."

The philosophical change represents a huge risk for Milbury. At 24, Chara is still growing into his 6'9" body, and Jason Spezza, the player Ottawa picked with the No. 2 overall pick that the Isles surrendered for Yashin, was the top-ranked junior player in North America last season. Connolly, still just 20, has the talent to be an elite offensive player when he matures physically and emotionally. Pyatt, also 20, appeared over matched in his first NHL season, but has the speed and strength to become a top-level power forward.

The Islanders also have a history of being too impatient with their draft picks. 1997 first-rounders Eric Brewer and Roberto Luongo flourished last season after being dealt away from Long Island. Jean-Pierre Dumont, the Isles' top pick in 1996, never played a game for the Islanders, but the 23-year-old could wind up playing on Connolly's line in Buffalo alter scoring 23 goals and 51 points for the Sabres last season.

"The assets we had to give up were painful," Milbury says, "but we've been suffering for a long time on Long Island."

If Milbury has his way, that suffering is about to end.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Century Publishing
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group