But Smith, who remains the only general manager the Rangers have had in the last 66 years to raise the Stanley Cup above his head, lasts only a month?
Could it be because Smith refused to be a puppet, a role that's kept Milbury off the unemployment line and a role Snow has to realize he will be playing on Long Island?
Could it be because Wang -- the same guy who kicked Peter Laviolette to the curb after being the only Isles' coach in nearly a decade to guide the franchise to the postseason -- refuses to stay out of player personnel issues, a subject he knows nothing about?
That's exactly what happened here. Wang claims he's running the Islanders the same way he’d run any other business. Funny, but did Jim Rutherford have to go through five guys before making a deal or signing? Did the Tampa Bay Lightning use this business model in 2004? How about the Devils in '03? Did the Islanders win four straight Stanley Cups from 1980-83 this way?
The answers to the above four questions are: No, no, no and no.
But this model that Wang insists on using in Uniondale clearly shows that the Islanders are light years from winning anything. Until Wang realizes that he can't be involved with such matters, the $95 fans waste to sit in the 300 level will continue to be just that -- a waste.
Until then, it's Wang's way or the Long Island Expressway. Guys like Milbury have no problem with that.
Neil Smith, who, unlike Milbury, knows something about winning, clearly did. And if Ted Nolan wasn't so desperate to coach in the National Hockey League again, he wouldn't be far behind.
It truly is a shame what this franchise has become. Today, nobody knows that better than Smith, who also worked for the Islanders when things were run properly.
These days though, until things change, the Islanders will be the third-best team in the New York metropolitan area.
