I guess you want my reaction on Mr Logan ?

I added some thoughts to this thread to be as fair as possible Friday night and edited a few items also because in my haste to experiment with codes and colors I did not do a very good job on this entry and I was not as fair with Mr Logan as I should have been.

I’m sorry about that and apologize to Mr Logan and the folks who read the earlier entry.
********************************************
All due respect to Greg Logan however I’m not sorry to hear of his departure from the Islanders beat which Mr Botta broke and Katie Strang confirmed.

No doubt this is the right move for everyone involved in my estimation.

Mr Logan is a professional writer with over thirty years experience and it was never his fault he was not a die-hard passionate New York Islander Fan. The job did not require him to be but fair or not that’s what this team desperately needed which made him a bad choice from day one.

I started NYIFC with the viewpoint he did an excellent job his first year.

In the end Mr Logan was simply a case of wrong writer, team and perhaps most of all the wrong era for what was required.

For the same reason it could mean Katie Strang is not the right person either.

Alan Hahn was a die hard Islander fan and things did not end well there either with Mr Botta in April 2006 critical of Newsday coverage. Back before blogs he did a few mailbags a year but in those days Mr Hahn wrote a column for the Sporting news. Peter Botte wrote for faceoff.com on the Isles and if I recall did THN publication reports.

Cutbacks finished all these things for hockey.

That passion I wrote about (above) is how Marc Berman in the Post used to write about this club which you saw recently in a rare article. That’s how Peter Botte covered the team for years when given proper space at the Daily News and that’s what George Vecsey used to give us at the NY Times long ago (with countless other writers over decades) and what Mr Botta has given us at Point Blank over two years and why he has made the connection he has with the fans.

Larry Brooks right or wrong goes all out for his team, his passion is always there.

Let me add all those veteran writers I am praising here never had to blog several times a day in a 24/7 media world now and Mr Brooks has a web editor or someone to do many of the NY Post blog updates. Newsday did not provide Mr Logan any help on a daily basis in that department and when he hit the road he was alone.

Then again it has to be mentioned how someone like Michael Fornabaio did interviews by telephone when the Ct Post did not let him go to Norfolk or the West Coast/Canada last season or blog with everything he could about a game and he’s been the Sound Tigers writer since day one. He has had to change how he does things too and in the AHL there are few plane rides with three games in three days often. Some may recall Mr Fornabaio’s auto accident a few years ago so it does not seem like he has a seat on the bus for road games. Mr Logan was not happy about traveling problems to Edmonton from Colorado one season.

Mr Botta If I recall praised Mr Logan and how he got from Buffalo to Philadelphia for an interview one season.

But that passion has been missing at Newsday under Mr Logan for our team. Was this a fair standard to ask of him? Perhaps not.

Maybe if this team had four daily beatwriters like it used to things would not have been so noticeable.

Some things however were noticeable that go beyond him to the sports department.

I saw our team outblogged by a good five to one ratio by the Ranger counterpart in Mr Zipay at Newsday which sports editor Hank Winnicki (or whoever makes such decisions) should have immediately recognized doubling and even tripling up Islander coverage to supplement the dwindling city space cutting down or outright eliminating Ranger coverage.

At the very least Mr Winnicki (if he had the final call/whoever did) should have switched Mr Logan, a former Ranger beatwriter who appeared on Msg specials back to his former assignment with Steve Zipay moving to the Islander beat.

Mr Logan never seemed to make any attempt to make up the disparity from the city publications with his Newsday blog space.

Is that a lot to ask on my part? Perhaps, however for passionate professional writers about a subject it’s something you feel obligated to do. For a veteran writer from a different generation like Mr Logan blogging is new and more work to do with news breaking at all hours.

There is all the traveling plus a life outside of his assignment.

The point is other teams have that level of information or print space, our team did not.

I wrote game previews and home/road coverage almost every day and I could see the differences between Islander coverage and other clubs whether it be Tarik El-Bashir in Washington, George Richards in Florida or Mr Zipay in the local paper.

We saw it in Newsday too.

Steve Zipay would go cover his team during vacation or on off-days, Mr Logan did a few times and put off vacation when Scott Gordon was hired last August. He also had a lot more comp time he told us he had to take which included long stretches of the season two years ago which he is entitled to like everyone else employed but as a fan it is frustrating to see less coverage.

Newsday opened an NHL blog for Mark Herrmann which had one Islander update and nothing else for close to a month early. Arthur Staple was switched to hockey, Islander coverage did not pick up (Ranger coverage did) and not nearly enough features.

Mr Logan’s fault? Absolutely not.

I would suggest change does not mean enhanced coverage which we heard a decade ago when Sportchannel became Fox Sports Net and now Msg+ whatever. We’ll see if the Newsday peripheral writers like Mr Herrmann, Baumbach or Rieber do a few rip jobs on the club which will let us know who was really behind this change.

What else do you want me to repeat again?

That even before Cablevision bought the paper the staff was made up of former Ranger beatwriters and admitted fans who kept the glass half filled on one club and empty on the other and now that Cablevision owns the paper the writers never are critical of the teams they own but go off on other teams in this market.

Old news.

Having written that Mr Logan at times stepped up his reporting (I remember how he ran down Ryan Smyth in a Minnesota airport after the trade here and got an interview late at night) and did a lot of outstanding features with the kids plus kept pace with the weekly insider but seemed to work hardest on the negative angles whether it be anonymous quotes on coaches or comments on DiPietro’s maturity and health that were over the top in my estimation and stood out too.

Mr Logan’s complaints regarding the NHL injury policy (from league meeting at finals) led to outright daily assaults for a while from the Newsday staff about the Isles which no team with injuries in North America had to endure from their local media here that I saw as out of line which began that June when Mr Logan learned of Guerin-DiPietro summer surgeries,. Perhaps his intention was to provide us information but other teams were not treated like this for following the same league policy.

Mr Logan got it wrong on draft day and called it wrong on other things? Get over it, he did not have to share anything.

You want someone who is generous and tries to give us more whether it’s right or wrong in the end, that’s where he failed most in my estimation. How many times did Mr Zipay ask his readers questions or ask for input to keep conversation going or suggest a player for his team?

How often did Mr Logan?

My Thanks and best of luck to Greg Logan whatever sport or beat he is assigned who many have told me is a gentleman.

You would be completely mistaken thinking my criticism of him was personal or beyond NY Islander hockey content. I only wish I could have praised his work more.

Bottom line:

I’m someone who wrote an amateur fan blog about my favorite team, it’s easy for me to sit on the sidelines and second guess but what I saw from other teams and writers was impossible for me to ignore because our team needed the same thing and there were fair content questions I tried to ask here along the level of a Sandomir, Mushnick, Best or Raissman with my own hockey content.

This blog did daily articles as part of it’s function.

Mr Logan has been a professional writer for over thirty years on an entirely different level covering several sports and has earned respect from the professional media across the board for coverage.

That’s who Greg Logan is and it is something we all should respect.

I would like to see Mr Logan get assigned something he is passionate about but that is likely beyond his control like most writers. Our beatwriter from a decade ago at Newsday (John Valenti) now does the weather.

Finally for those who think it’s impossible to find life-long New York Islander Fans in the professional media today I submit the 8/12 New York Daily News feature here.

You asked, I told and you even got another entry to read.

I got to try out another code for better reading while not changing everything on the side bars but still private or public blog no excuses at all for me doing such a poor initial entry.

New York Islander Fan Central Audio-Podcast Homepage

var addthis_pub=”nyifancentral”;

New York Islander Fan Central

Fact Checking: Gordon-Guerin-Weight & Logan

Being that we do not have a trade to discuss, why not spend the time productively and do a little fact checking for everyone?

Seems the best of Bill Guerin and Doug Weight on Scott Gordon failed to make it into Newsday with Mr Logan writing the words ” Veteran Malcontents ” back on 1/10.

Thoae are his words, no one else.

If I missed any article let me know, I will add it in because I strive to make sure every part of something is included, only way to be fair to everyone.

All I do know is if Mr Logan wrote the words veterans malcontents on 1/10, why did it take him until 3/1 for anonymous quotes to create a feature?

I write NYIFC, you decide as the CNN expression goes.
****************************************************************
Weight to his words
Islanders responding to first-year coach Gordon here.
by Fluto Shinzawa
Boston Globe 11/29

“[Gordon is] very easy to know and very easy to like,” said Weight, who can count Peter Laviolette, another ex-Providence coach, among his former bosses. “That said, he’s a guy that has a tremendous amount of confidence in what he believes in. He believes in accountability, which I think is what makes a team run. He’s put a lot of responsibility on the veterans on this team to buy into that and buy into his system. He’s been honest. He’s been forthright. He’s been very good to us.”
**************************************************
Patriot Ledger
Bruins ruin Scott Gordon’s homecoming here.
by Bob Stern

“He’s very passionate and he’s very detail oriented, but that’s what you need now,” said Guerin. “You need that in the game these days. The better coaches are the better-prepared coaches, and he’s definitely prepared for every practice, every game. He demands a lot out of us, and that’s what you want. You want a guy to push you.”
***********************************************************
Greg Logan in Newsday’s Islander blog 12/28 here.

I wouldn’t be surprised if a part of Guerin would trade places with Bailey right now because the kid’s odometer is only 21 games down the road, while the primary question facing Guerin and Weight coming into this season was how much they have left in their tanks. That question was posed to coach Scott Gordon today, and he chose not to hazard a guess.

“You have to ask them,” Gordon said. “They’re playing here now. I’m not going to predict the future.”

Asked if he expects to land another contract this summer, Guerin said, “Oh, absolutely. I’m going to play as long as I can. When you talk to guys who have retired, that’s the first thing they say is, ‘Play as long as you can.’ Once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

As for whether it will be with the Islanders, he added, “They’re going to play who they want to play and keep who they want to keep. I can only control how I play and how I produce. If I keep doing that, somebody out there is going to want to give you a job. Hopefully, that’s the Islanders, but we’ll see down the road.”

It’s the same with the Islanders. For all the emphasis on youth, it’s the vets who are producing. The kids have been given major roles and are working hard at it, but these things take time. None of them really has earned his stripes just yet. So, there may yet be a meaningful role for Guerin and Weight in the Islanders’ future.

“I would think so,” Guerin said. “I mean, I think our performance kind of speaks for itself in that we have played well. We have lived up to expectations and maybe surpassed them at times.”

Here’s the best part, the message Guerin and Weight have for the Isles’ kids. “We’ve told the younger guys, ‘Don’t wait for us to stop for you to get going. If you can take our job, take it. Because I’m not going to give it to you,’” Guerin said with a laugh. “You know what I mean? That was the challenge Glen Sather said he always said to guys at training camp. ‘If you can take Gretzky’s job, go ahead. Take it. Prove that you’re better than him. If you can take Messier’s job, go ahead. That’s what it’s all about.’ That’s what players have to do. You have to rise up and prove it.”
**********************************************************
Weight, Guerin are used to the trade rumors here.
Newsday 1/6/09
**********************************************************
ISLANDERS INSIDER Islanders are playing for the future here.
Greg Logan, January 10, 2009

“The biggest thing is, with everything we’ve done, I don’t think we ever are going to be able to get a fair assessment of what’s going to work for us and what’s not going to work for us because of the constant change of personnel,” said first-year coach Scott Gordon, whose aggressive forechecking system has been a source of controversy inside the locker room and out.

Following the loss Thursday in Calgary that ended the trip, Gordon suggested he plans to expand roles for his young players even more at some point in the second half of the season. That’s an indication an effort will be made to trade some of the Islanders’ veteran malcontents by the March 4 trade deadline, and it also might reflect an understanding his best hope of getting players to commit to his system lies with young kids hungry for the chance to prove themselves.

Still, it’s a risky process. What if the Isles ultimately miss out on Tavares or Hedman in the lottery? Will they have problems convincing other veteran free agents to join the Islanders next summer if some of their current vets leave the organization disillusioned with the lack of progress and the chance for future success?

These are tough times, and if Gordon and Snow aren’t careful, it can get much worse.
**********************************************************
Isles woeful season is a burden on Captain Guerin here
Sun 11 Jan 2009
Newsday BY JOHN JEANSONNE
There is a public esteem associated with being Captain, of course; a badge of respect and credit. But when a Captain’s ship is listing …

“I have,” Islanders captain Bill Guerin said, “my good days and bad days.”

At 38, Guerin is the senior member of a team increasingly favoring youth. He is the leading goal-scorer, with 13, a steady presence as one of only three Islanders to play in all 42 games this season.

But the team is 12-26-4, dead last in the National Hockey League, a Titanic analogy wounded by what seems only the tip of a disastrous iceberg. In his 17th NHL season, with his seventh team, Guerin is not exactly experiencing the reverence of longevity and accomplishment.

“It’s a big honor to be captain,” he said. “A big honor. I feel a responsibility for the way this has gone this year. I do. It eats at you.”

A captain, Islanders coach Scott Gordon said, “should be an extension of the coach. His thought process should be about how things affect the team, making the team work together and setting the environment where everybody wants to be a part and pull the same way.

“It’s about leading, really. Making sure guys are up and ready and excited to play. Bringing a level of professionalism and leading by example.”

Whatever the blames and causes, though, the kind of fearful trip wracking the Islanders, exacerbated by widespread injury — while “it’s not fun no matter your position on the team,” Gordon noted — becomes an added burden for the guy wearing the ‘C’ on his sweater.

“I try not to bring my work home with me,” Guerin said. “My family does a good job keeping me grounded. But hockey’s a big part of my life.

“Everybody says it’s just a game. It’s just a game for everybody else [outside the team], but it’s my whole life.

“It’s fun. A fantastic life. I have fun every day playing hockey. I never wanted to do anything else. But it’s more than a game. I see people [on nights without a game] on the street at six at night and they’re like, ‘Aren’t you playing tonight?’ Like we just show up a half-hour before a game, like it’s just a beer league. There’s so much more that goes into it.”

For the captain, there not only is the expectation to perform on the ice, but also to be a locker room leader, a primary representative of the team to the public, a player spokesman in dealing with management, an organizer of team social functions.

“The biggest thing,” Gordon said, “is that athletes in general always are concerned about their own production. They have to be. They need some selfishness. But the captain … it’s important he pulls it all together” by worrying about the bigger picture of the team.
***********************************************************
NY Post Dan Martin 1/13/09
GORDON EMBRACING YOUTH here.

Injured veteran Doug Weight has already expressed displeasure about the possibility of having a reduced role and yesterday Bill Guerin , the captain, said he wasn’t pleased with how things were going but could see why Gordon and Co. would come to that decision.

“It’s frustrating, but you deal with it,” Guerin said. “He’s got to do what he feels he has to do or what he wants to do. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

But he didn’t criticize the move.

“I understand it well,” Guerin said. “But it’s their decision. It’s not my choice.”
**************************************************************
Islanders are on a ‘team-building’ run here.
BY JOHN JEANSONNE, February 4, 2009

His public declaration, in the midst of their 2-18-2 drought, that he would look to what he called “the big picture, the development of our young players,” might have sounded as if he were excluding steady veterans Bill Guerin and Doug Weight, both of whom continue to provide much of the team’s meager offensive power.

“It’s not like we abandoned our older players, but we’re giving the opportunity to the younger players. Along the way, I think that made us a better team. Their enthusiasm, coming to the rink every day, there was more bounce in their step. And I liked the way the older guys have responded. They’ve played with more urgency and commitment in small areas. I’ve got to give them credit for that. It was not an easy pill to swallow.”

Gordon’s decision to group his youngest players — Josh Bailey, Kyle Okposo and Blake Comeau — on one line, and his most experienced veterans — Guerin, Weight and Mike Comrie — together on another, might have resulted in a complete flat tire. Instead, “never at any time” did Gordon see a desertion of duty by the veterans, as Guerin continues to interact with all his teammates in the true manner of a captain.

var addthis_pub=”nyifancentral”;

New York Islander Fan Central

Greg Logan goes off at Islanders Policy—-again

Newsday: Apparently Greg Logan decided to finally do some passionate hockey blogging about the Islanders like Steve Zipay does for his team several times a day.

Too bad it was not about the game, how the team played or to profile a player but what amounts to his latest public tantrum about club policy on injuries which began back in June when he found out Guerin-DiPietro had surgery.

His latest is DiPietro may not have been hurt but the team/Gordon/Snow did not want to talk about if he was pulled because the Witt injury was announced in the press box Thursday but not an injury to DiPietro.

Apparently Mr Logan now says he will make his own policy where he says he will insult the Islanders injury reports the way they insult his intelligence and of course played the fan card as if he does this for our benefit?

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I think it’s time Greg Logan find another team to cover, his act has gotten old.

Mr Logan, the team does not trust you or Newsday’s staff for their coverage of our team and I do not blame them. This goes back before the company that decided to regulate television coverage got control of Newsday.

Do not use our fans to act like your doing anything for us when you could not even come close to keeping up with Mr Zipay last year and wanted no part of DiPietro starting the all-star game while Zipay was live-blogging the young-star game for his readers.

If you were here for us we would have seen at least as many blogs and features as the other club in Newsday received last season.

You could not even bother blogging on DiPietro’s injury at the skills competition and ignored the goaltender won six games in a row after the ASG.

You’re all over DiPietro only when it’s bad news and did not dare pull this on Guerin, Comrie, Sillinger, Satan or another veteran who also played hurt and struggled last year so do not mislead our fans claiming you treat everyone the same.

Not so, not even close.

DiPietro lost a member of his family and you turned it into a circus when he did not play, when he returned and struggled you wrote he was hard-headed on 3/20.

You ran to Nolan and made his contract public issue last season over gameday coverage and got everyone talking about it, not the Islanders. Following that you magnified an issue with Dubielewicz out of all proportion where Katie Strang covered a team event the next day and Nolan even said he did know there was a dispute.

You did a fine job stirring the pot on Snow-Nolan not being on the same page to where they finally decided to part company, sometimes all it takes is the media to push a bad relationship over the edge.

Receive any Thank You cards from Ted Nolan lately?

What happened the night in June after the team announced it’s injury policy?

You hooked up with Marc Gandler and we saw false headlines the next day about Yashin that had to be retracted by your paper after an earlier mistake where your paper did a headline Nolan threated veterans with trades.

You did not even bother with a Bergenheim update when you had Gandler so please give everyone a break about what you are doing for our fans.

How many articles so far in the first seven games Bailey may not have been the right choice to stir up the public?

The New York Islanders do not trust you, don’t ever play the card you are here for us because that is an outright lie.

You forgot to write Freddy Meyer was bone-headed for his turnover.

This is what happens folks when one media person covers a team and there is no one in the media to keep him honest. Mr Logan pulled this on the Jets or Coles this week after the Jet receiver was a lot less eloquent than the Islanders five other writers would have blistered Mr Logan because there is media competition with football.

Sorry to write I suspect folks who work well together will stick together here and justice by avalanche will be the rule. When a club is struggling it’s very easy to play the fan card and gain support.

I suspect no team has less trust for it’s beatwriter or it’s local media than the New York Islanders, given I read these articles and post them I do not blame the club one bit.

If Greg Logan does not like it, feel free to put in for another team beat.

He comes off like the Islanders pull what the Knicks do clearing questions/interviews with security following them and even those writers did not go off this often about team/league policy.

But those writers still love the Knicks and that’s the rub, for Greg Logan this is another assignment, nothing more.

Star-Tribune: Michael Russo did not take this kind of unprofessional tantrum when the Wild reported Marian Gaborik was out with his latest injury and listed it as lower body and the general manager did not want to talk. He did not go into a tirade about everyone can figure out where he has been injured.

I think it’s time for a new beatwriter.

addthis_pub = ‘islestigers’;




BallHype Sports Blog Rankings
ballhype_blog_ranking_3731(2);

New York Islander Fan Central

Question about Mr Logan

I received a question today about Mr Logan that asked if I was being fair with him in my blog which I would like to answer to all my readers.

The last thing I want to do is write about Greg Logan in my space here unless it’s to praise a good article but between the poor coverage and what seems like an agenda to stir things up whenever he can, I feel I am given little choice if I am going to hold hockey media coverage under the spotlight.

He may be a very nice person but this is only about his hockey content.

When was the last time this man wrote anything positive about this team beyond a quick paragraph while writers for other teams always talk up the positive?

Outside writers in other cities may get mad at their teams and rip them but they love the teams they cover, that’s why so many of them have been in the same job for decades covering those beats.

All Mr Logan does is make me feel lousy about being a fan of this franchise between his indifference in the club’s lack of coverage and stirring things up. Things are not great but they are not that bad either.

Mr Fornabaio in the Ct Post never makes me feel this way about being a Sound Tiger fan regardless of the record and in my opinion works as hard as someone can to cover a team and does an outstanding job telling the club’s story which is what the Islanders desperately need.

Mr Fornabaio’s enthuisasitc in his work, you can tell he enjoys it and he blogs as if he understands the fans want more and he delivers even now as he tells us the AHL playoff story or anything else happening. It’s fantastic work on every possible level and it makes me want to be a Sound Tiger fan.

For Mr Logan everything seems to have a negative spin behind it and it all comes from his speculation which fans pick up on because he’s the only full time writer and his message is usually the only one sent around the NHL print media world.

Rick DiPietro is the first Islander goalie to start an all-star game and he cannot even be bothered to do some blogs on it?

What’s sad is when some veterans did deserved to be ripped for poor play he wanted no part of it in his coverage even when the coach was ripping them but he seemed to go all out aganinst DiPietro who had a very good second half, statistics aside.

Why the double-standard?

The lack of blogs I think are not fair to our fans. He should understand this beat requires more even if it is just an assigmnent for him. The hard work a year ago to track down Ryan Smyth changing planes on his way here was lacking all season this time around. How can he justify the Isles being outblogged five to one in Newsday by the other hockey writer?

It seems almost everything negative about this franchise comes out of Mr Logan’s personal speculation.

Worst of all Newsday’s lack of features on individual players hurts the club’s marketability in recruiting players from other clubs in free agency. Signing here you will not get any hype which will make money for the player and more interest in the team.

What’s fascinating to me was when the Isles went to Western Canada this season for the first time in years the franchise reconnected with the media up there and got to tell their story without Newsday’s spin from afar and so many people did positive articles after having first hand access to the club.

You can see it now from a lot of outside articles, no one is ripping the Isles like they were doing a year ago. Seeing these people from the Isles in person and telling the club’s story changed the perception of some writers.

I hope that answers your question.

addthis_pub = ‘islestigers’;

New York Islander Fan Central

Figren signed, Mr Botta, Bergenheim, Sillinger

Garth Snow announced the signing of prospect Robin Figren Wednesday on ITV to a three year contract.

Sound Tigers.com: Has Garth Snow’s comments on the signing that he will spend the 2008-09 season with Djurgardens of the Swedish Elite League before returning to North American to complete the last two years of the contract. Assistant General Manager and Director of Amateur Scouting Ryan Jankowski also comment.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Only Kim Johansson and Stefan Ridderwall left to be signed by June 1st.

That’s a huge signing for this club and a skill player to go with Joensuu & Marcinko who are now in the mix with Hennigar and Hillen. It’s disappointing he’s going back to the Elite league for a year as opposed to the AHL.

Islanders website: Has a release with Mike Sillinger appearing on TV55 tonight around 11:20pm for an interview with C.J Papa.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Bergenheim’s WC game with Finland Wednesday will be updated in this thread later today or early tomorrow. Check WC links on sidebar here for reports on the game.

Updated:
Finland moves to 3-0 at the WC with a 3-2 against Slovakia Wednesday. Sean Bergenheim played a little over six minutes with a minus one rating and no shots on goal.

Newsday: Greg Logan blogged again and wrote about Mr Botta’s value to the Islanders, what a great job he did and how much he will be missed by the paper and the organization after he again basically put the blame all on Chris Dey but had no details other than his own opinion/speculation.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Yesterday Mr Logan makes his point to remind everyone Chris Dey is Mr Wang’s son in law, today he’s telling us his relationship to Mr Wang is irrelevant? When he makes up his mind could he keep it to himself now that he has done all he can to stir up everyone against Mr Dey to where he will never be given a fair chance. He just did a wonderful job turning Chris Dey into David Seldin.

I was preparing a blog on all this which I was going to release in a few days but where was Greg Logan when this team honored Mr Botta back in December, how come during the all-star break he did not blog while Mr Botta was in Atlanta doing interviews for our fans, including one with him as his blog sat empty while a New York Islander started the all-star game?

On one hand Mr Logan writes it’s a classic case of philosophical differences and on the other tells us he cannot tell us what they were because he’s not privy to details of the Monday morning meeting between Mr Dey/Mr Botta so why don’t he give it a rest, stop stirring things up with gossip and respect Mr Botta’s decision?

Mr Logan even tells his readers Mr Botta was charmed by Mike Milbury at a time he was not the beatwriter here. All I know in that regard is he stood up for Mike Milbury when Alan Hahn was unfair in his coverage and not only ripped Mr Hahn but Newsday’s coverage of our team that season and he was correct in my estimation.

There have been a lot of fair reasons to question Newsday and Mr Logan for a lot of things this season in their coverage and content.

It’s also nice of Mr Logan to remind us the newspaper market has changed in the past decade and that NHL coverage has suffered terribly but when he’s outblogged in the only paper that covers this club five to one and half the time he cannot stop talking about the bad times how is that helping? He makes no effort to hype up Martinek or anyone who does a good job here or the club when it plays well, more often than not he’s talking about the club’s viability because he cannot be bothered hyping them like other newspapers do for their teams.

Don’t kid yourselves folks, Steve Zipay, Arthur Staple and Mark Herrmann at times were doing cartwheels to hype the Rangers and protect them the last week. The Isles played Buffalo as evenly as the Rangers played Pittsburgh a year ago, lost in five and Mr Logan did no such cartwheels to hype our team at that time as they were in five close games also that were one goal contest or decided by reviews aside from game one.

Mr Logan goes on vacation and Katie Strang does more blogs in the off season than he does during the season?

No folks, I’m tired of reading the defense he writes longer blogs. He cannot even be honest enough with his readers in his profile to tell Islander fans he’s a long-time Ranger beatwriter. Time to drop the pretense.

As for Mr Logan’s assertion the blog box has definitely generated increased attention for the Islanders how could he know this? Is he checking our blogs to see the hit counts or how many responses we all receive or my e-mail box? Or is he talking about Jim Baumbach coming at the trade deadline one time to watch bloggers reactions as opposed to having a second writer give this team more coverage that it desperately needs.

Mr Logan does not even build up the Isles page at Newsday to include media blogs or major hockey websites as Mr Zipay did for his readers. Even Alan Hahn did an occasional mailbag in the paper and went on television for pregames and talked Islanders.

Meanwhile what good is having a beatwriter with so much comp time he’s gone for close to two months of a six month hockey season and the most passionate things he wrote was to rip Chris Simon and complain about his trip from Colorado to Edmonton until he started in on DiPietro/Nolan’s contract and all these so-called rifts?

I can appreciate Mr Logan’s loyalty to Mr Botta, I feel likewise and no doubt many fans will feel the impact of his leaving because he was that good in his work and his dedication to the Islanders. But most of Mr Logan’s content just comes off as a man who wants to stir things up first and foremost and that’s not right or fair.

I’ll release my blog with more of this in a few days. I wanted to let things settle down out of respect to Mr Botta who would be the last one to want any of this.

Chris Botta will be missed, he does not need to leave with the beatwriter turning it into a circus but obviously it already has and that’s also unfortunate.

THN.com: Adam Proteau also had a few words of well-deserved praise for Mr Botta.

THN.com: Ryan Kennedy has Kyle Okposo as his number one hit list graduates in a quick sentence.

addthis_pub = ‘islestigers’;

New York Islander Fan Central

Why can’t hockey writers be questioned?

Globe & Mail: William Houston of the Globe & Mail asks his readers should Hockey Night In Canada commentator Don Cherry be allowed to put down Jermain Franklin, a TSN reporter who asked a question of San Jose Sharks coach Ron Wilson and was ridiculed on Cherry’s Coach’s Corner for doing so.

Mr Houston speculates at TSN, the hockey people are upset with Cherry over his denouncing Franklin on Monday night and says can you imagine TSN’s Mike Milbury airing a clip of a muddled query by Hockey Night host Ron MacLean or one of dozens of leading questions by reporter Cassie Campbell, and then belittling MacLean or Campbell on the air?

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I really have nothing to write about Don Cherry, Ron MacLean or anyone else in terms of what happened in this instance. But I do have to ask why not put the print media under the spotlight and question their hockey viewpoint, what they are asking and why?

Bill Guerin jumped on a Newday writer earlier this year with the Ranger-hangover questions. It was more like the writer had Ranger hangover and after a few questions Guerin got tired of being asked. Any writer asking questions can create any theme they want to an article.

For all the talk of bloggers being fans the only difference seems to me (beyond some professional writers having their credentials) is the bloggers at least wear the teams colors in public.

Seems Newsday pays Steve Zipay to cover media, same for Richard Sandomir in the Times, Bob Raissman in the Daily News and Mr Mushnick over at the Post. Why not do articles questioning the hockey writers and their agenda with coverage and what teams they are die-hard fans of?

Over on the political channels they tell you going in when someone from a media outlet does an interview who they prefer or what party they have a vested interest in.

How come Newsday completely omits Greg Logan’s tenure as a Ranger beatwriter in his profile?

I think it would be great to hire someone to watch the writers work a lockeroom and see who they like vs who they do not like and then follow the coverage. I would love to see who Greg Logan wants to speak with after games and who he goes to for quotes vs who he avoids at all costs.

You could do that with all the local hockey writers. Larry Brooks and Jay Greenberg are visibly disgusted with Rick DiPietro after beating the Rangers and are seeing complaining before leaving the Isles lockeroom without a comment.

Watching Peter Botte and the latest Post part-time writer and who they go to would be more fun than the interviews themselves.

Mr Botta could probably write a book about those kinds of experiences.

You see trends in the reporting, some seem fair, others do not. Writers can make or break players or teams and the fans take everything written (including writer speculation vs actual quotes) as gospel.

If Mr Logan wants to speculate Rick DiPietro is hurt that’s fair enough
(turned out he was right) but when he’s covering games and sees him playing well after the all-star game but the other team simply is scoring on good setups and only goes to the numbers to make a statistical argument he should sit, it’s fair to ask is Mr Logan watching the games or was there an issue between him and the goaltender?

Anyone who thinks for a minute sportswriters do not rip players or create issues with players they do not get along with do not understand these writers want quotes, have deadlines and there are some players or teams they simply do not like.

Sports editors and publishers push these folks to stir things up as well to sell papers, a majority of this kind of coverage usually comes from that.

And sure you can bet some players want no part of some writers or any writer.

Of course Isles are not like other clubs where the writers compete with each other but still there is pressure to produce quotes and information.

In the Isles lockeroom the Newsday beatwriter can make or break you as what’s written usually is what’s quoted in the Canadian press and websites which gives fans their perception of a player. It’s why a Radek Martinek can only be under-rated if he’s playing well in league circles.

Alexei Yashin was someone who did not fill Alan Hahn’s quotebook so he was not protected by the former beatwriter. Mr Hahn flat out misreported Mark Parrish signed only a one year extension in August 2005 and speculated he only took a year because of Yashin.

Sounded nice at the time but the only problem was Parrish did not sign, he signed in September just before the club left for camp. Mr Hahn was so busy running down Yashin in print (who was just named captain) he did not even bother to correct himself.

Mr Botta later ripped Alan Hahn and questioned Newsday’s overall coverage back on April 7th 2006 here so it’s not something new that I’m introducing here.

Same thing with Mr Logan and Ted Nolan’s contract. Out of nowhere the coaches contract becomes this big issue because Mr Logan seemed to want to make it an issue. Ted Nolan said he did not have an agent but next thing we know game day coverage is not even written for articles about so-called rifts where the coach could be leaving or fired?

All Ted Nolan said was he has not met with the club about a contract extension, he was asked and gave an answer. What’s the man supposed to do, lie or not answer the question? I guess he did not repeat Garth Snow’s comments that management contracts are not for the public discussion.

To me that is simply poor journalism designed to stir things up and makes me question the writer. If Ted Nolan went to Mr Logan and said he feels he deserves a contract extension that’s another matter and fair game.

What I do not like about Mr Logan’s work most is he seemed to go out of his way to portray DiPietro as someone hurting his team by playing and created this entire issue about his games being cut back, despite playing as much as he did a year ago and facing close to two hundred less shots (something Mr Logan never wrote once) but not a single time did he write the other veterans were hurting the club by continuing to play while injured.

In fact he seemed to bend over backwards to protect the veterans in Newsday, but not Rick DiPietro. Even when Ted Nolan was blowing up at them the final days.

Doesn’t that work both ways?

It’s almost funny seeing Ted Nolan’s answer when pressed about how many games Rick DiPietro should play next year because it’s something he cannot answer for certain in advance nor should he even try. I guess that’s why he jokes about him playing eight one games instead of eighty two.

I got an e-mail asking why I’m critical of Mr Logan and some of the writers recently?

All I can tell you is what I told the person who wrote me, I do things based on the article for that day. One day I can be critical, the next I have written the writer has done a good job with a lot of information. It’s up to them and have credited Mr Logan for good work on a lot of occasions also. I defended Greg Logan for the headline writer making a mistake about Nolan threatening trades (which Mr Logan talked about) and I never criticize a writer for space given to them in a paper for coverage.

I see someone like Mr Fornabaio at the Ct Post and I honestly cannot recall one instance where he wrote something to stir something up. He covers the games, writes the comments and does his own speculation but I have never seen him write to create an issue.

That’s why I think his work is excellent. The hockey tells the story.

New York Islander Fan Central

Zipay vs Logan: Passion vs Paycheck II

Earlier this year I did a blog and titled it Logan vs Zipay, Paycheck vs Passion
here and today I feel the need to do a second one being that Mr Zipay’s page is among the most post popular pages at Newsday.

Steve Zipay yesterday thanked his readers for how popular his blog has become at Newsday here with the latest news, updates, commentary and other observations from the Garden, the morning skates and on the road and tell his readers to sample newsday.com’s other Ranger centric blogs, to the left of the page.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
It should be noted that the Islander blog roll on the our teams page is completely empty which begs the question why can’t Mr Logan or someone put some time in linking to Islander pages if he’s doing what he claims is all he can for our fans to increase coverage? Clearly the beat writer has some control here because Mr Zipay told the fans earlier this year he intended to build up the Ranger page.

All due respect to Mr Botta’s opinion of Greg Logan’s efforts but I think there is no excuse for the Islander page not having Islander blogs or websites listed. If the Islanders disagree with me here, so be it, but why not create an Islander blogroll on the newsday page unless the plan is to keep folks from visiting or Mr Logan just does not care to be bothered.

Am I asking for something that unreasonable given I link things to this blog all the time and it takes only a few minutes? I don’t think so.

Mr Logan told us last season increased page hits and views last year as a reason for the club being provided more print space in the paper, especially when the club traded for Ryan Smyth. So how come he’s not doing more to increase page hits and views by adding Islander related sites to an empty Islander page and game day blogs with reports on the morning skates as Mr Zipay does?

Put Mr Botta’s blog there or Cory Witt or anyone. I could care less who they add but there is no excuse one page is full of updates blogs with links to hockey sites helping to create page views while the so-called home paper to the Islanders is not doing the same thing.

Makes me go back to Part One, Paycheck vs Passion.

Let’s see the Islander page at Newsday set records for hits and views next month, let’s get two blogs a day and a full blog roll for the fans.

New York Islander Fan Central

Newsday’s Islander blog fails fans in January

Neil Best: Who does the media blog for Newsday and wrote recently he is a Ranger fan since he was a teenager here reports in the Islanders primary paper and the only one with a blog on the club the January page views are in, and for the first time in its nine-month history, WatchDog topped all Newsday sports blogs with the Ranger blog by Steve Zipay was a close second and the Giants blog a close third.

Both set new monthly highs.

Oh yes, Mr Zipay had two blogs from practice on the Rangers day off. Islander fans got Erik Boland who did a quick newspaper update and no blog update.

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Is this what Greg Logan meant in his recent q/a with Chris Botta during the all-star weekend here
when he wrote:

As the primary news reporting source on the Islanders, I feel an even stronger obligation to the fans to provide as much information as possible because I sense how much they are relying on Newsday for insight.

Call me incorrect but I think if Newsday did Islander blogs with practice reports, in-game reports and game notes and even some postgame as Mr Zipay does for his beat several times a day Islander readership would be stronger at Newsday and call for more coverage space in the paper.

Isn’t that what primary sources of information are supposed to provide?

I don’t care of it’s Greg Logan, Mark Herrmann, Erik Boland, Katie Stang or whoever doing the Islander blogging but the best way to keep page views down is not to give the readers a constant influx of information.

New York Islander Fan Central

Islander News Articles 1/27

Islanders website/Point Blank: Report Rick DiPietro will start the all-star game tonight in Atlanta with Chris Botta’s Point Blank leading the coverage with several interviews and updates.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio’s game article is how the Sound Tigers scored the tying goal with forty seven seconds left and won the game in a shootout with comments from Jack Capuano, Steve Regier and goaltender Mike Morrison on how the team stuck together and worked well.

Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio has an article on Jeff Tambellini who will appear in the skills competition tonight for the Canadian All-Stars in Binghamton, N.Y.; tonight’s skills contest begins the festivities, and the All-Star Game is Monday night.

The American Hockey League via it’s B2 Network is offering the skills competition Sunday night and the game Monday night free to everyone
here which also includes all television outlets that will carry the skills competition and the game.

AHL.com: Reports Jeff Tambellini will participate in the following events at the skills competition tonight:
Event 2 – CCM U+ Skate Fastest Skater
Event 3 – CCM U+ Stick Rapid Fire
Event 7 – Toyota Breakaway Relay

NYI Fan Central Comments:
I wonder why Dave Andrews and the folks in the AHL who make these decisions decided to put the skills competiton on the same day as the NHL All-Star game? Considering the AHL wraps up it’s regular season a week after the NHL was there some reason they could not format this better so NHL fans could watch both on seperate days?

Should be noted Ranger beat writer Steve Zipay has had four blogs since all-star weekend began and did a brief write up on the Rangers at the Young Stars. Meanwhile the Islander franchise goaltender is hurting during the skills competition and Mr Logan who made a lot of claims about the club’s improved coverage to Chris Botta in an e-mail interview is AWOL aside from the stock article written before the skills competition.

Anyone else think Mr Logan could have taped the event if he did not have time to watch it Saturday and update his blog this morning for the fans? That’s what I do for this blog at times when I cannot see a game live.

Newsday had space in it’s papers today for the Sunday NHL feature which of course had no mention of the Islanders.

New York Islander Fan Central

Constructive Criticism

Point Blank: Chris Botta did an e-mail interview with Greg Logan which he put on his blog several questions and answers about the teams beat.

It’s only appropriate a blog that puts the media coverage of our team under the spotlight responds and asks the tough questions.

First let me write going into this that Greg Logan is not the sports editor at Newsday in control of how much space the team is permitted or what the sports department decides to give him in terms of coverage space. As I have written several times he’s not required to be a New York Islander fan as part of his job which unfortunately for our fans seems very apparent and given his long experience no writer can be fans of every subject they are assigned.

Mr Logan responded to Mr Botta and wrote:

I feel an even stronger obligation to the fans to provide as much information as possible because I sense how much they are relying on Newsday for insight.

New York Islander Fan Central strongly disagrees with this statement.

When Steve Zipay writes triple the blogs Mr Logan does most days and dresses up the Ranger page at Newsday with links and information (which he said he was able to do) while a team with Four Stanley Cups and this clubs incredible history is not even a footnote and who’s team page looks terrible. I disagree he does any more than what’s required of him by his job description.

Newsday’s Ranger page is even linked to the Hartford Wolfpack coverage while the best writer in the AHL at the Ct Post in Michael Fornabaio’s work is not featured on the Islander page.

I’m also highly skeptical Newsday’s Islander blog cost Mr Logan or the sports editor anything more than time it takes to write it at a small price. I have seen a marginal improvement in this regard since the Canada road trip with a blog appearing around 5pm most days but it’s nothing close to the blanket coverage Mr Zipay is providing from morning skates to in game and even some post-game blogs.

I’m also not a big fan of Mr Logan’s statement this teams beat needed rebuilding considering Alan Hahn for most of his time had an infrequent mailbag that Mr Logan has not been provided and that the Islanders occupy a special place on Long Island as if the club does not occupy a special place in New York?

If the Giants occupy a special place in Newsday coverage and play in the New Jersey Meadowlands perhaps Mr Logan would care to acknowledge the large Islander contingent at the Meadowlands and the Garden for games mandates a priority?

Given Mr Botta was critical of Alan Hahn on the club’s website in March of 2006 for some comments about Mike Milbury, it’s fair to speculate Newsday’s relationship with the club was not good for a short time but I have seen nothing different in terms of space provided since the previous writer moved onto the Knicks beat. Come playoff time on Mr Hahn’s beat you saw blanket Islander coverage so I’m a little unsure what Mr Logan felt needed to be rebuilt between Newsday and the fans?

Mr Logan wrote:

But from Day 1 on this beat, I recognized how much passion was out there waiting to be tapped. I checked the fan Web sites to get a sense of what issues concerned Islanders fans not only in relation to the team but to the coverage of the team as well. If you go back and check the first two blogs I ever wrote on Islanders Beat, I let everyone know my experience with the Islanders dynasty of the past to assure them of my appreciation for the history of this franchise, and then, I promised in the second blog to do what I could to expand coverage of the Islanders. I followed through by taking a different approach with the blog to supplement coverage in the paper with what amounted to full-length articles on a variety of subjects on the blog. The feedback I’ve received from the fans has been overwhelmingly positive, and 90 percent of the criticism has been constructive. I consider my relationship with Islanders fans to be a vital part of the job. We’re not always going to agree on the issues, but we’re going to keep the conversation going and I believe the coverage has responded, in many cases, by attempting to answer the fans’ most pressing questions..

It’s absolutely true Mr Logan’s blog updates are like full articles and far longer than Mr Zipay’s shorter blogs where he provides several frequent updates. Having written that Islander fans still go days between updates and longer blogs should not mean less blogs. I have seen no increased expansion in print from Mr Hahn’s or even John Valenti’s tenure on the beat and I see nothing special from Mr Logan in terms of making up for what the city beats are not providing in his space which he seems to have no interest in doing which may be unfair of me to ask but should be suggested.

What I have also seen is no Johnette Howard, Joe Gergen, Shawn Powell coverage with only Mark Herrmann when he’s not subbing for Mr Logan doing additional features for major events.

Also for Mr Logan to make light of the fact Giants coverage only eliminates the Islander notebook means it only eliminated about fifty percent of the coverage which is a very big deal and suggests he does not have a good grasp of how important more coverage is necessary for this team to draw attention which sells tickets and increases revenue which attracts free agents. Given Mr Logan at times has written about the club’s viability in this market he should be the first to tell us coverage is critical and losing fifty percent for even a few days is a very big deal.

All I can add to this is what I have been writing all along. This team needs a passionate Islander fan in the beat at Newsday. Just like you see John Dellapina, Sam Weinman, Larry Brooks after their team plays games whether it be positive or critical because winning and losing does matter for them as fans.

Greg Logan has written two passionate things to me all season. First was his comments about Chris Simon being suspended, second was traveling to Edmonton from Colorado.

Not personal on my part but constructive criticism that does have to be written or I would not be doing my part as someone writing about this teams media coverage and looking to see it expanded.

As for Newsday’s sports editor there is no excuse that can be made for the paper not being in Atlanta to cover Rick DiPietro at the all-star game. We will see a stock feature Sunday in Newsday.

We will not see Islander-centric coverage.

New York Islander Fan Central