"No franchise in the league needs more help than the Islanders, the team that time has forgotten. And no city could do more with the spotlight [of a Rangers/Islanders Winter Classic] than New York. The biggest market could use some love once in a while, too."
"The {Phoenix] Coyotes operate under an onerous lease. But that's exactly what previous owner Steve Ellman signed on for in exchange for his land-grab in Glendale, which was exactly the wrong spot to build a new arena and everyone but everyone knew it. Ellman didn't care. He got his land. But now the NHL is supposed to bail out the franchise? Now the NHL is supposed to pump money into an organization that, somehow, is paying head coach Wayne Gretzky more than $5.5M this year and will pay Gretzky between $7-and-8M next season? Please."
Bet you're thinking these are unrelated comments from unrelated writers. Well, you'd be wrong. They would have been penned by the same hand -- the first on January 18th, the second only last weekend.
And yes, both come courtesy of New York's enthusiastic ambassador for...New York, the New York Post's own Larry Brooks.
Seems it's just fine for the league to put the 2010 Winter Classic outdoor game in New York for what is likely to be a deadly dull matchup between the Islanders and the Rangers just to save what looks to be a dying franchise on Long Island. It's just fine in Larry World (otherwise know as, "New York") for the league to forego ad revenue that a more attractive matchup might realize (and perhaps some potential additional ad buzz if the game is a hit). Brooks as much as acknowledges that a Caps/Penguins game -- the example he cited -- would generate higher ratings. But save Phoenix? Surely, you jest.
We're not of a mind to have the league pour money down a rat hole in the desert any more than we are for them to pour it into Long Island. Of course, we're not of a mind to actually commit to print this sort of chuckle, either...
"Tampa Bay management can deny, deny, deny in the best tradition of all sorts of scoundrels, but it is most certainly true that 2008 first-overall draft pick Steven Stamkos is available for trade, at least according to two franchises that have been in contact with the Lightning and have no reason to fib about it."
What's in that guy's morning coffee?
Thanks to Krazijoe on The Official for the latest Larryism.
1 comment:
And by "available for trade," he means "available to be traded to the Rangers - and nowhere else - for nothing. Please? Pretty please?"
Just another 'oh, Larry....' moment. :)
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