The New York Islanders, my first favorite team, are in the midst of an historical run. A once proud franchise, the Isles are 1-17-3 in there last 21 games and the laughingstock of the NHL. For those who don't know much about hockey, the Islanders have earned 5 points out of a possible 42 since October 23. That's about 12% of the total points available to them. What makes it even more disappointing is that the Isles started out the season so promisingly, going 4-1-2 in their first 7 games and earning 10 out of a possible 14 points (71%). What the heck happened???
By most expert accounts, the Islanders were not really considered a playoff team at the beginning of the season. They were a team that finished 30th during the 2008-2009 season and earned themselves the consensus number one overall draft pick - John Tavares. JT, as Isles fans affectionately refer to him, showed promise as a rookie and despite a porous defense and depressing lack of offensive talent, the Isles showed modest improvement under the guidance of coach Scott Gordon and improved by 18 points over the previous season's total. Realistic or not, both the Isles management and players began to send a message to its fans that the 2010-2011 season would be the season the franchise would find itself back in the playoffs.
Those aspirations took a huge hit during the preseason as the Isles' two biggest stars went down with shoulder injuries. Allstar defenseman Mark Streit and budding offensive star Kyle Okposo were considered cornerstones of the Islander rebuild and without them in the lineup, prospects for the upcoming season quickly became gloomy. Despite the injury setback, the Isles came out of the gate HOT and totally overachieved in the first two weeks of the season racking up several heart stopping victories including a 6-4 "W" over their hated rival New York Rangers on Columbus Day. They even played the vaunted Capitals and Penguins to one goal games on the road. Things were looking up, fans were getting excited!
Since then, the Islanders have completely flamed out. They experienced a near franchise record 14 game losing streak in which their coach lost his job and talented youngster Josh Bailey was demoted to the team's AHL affiliate. The team finally earned a "W" by beating the Devils 2-0 over Thanksgiving weekend. Unfortunately, the Devils are the only team within 10 points of the Islanders (they have 20 to the Isles 15). Since the win against the Devils, the Islanders have lost six straight and haven't even gotten to overtime to earn a point. It gets worse. They are 29th in goals scored and 30th in goals against. During this especially putrid 21 game stretch the Islanders have given up 78 goals and have only scored 36. A third of the way into the season they are 21 points out of a playoff spot!!!
Off the ice the team is in just as much disarray. The owner has seemingly given up on caring about the team since he was unable to secure political support to build a mini-city around the Islander complex. The GM acts as if he's guarding the secret formula to Coca-Cola and even revoked media credentials from one of the seemingly four people who actually cover the team because he "was the story" rather than "reporting the story". In an era where NHL teams have to deftly maneuver their roster to avoid exceeding the salary cap, the Islanders maneuver to avoid dipping below the salary floor.
They've got money to spend but no free agent wants to come and play in the Coliseum. In use since the inaugural 1972 season, it is annually voted the worst building in the league. I went to a game earlier this season and walking in there is a complete joke. Granted, it's beautiful to see all the banners and think back to the glory days of the late 70s and early 80s but those days are long gone. There were entire sections that had no one sitting in its seats. What's even sadder is that the actual experience (not the product on the ice) was actually really enjoyable. The Islanders marketing team has done a great job of getting the fans, and more importantly the kids, involved in the game. But, in an almost comical move, the Islanders raised ticket prices this season. Maybe that contributes to the average attendance of 10,711 (66%) through the first 12 home games. If this type of play holds up, be sure to expect that number to get even worse as apathy roots itself into the soul of the diehard Islander fan.
I have tried to be an optimist about the situation. I thought maybe it was because they've had so many road games during the stretch - a tough thing for such a young team. A closer look led me to find out its been 12 road games versus 9 home games, not terribly daunting. So I've come to lean on the fact that 15 of the 21 games have been against, currently as it stands, playoff teams. I guess the experts were right in labeling the Islanders a 13th-15th place team in the Eastern Conference. If you can't compete with playoff teams you can't expect to make the playoffs. Furthermore, it is still an undeniably young team. Presumably, a lot of these guys have never experienced losing on this level. It would be nice if the locker room had a youngster who stepped up and put his foot down on this embarrassment but the stink is so strong right now that no one seems to want to do it.
The Isles play the Ducks, another playoff team, at home tonight. For one, I will be watching to check out rookie standout Cam Fowler, an American-born Notre Dame commit whom the Isles passed over in the 2010 entry draft. All I want for Christmas is an Islander win. Hopefully, I'll get that tonight.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Friday, December 3, 2010
The Myth of Notre Dame's "Easy" Schedule
For the past five years, I've called Chicago home. As a new resident of Chicago quickly finds out, Chicago can definitely double as the center of "Big Ten Country." Whether you're cruising along Clark St. by Wrigley or heading down Lincoln Ave. by DePaul you'd be hard-pressed to go more than 20 feet without seeing a bar sporting some Big Ten school's flag outside its front doors. Chicago also has more than its fair share of "Notre Dame bars" in its northside neighborhoods as well. Thus, while there are certainly strong intra-conference rivalries it seems that every Big Ten school has plenty of venom left over to direct Notre Dame's way.
The thing that irks me the most is the constant complaining people do about the Notre Dame football team's strength of schedule. Everybody, and I mean everybody, loves to point out Notre Dame's willingness to play all three service academies every year. How we stick teams from the Big East on the schedule and how USC is our only tough game of the season. I can only laugh at people who claim that if ND belonged to a conference we'd have a losing record every season.
First off, our only guaranteed annual game against any service academies is the one with Navy. Yes, there are years when Army and Air Force sneak on there but all three in one season, every season? 2006 - that's the last time all three showed up on our schedule. Not too long ago, right? How about 1995 - the previous time ND played all three. And the time before that? Yeah, 1985. So let's tone that speak down a little bit.
As for our games against the perennial weak Big East. While its hard to argue against, people have to realize that we share a conference with them in nearly every other sport. It's kind of like Michigan scheduling "Directional U", Penn St. gearing up to play Temple or Ohio State clearing room on their schedule for the might Penguins from Youngstown St. - a division I-AA school, by the way.
And while we're on the subject of scheduling games against teams from the FCS. Did you know that Notre Dame has never played a team from that division. Moreover, up until 2008 it had only played against four schools not associated with an automatic BCS qualifying conference. The four schools? Well, we've already talked about three of them and BYU - a school that also shares a religious affiliation. Since 2008 SDSU ('08), Nevada ('09), and Utah ('10) have been added to that list.
USC is our only tough game, right? Hey Big Ten, we play three of your schools every year! Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue are annual rivals. Not only that, because of Big Ten conference scheduling rules we have to typically open our season by playing all three of them in September. We don't get to line up the "Little Sisters of the Poor" as Ohio State's president Gordon Gee so aptly referred to a week ago.
So ole Gordo' got me thinking - what do Big Ten strength of schedules look like? I researched Jeff Sagarin's season ending rankings for every season this decade (2001 - 2010) and found some interesting stuff:
Couple things jump out at me in comparing ND versus the Big Ten:
So please, lay the argument down and come at me with something else!
The thing that irks me the most is the constant complaining people do about the Notre Dame football team's strength of schedule. Everybody, and I mean everybody, loves to point out Notre Dame's willingness to play all three service academies every year. How we stick teams from the Big East on the schedule and how USC is our only tough game of the season. I can only laugh at people who claim that if ND belonged to a conference we'd have a losing record every season.
First off, our only guaranteed annual game against any service academies is the one with Navy. Yes, there are years when Army and Air Force sneak on there but all three in one season, every season? 2006 - that's the last time all three showed up on our schedule. Not too long ago, right? How about 1995 - the previous time ND played all three. And the time before that? Yeah, 1985. So let's tone that speak down a little bit.
As for our games against the perennial weak Big East. While its hard to argue against, people have to realize that we share a conference with them in nearly every other sport. It's kind of like Michigan scheduling "Directional U", Penn St. gearing up to play Temple or Ohio State clearing room on their schedule for the might Penguins from Youngstown St. - a division I-AA school, by the way.
And while we're on the subject of scheduling games against teams from the FCS. Did you know that Notre Dame has never played a team from that division. Moreover, up until 2008 it had only played against four schools not associated with an automatic BCS qualifying conference. The four schools? Well, we've already talked about three of them and BYU - a school that also shares a religious affiliation. Since 2008 SDSU ('08), Nevada ('09), and Utah ('10) have been added to that list.
USC is our only tough game, right? Hey Big Ten, we play three of your schools every year! Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue are annual rivals. Not only that, because of Big Ten conference scheduling rules we have to typically open our season by playing all three of them in September. We don't get to line up the "Little Sisters of the Poor" as Ohio State's president Gordon Gee so aptly referred to a week ago.
So ole Gordo' got me thinking - what do Big Ten strength of schedules look like? I researched Jeff Sagarin's season ending rankings for every season this decade (2001 - 2010) and found some interesting stuff:
| Year | Big Ten | Notre Dame | Strongest | Team | Weakest | Team |
| 2010 | 53 | 22 | 27 | Minnesota | 74 | Indiana |
| 2009 | 56 | 37 | 26 | Minnesota | 80 | Northwestern |
| 2008 | 58 | 50 | 41 | MSU | 83 | Indiana |
| 2007 | 60 | 24 | 37 | Michigan | 82 | Indiana |
| 2006 | 41 | 18 | 12 | Michigan | 82 | Wisconsin |
| 2005 | 15 | 14 | 2 | OSU | 39 | Wisconsin |
| 2004 | 49 | 5 | 22 | Iowa | 76 | Illinois |
| 2003 | 34 | 1 | 15 | OSU | 69 | Minnesota |
| 2002 | 35 | 14 | 6 | Michigan | 62 | Minnesota |
| 2001 | 31 | 14 | 3 | PSU | 60 | Minnesota |
Couple things jump out at me in comparing ND versus the Big Ten:
- Notre Dame's SOS averaged 20th over the last decade and was stronger than any other Big Ten school in a single season four times - that's more than any other Big Ten school versus its peers in the same time period.
- Notre Dame's weakest schedule came in 2008 at #50 in the country. From 2001 through 2010 Michigan had the strongest average SOS at #29. Their weakest schedule peaked in 2009 at #72.
- While 2005 clearly seems to be an anomaly, the Big Ten scheduling has gotten weaker when compared to the beginning of the decade. The same could be said for Notre Dame but, with the exception of 2008, our schedule remains significantly stronger than the Big Ten average.
- Against the Big Ten's "upper echelon", let's call them OSU, UM, PSU, Iowa, and Wisco, Notre Dame fairs well too. Only Michigan can claim a SOS that is stronger than ND's more than two times - they did it five times.
So please, lay the argument down and come at me with something else!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Welcoming myself to the world of blogging...
I'm not exactly sure how committed I am to actually doing this over the long term but the internet has proven to be a voice for just about anybody with access to a computer and in a day where "social networking", "status updating" and "posting" reigns supreme I figured it was about time to get in on some of the action.
I'm mildly, at best, interested in Facebook and LinkedIn. It's cool to hop on there every once in a while just to see what old friends are up to. However, I'm more into the email chains. I have to be honest, I love them. Now that I've got a smartphone? You'll be hard pressed to find me not checking email on it. There's always some crazy debate going on and with my group of friends I'd say 90% of the time it is sports related.
And that's where I've gotten this inspiration to start a blog - SPORTS. As much as I love email chains, I'm even more obsessed with sports. Now that the glory days of youth hockey and soccer are long behind me, I'll pretty much follow anything ESPN is throwing at me. I don't know if it's my competitive streak or my love of numbers and stats but I'm just drawn to sports like very few other things in my life.
I've created this blog to just talk sports from a fans perspective. Unfortunately (for me), I have zero insider knowledge of anything that is going on in any sport. Again, I'm just a fan with an opinion who wants to get it out there. I don't even really plan on making this too public so maybe it's just more of an avenue to express what I'm thinking. If someone comes along and wants to throw down on a topic, even better!
Now that I've laid the basis for my blog, let me throw out a few things so you know where I'm coming from:
1. Some of the most poignant first memories of my childhood are sports-related. From Scott Norwood's incredible "Wide Right" to crown the Giants Super Bowl XXV champs to Islander games in Section 305 with the guy in the last row yelling "10 minutes to goooo" every period to being a six-year old and playing soccer on a decrepit field behind a strip mall on Long Island, these are some of the things I'll never forget.
2. I'm an unwavering Islander, Giant, and Met fan. A unique combo for anyone who knows New York sports team affiliations (you're either Mets, Jets, Islanders or Yankees, Giants, Rangers). As much as I love my teams I absolutely loathe the other side. Apologies in advance for any rants or biases that will undoubtedly come up in the future.
3. I graduated from Notre Dame and am as loyal to my school as I am to anything else. Never a college football fan before enrolling there, it has since become my number one passion in the sporting world. Experiencing Notre Dame football is like nothing else and fall Saturday's are dedicated to nothing else but catching the game. Whether it means driving down to South Bend or watching it on TV, there has to be an extremely good reason as to why I'm not watching it.
4. I love hockey, love it. People can joke about hockey all they want. It may very well be the fourth sport of the "Big 4" in North America but to me, it's the best sport. Perhaps I'm biased because I played it for 17 years of my life but there's no denying the passion of a hockey player. There's a reason for the cliched phrase "he's a hockey player" when a player goes down with injury but returns to action without missing a shift - they are some of the toughest guys in sports. They are some of the most athletic too but it goes unnoticed for some reason.
5. This may tie in with my last comment but the Stanley Cup is the greatest trophy in American sports. Why you ask? Well for one, your name, along with the names of all your teammates, is forever etched in its silver rings after you hoist the holy grail. Most guys grow beards during their run to the Cup, a tradition started by my Islanders back in the early 80s. Moreover, I think hockey players care more about winning the Stanley Cup than other athletes care about winning their championship. You don't believe me? Watch the Stanley Cup clinching game in 2011 and tell me you don't get chills watching the pure elation grown men have lifting it over their heads in triumph. Even better, it's been that way forever - Cup Raise and No Words.
6. Tiger Woods is the man. Of course his "transgressions" that led to the fateful 2009 Thanksgiving Weekend "Crash Heard 'Round the World" cannot be condoned. But that's his private life and I don't care what the heck goes on in it. It's none of my business and it should be none of anyone else's business. I consider myself lucky to be around to watch the greatest golfer ever at his peak. Tiger is as cold blooded as it gets and I only hope that he returns to form in 2011. There are myriad reasons for his winless 2010 campaign but now that all the distractions are seemingly behind him, I fully expect Tiger to rededicate himself to absolute dominance. He turns 35 at the end of the month but I truly believe he's got another three years of greatness in him before all the young talent currently on the PGA tour gets a hold of the game.
7. The student-athlete is still around, just not in football or basketball. I find it comical to consider young men who enroll at football-factory and basketball-factory universities "student-athletes". College football and basketball are really the only two revenue producing sports a college might have and the kids who commit to play their respective sport are there for two reasons - to win a championship and to make the school boatloads of money. While some of the players take studies seriously, most are buried in laughable majors that don't get them anywhere post-graduation. For uber-talented basketball players who get to leave after freshman year, most don't even open a book second semester. Part of it might be their fault, part of it the university's fault but either way over the course of four years most guys are wayyyy more "athlete" than they are "student". Most of these players are not going pro and I just don't understand why they don't use their athletic gifts to help propel them towards success when they're done on the field/court.
8. Soccer will never be a domestic mainstream sport. Why? Because frankly, the product sucks. Try watching an MLS game after watching a game from the Premiership or La Liga or, even better, the Champions League. I did this after the World Cup, thinking I'd give the MLS a shot. Now, I love soccer nearly as much as I love hockey, but WOW! I lasted about 7 minutes before I had to change the channel. The US has the best leagues in the world in football, hockey, baseball, and basketball. As far as I can tell, it will never have the best league in soccer. Americans are used to the best and the MLS is just not offering it to them. On top of that, the internet and globalization has made it incredibly easy to follow European soccer so it comes as no surprise that what little domestic interest there is in "the beautiful game" is channeled across the pond to where the best players in the world ply their trade.
9. The NFL has a great thing going right now and I'm worried greed is going to get in the way and saddle its fans (of which I consider myself one) with football-less Sundays in 2011. If history is any indication, CBA negotiations are an 11th hour solution but with the increased attention towards injury and long-term health of its players, the NFL may find itself locked-out if it and its players cannot come to an agreement on what seems to be one of the prime issues in negotiations - expanding to an 18 game season.
10. Lastly (because that's where it belongs!) the NBA is a joke. Is anyone surprised David Stern is looking to cut salaries by 33% when the next CBA negotiations come around? The NBA is losing millions of dollars and has been for the last couple of seasons. Does it come as a surprise that fewer and fewer people want to spend their hard earned dollar on athletes who try, ohhh, about 25% of the time? Michael Jordan, one of the fiercest competitors ever, paved the way for the guys we see out there on the court today. Their athleticism cannot be downplayed but man are they over-payed and over-glorified.
I look forward to expressing my opinion and views going forward. Thanks for reading!
I'm mildly, at best, interested in Facebook and LinkedIn. It's cool to hop on there every once in a while just to see what old friends are up to. However, I'm more into the email chains. I have to be honest, I love them. Now that I've got a smartphone? You'll be hard pressed to find me not checking email on it. There's always some crazy debate going on and with my group of friends I'd say 90% of the time it is sports related.
And that's where I've gotten this inspiration to start a blog - SPORTS. As much as I love email chains, I'm even more obsessed with sports. Now that the glory days of youth hockey and soccer are long behind me, I'll pretty much follow anything ESPN is throwing at me. I don't know if it's my competitive streak or my love of numbers and stats but I'm just drawn to sports like very few other things in my life.
I've created this blog to just talk sports from a fans perspective. Unfortunately (for me), I have zero insider knowledge of anything that is going on in any sport. Again, I'm just a fan with an opinion who wants to get it out there. I don't even really plan on making this too public so maybe it's just more of an avenue to express what I'm thinking. If someone comes along and wants to throw down on a topic, even better!
Now that I've laid the basis for my blog, let me throw out a few things so you know where I'm coming from:
1. Some of the most poignant first memories of my childhood are sports-related. From Scott Norwood's incredible "Wide Right" to crown the Giants Super Bowl XXV champs to Islander games in Section 305 with the guy in the last row yelling "10 minutes to goooo" every period to being a six-year old and playing soccer on a decrepit field behind a strip mall on Long Island, these are some of the things I'll never forget.
2. I'm an unwavering Islander, Giant, and Met fan. A unique combo for anyone who knows New York sports team affiliations (you're either Mets, Jets, Islanders or Yankees, Giants, Rangers). As much as I love my teams I absolutely loathe the other side. Apologies in advance for any rants or biases that will undoubtedly come up in the future.
3. I graduated from Notre Dame and am as loyal to my school as I am to anything else. Never a college football fan before enrolling there, it has since become my number one passion in the sporting world. Experiencing Notre Dame football is like nothing else and fall Saturday's are dedicated to nothing else but catching the game. Whether it means driving down to South Bend or watching it on TV, there has to be an extremely good reason as to why I'm not watching it.
4. I love hockey, love it. People can joke about hockey all they want. It may very well be the fourth sport of the "Big 4" in North America but to me, it's the best sport. Perhaps I'm biased because I played it for 17 years of my life but there's no denying the passion of a hockey player. There's a reason for the cliched phrase "he's a hockey player" when a player goes down with injury but returns to action without missing a shift - they are some of the toughest guys in sports. They are some of the most athletic too but it goes unnoticed for some reason.
5. This may tie in with my last comment but the Stanley Cup is the greatest trophy in American sports. Why you ask? Well for one, your name, along with the names of all your teammates, is forever etched in its silver rings after you hoist the holy grail. Most guys grow beards during their run to the Cup, a tradition started by my Islanders back in the early 80s. Moreover, I think hockey players care more about winning the Stanley Cup than other athletes care about winning their championship. You don't believe me? Watch the Stanley Cup clinching game in 2011 and tell me you don't get chills watching the pure elation grown men have lifting it over their heads in triumph. Even better, it's been that way forever - Cup Raise and No Words.
6. Tiger Woods is the man. Of course his "transgressions" that led to the fateful 2009 Thanksgiving Weekend "Crash Heard 'Round the World" cannot be condoned. But that's his private life and I don't care what the heck goes on in it. It's none of my business and it should be none of anyone else's business. I consider myself lucky to be around to watch the greatest golfer ever at his peak. Tiger is as cold blooded as it gets and I only hope that he returns to form in 2011. There are myriad reasons for his winless 2010 campaign but now that all the distractions are seemingly behind him, I fully expect Tiger to rededicate himself to absolute dominance. He turns 35 at the end of the month but I truly believe he's got another three years of greatness in him before all the young talent currently on the PGA tour gets a hold of the game.
7. The student-athlete is still around, just not in football or basketball. I find it comical to consider young men who enroll at football-factory and basketball-factory universities "student-athletes". College football and basketball are really the only two revenue producing sports a college might have and the kids who commit to play their respective sport are there for two reasons - to win a championship and to make the school boatloads of money. While some of the players take studies seriously, most are buried in laughable majors that don't get them anywhere post-graduation. For uber-talented basketball players who get to leave after freshman year, most don't even open a book second semester. Part of it might be their fault, part of it the university's fault but either way over the course of four years most guys are wayyyy more "athlete" than they are "student". Most of these players are not going pro and I just don't understand why they don't use their athletic gifts to help propel them towards success when they're done on the field/court.
8. Soccer will never be a domestic mainstream sport. Why? Because frankly, the product sucks. Try watching an MLS game after watching a game from the Premiership or La Liga or, even better, the Champions League. I did this after the World Cup, thinking I'd give the MLS a shot. Now, I love soccer nearly as much as I love hockey, but WOW! I lasted about 7 minutes before I had to change the channel. The US has the best leagues in the world in football, hockey, baseball, and basketball. As far as I can tell, it will never have the best league in soccer. Americans are used to the best and the MLS is just not offering it to them. On top of that, the internet and globalization has made it incredibly easy to follow European soccer so it comes as no surprise that what little domestic interest there is in "the beautiful game" is channeled across the pond to where the best players in the world ply their trade.
9. The NFL has a great thing going right now and I'm worried greed is going to get in the way and saddle its fans (of which I consider myself one) with football-less Sundays in 2011. If history is any indication, CBA negotiations are an 11th hour solution but with the increased attention towards injury and long-term health of its players, the NFL may find itself locked-out if it and its players cannot come to an agreement on what seems to be one of the prime issues in negotiations - expanding to an 18 game season.
10. Lastly (because that's where it belongs!) the NBA is a joke. Is anyone surprised David Stern is looking to cut salaries by 33% when the next CBA negotiations come around? The NBA is losing millions of dollars and has been for the last couple of seasons. Does it come as a surprise that fewer and fewer people want to spend their hard earned dollar on athletes who try, ohhh, about 25% of the time? Michael Jordan, one of the fiercest competitors ever, paved the way for the guys we see out there on the court today. Their athleticism cannot be downplayed but man are they over-payed and over-glorified.
I look forward to expressing my opinion and views going forward. Thanks for reading!
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