Sitting down each week, reading the hockey news and often times admiring how
a new breed of hockey fans from expansion teams like Tampa Bay to original 6ers
like Detroit and Chicago are stoked for this coming season it dawned on me yet again.
Why not us? Why not us Islander fans? When will we regain our pride and confidence that
has been beaten down everywhere from league wide opinion to public perception to even
our own management poor decision making.

On the bright side, there may be a REAL light at the end of the tunnel.

Looking towards this season...It's a win win either way for us, despite all the gloom and doom venting we'll surely have this year.
If the team does better than expected, it means the youth has matured that much more and gained valuable experience.
If not, we'll have a shot at 1 of 2 franchise players in next years draft.

For me, the level of uneasiness is with trust in our management/ownership.
They're going to have to do alot more than posting ticket plans on message boards
to regain my trust that they're focused on building a winner and keeping it here on Long Island.

This Islander fan will never stop being an Islander fan. But I want our teams pride back.
You will not get pride back unless you gain the trust of die-hard fans while cultivating new ones.

Hmm, here's a thought. Chris Dey? You out there. How about a new Islander pride promotion.
Islander fans, families should proudly wear their jersey's, hats, fly their islander flags on their property,
bumper stickers on their cars etc. Have Islanders employees scout Long Island and when spotting someone
displaying their "Islander pride", reward them.
Maybe do something for each islander home game?
Get the message out. Build some pride even in these rebuilding days.
Going out to the schools is great and they do plenty, check their community calendar but that doesn't get promoted as much.

We are a beaten down fan base that has repeatedly had to swallow it's pride.
Time for management and ownership to try to build it back up beyond just talking about
the lighthouse project, ticket promos and other "sells".
Pride goes beyond constant reminders and celebrations of the Dynasty team.
It's more about commitment and an emotional attachment as well.

So whether our Islanders management does anything beyond selling you gimmicks or actually does something to make
you feel prouder to be an Islander fan at any point this season.
Go out, wear that jersey, hat, sweatshirt, jacket or t-shirt. Show your Islander pride.
I still do. Do you?

;)

i've been wearing an islanders t-shirt all summer and i have an islanders bumper sticker on my car.

i'll never stop being an islanders fan but this team has to give me something to cheer about. playoffs would be nice, beating the rags in a playoff series would be even better.


ALL I WANT IS THE :cup: back on the island

Steve,

Great sentiment...

Now is a better time than any to show the PRIDE!

Hey - you get one person going, and they get two others...

Then - the virtual snowball effect.

As much as I rag on this team I'm always wearing my Islanders hat and jersey and shirts and defending them against ranger fans.

I wish the team would give us a season to be proud of. My friends are ranger fans and I'm running out of ways to defend the Islanders, I want them to have to defend the rags.

As I do every morning (afternoon, evening), I am daydreaming about the state of the franchis when I stop in the deli for coffee & bagel. Same place I stop almost every day.... Young guy behind the counter notices that I have my tix for opening night in the pile 'o mail & starts a little friendly Ranger fan razzing.

Halfway through his "Potvin Su--" taunt, I jump over the counter and begin to pelt him with bagels. Egg. Raisin. Everything. Poppy. Poppy. Poppy. Damn, there's a lot of poppy bagels left - how come nobody buys them? Plain. Egg.

The bagel pelting continues until he finally says "Al Arbour" and I leave the deli, without my usual coffee & bagel.

I'm never going back to that joint again.

:)

Well said, Steve. :thumbsup:

Out here in Brooklyn, I get ribbed all the time for my Islanders apparel, but I've always taken great pleasure in watching the rangers sweaters replaced by devils jerseys as the Rags missed the playoffs year after year. I've worked in Long Island for about 4 years (2002-2006) and can say that Islander fans are not molded in that same 'front runner' fashion.

I feel that is a great tribute to Islander fans' pride in their team. True blue and orange.

Not True blue for the first half of the season and red for the playoffs as demonstrated by so many so called rags fans.

One thing I must harp on though. Why is it that our team is always the butt of jokes for losing 7 straight seasons when our overspending neighboring team has had just as much failure at 5 times the roster expense? I recognize that the rags are playing better of late, but they always get this unearned respect. Ah, money talks I guess.

Here's to changing all that!

Keep a couple of poppy bagels on hand, just in case.

Hockey is a "what have you done for me lately" thing. I was crappin' yellow when the Islanders won their cups. I don't know if I have pride from that, I think it's awesome, but it's not something I was a part of. This franchise year after year keeps going back to the glory days. Theres two whole new generations and a third on the way that need some pride building runs now.

The only way to get the pride back is to win, to make runs in the playoffs. No one complains or makes fun of a team who is a winner. Really what could you say about St. Louis all those years? They seemed to be competitive forever.

Since I've been able to read the sports page in the back of a Newsday it's been a lot more of the Ls and not so many Ws.

Sure there are things I am proud of, like when the rag tag Isles went in to the garden and crushed their hopes of beating their club record for home games undefeated. That rocked! But some hardware or a real banner would be nice! A division win, A conference win, A cup, something!

Sometimes I feel like Islander fans and myself are just in love with defeat and misery, I have to remind myself of the times on the ice that make me smile and make me a fan. Like cheering for connoly when he would gain the zone and pull the puck between his legs. Or Izzy coming down the left wing with his right shoulder up and just powering through the zone. There are things that keep me and this team tied together, but I want it to be better than the ending to bonnie and clyde.

I don't care if we win and a bunch of johnny come lately fans jump on board, that doesn't matter to me, what does matter is I'd be PROUD to call this team my own.

I don't think Pride is a problem...The true islander fans will always have pride in their team...thats the whole concept of being a fan. Unfortunately fans having pride in their team doesn't mean the NHL won't look down on you as the laughing stock. Sure most of our roster would be playing in the AHL if they were with other franchises, that doesn't mean we as fans shouldn't have pride in the product we're putting on the ice. Or management has a plan to go with a youth movement and they are sticking to it. Our team should be able to skate with any NHL team because of the young legs on the ice. I am very proud to be an Islander fan....that doesn't mean we need to expect a championship this year.

IslesNut, I think Love and Pride are two different things, and as fans we love the crest and everything blue and orange and are loyal to that. Pride comes from being proud, and I see what steve's point is. We dont want to be the laughing stock, we want to hold our heads up high. Many of us do it regardless of how inept we've been over the years. I still wear the colors, I still fly my Isles flag, I still have my car labeled with the Islanders emblem, but how much is because of pride and how much is because of love?

"What have you done for me lately?"

Hmmm.


:bag:

Can you really love without being proud? Pride doesn't have to be in the moment. You are proud of the franchise...its history...they dynasty...everything...thats why you love the Islanders...

I'm still proud of the islanders. :isles: I'm proud they put together a plan and are sticking with it. I'm proud that they are actually giving the young potential a chance to mature with real ice time experience. I know that at best we are a surprising 8th seed in the playoffs but you can't expect a turn around in one offseason...it doesn't work like that...

AHHH THEY ONLY FIGURED OUT 8 MONTHS AGO THEY NEEDED A PLAN
SO DONT BE TO PROUD JUST YET LETS SEE WHAT 2010'S PLAN IS

Yes I'm quite proud of the dynasty years, of the crest, and those guys who's names are engraved on the cup, but I'm not proud of the Spano years, or the Milstein ones, or what Don Maloney did to us or how long it took to remove Mad Mike, or the Fisherman jersey. But never once during those times did I doubt my loyalty, but I wished like hell that we would right the ship and be back on the top of the NHL, and I've been wishing like that for years and still continue to wish.

Liquor helps :cry:

:cheers:

YOU KNOW CANADA
IN ANOTHER THREAD YOU WERE SAYING YOUR LIVER CAN ONLY TAKE SO MUCH
AND NOW YOU'RE PUSHING IT
DAMN SCOPE :bag: :cheers:

How does a thread about Islanders Pride trigger banner ads from MenInLove.com search site at the bottom of this page? Any search gurus on the board know if "Pride" automatically connotes "gay man" in the web search world?

Then again, I wonder if you can specify "Healthy Groin" as one of the criteria....

ha ha.....scope and 7 :cheers:

http://www.amazon.com/Pride-Island-York-Is...y/dp/B000AMXKT6
Pride of the Island: The New York Islanders Story :isles: :isles: :isles: :isles:

It is just a right....

Must be because I mention Don Maloney. You know "Maloney hides the Baloney". :P

content targeting is nice for some verticals, crappy for others

yay pride, lol :blink:

When times are tough, the tough...

yeah ok, so with the market tanking another 600 pts today and closing under 8k,
my 401k is now a pre-K and yep, life is good.

:blink:


where's my islander jersey.
screw that, where's the rum.

Looks like Islanders tickets are a good hedge against market losses then. I hear a new Marketing angle....

COME TO A GAME STEVE
AND WE'LL NUMB THE SENSES
DONT WORRY HELP FOR MAIN STREET IS COMING

THE STREET SWEEPER IS SCHEDULED FOR 12/31

I'll be there monday.

I need the pain, i mean relief.

:cheers:

YOU HAVE SOMETHING LEFT???
SPEND IT WITH US :ph43r:

Great post Steve (as usual). I still wear my Isles stuff proudly, mainly because I don't want anybody to think I'm some hack Rag fan. Never want to be confused with that. But this fanbase has been dragged through the mud for so long that you really can't blame the fans for feeling this way. Even our "return to glory" in 2001-02 wound up blowing up in our face with the Yashin controversy, Peca's injury and eventual departure, Lavi's firing; which then lead to the whole Smyth fiasco and last offseason. We've endured more abuse than any established and one time great sports organization that I can think of. We aren't the LA Clippers or even the Kansas City Royals. We were once one of the top franchises in all of sports for about 15-20 years.

We do need to get back to that. It's going to be hard but we need this season to be a true building block year. The trade deadline is going to tell a lot about that. I don't care what our record is, if we trade ANYBODY to improve the team I will be furious. If anything I want to trade away some of these vets. If Guerin and Weight are having good seasons trade them to a contender in a package deal or something, we could get a boatload.

Anyway, awesome post Steve. You hit the nail right on the head. Hopefully we get some positive energy going this season, no matter what our record is. Have Ricky win the Vezina, have Okposo score 30 goals... something...