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that was a mistake, and they’re revising it. Is that because of pressure from the fans? Probably.”120 Asked about the return of the original logo, albeit for a limited number of games, Denis Potvin told a reporter,
“I’m thrilled. I’m absolutely thrilled.”121 The next day the Islanders’
1995– 96 season ended with a 5– 5 tie against Montreal. That put their record at 22- 50- 10, last in the Atlantic Division and twenty- fourth out of twenty- six teams in the league.122
The phasing out of the fisherman jerseys placed the Islanders in an awkward marketing position for the next year. The team had admitted the logo was a mistake and shipped out prominent players associated with the fisherman such as Clark, Muller, and Schneider, but players would still be wearing the logo for the vast majority of their games the following season. Other elements of the rebrand also figured to remain, from Nyisles roaming the stands as the mascot to Milbury standing, and perhaps spitting and tossing hockey sticks, behind the bench. The New York press was unlikely to let go of the rebranding debacle, either. A premature obituary for the logo in Newsday, which sarcastically credited the logo for a “boom in sales of fish sticks”
and increasing interest in Moby Dick across Long Island, exemplified the sort of media criticism the Islanders would have to endure for another season.123
At the same time the Islanders were ridiculed for adopting the fisherman logo, they also faced criticism from a small but vocal minority of fans who actually liked the jerseys and were sad to see them go.
Despite the many failings of the rebrand, the homage to the baymen resonated with some Long Islanders from the East End, and they were disappointed by its abandonment. Dan’s Papers, a resort newspaper based in the Hamptons, ran a front- page story that took exception to the sacking of the fisherman: “For the legendary Long Island Islanders hockey team to choose a bayman as their symbol to take them into the future was a great compliment to the East End.
Last week, however, they fired him.” To absolve the baymen from the controversy surrounding the jersey, Dan’s Papers blamed the logo’s failure on poor design that made the fisherman come across as too mellow. The article complained, “They might have said he did not 138
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look ferocious enough in a league that was filled with new teams with logos bearing pictures of Raptors, sharks, cougars, or black panthers.
The peaceful Long Island bayman, even with the grimace, might even have had a hard time fending off an Anaheim Mighty Duck.” A sarcastic editorial cartoon mocked the lack of other viable options for the Islanders logo. A hockey player in a jersey reading “The Brown Tides,” a reference to the smelly waters off Long Island, was quoted saying, “We stink.” Another player, wearing “The Ticks” across his chest, added, “We Suck!”124
To their credit the Islanders did not forget their pledge to the men who inspired the outgoing logo. The team made a preseason promise to the East Hampton Baymen’s Association to donate all proceeds from messages that fans and sponsors paid to put on the scoreboard during the 1995– 96 season. In May the association’s secretary, Arnold Leo, received $3,770 from the Islanders.125 In a response to Pat Calabria, Leo wrote that the baymen understood “how important tradition can be” and why the team reverted back to its original crest. “Well, we certainly thought the new Islanders logo was appropriate and beautifully designed,” Leo continued in the letter. “The baymen are very fond of funny nicknames, and actually Old Fishsticks is not a bad one for the logo bayman, but probably it would only be funny in an acceptable way if the team was having a little better luck. But that’s another thing about the baymen: they know that bad luck is just part of the grand scheme— good luck eventually shows up.”126
In requiring the Islanders to wear fisherman jerseys in 1996– 97, the NHL had cited its obligations to stores with the uniforms in stock. For all the negative publicity, the Islanders had actually profited from the switch over the past year, selling ten thousand jerseys and increasing sales of team apparel to seventeenth in the league, up several slots.127
Still, merchandisers on Long Island remained skeptical about clearing their inventory, no matter how long the Islanders planned to skate in the controversial jerseys. “All the fans who come into my store say they love the jersey and love the lighthouse patch— they even like the wavy numbers,” said the president of one sporting- goods shop. “They just all hate the fisherman.”128
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FIG. 1. Brett Lindros ( right) wearing the original Islanders logo during the lockout- shortened 1994– 95 season. Photo by Marc A. Weakland.
FIG. 2. Islanders general manager Don Maloney ( left) introducing Mike Milbury as head coach on July 5, 1995. Photo by Joe Tabacca for the Associated Press.
FIG. 3. ( opposite top) A Starting Lineup statuette of Kirk Muller, the only mass- produced figurine of an Islanders player in a fisherman jersey. Photo by Nicholas Hirshon.
FIG. 4. ( opposite bottom) Rob Di Fiore as the Islanders’ mascot, Nyisles.
Photo courtesy of Rob Di Fiore.
FIG. 5. ( above) Wendel Clark shooting on the Lightning’s Daren Puppa on November 3, 1995. Photo by Al O’Meara for the Associated Press.
FIG. 6. ( above) Darius Kasparaitis skating off the ice after cutting his hand in a fight on December 9, 1995. Photo by Bill Kostroun for the Associated Press.
FIG. 7. ( opposite top) Žiggy Pálffy breaking away from the Senators’ Steve Duchesne ( left) en route to scoring on January 6, 1996. Photo by John Dunn for the Associated Press.
FIG. 8. ( opposite bottom) Éric Fichaud making a save versus the Rangers on February 6, 1996. Photo by Ron Frehm for the Associated Press.
FIG. 9. Tommy Söderström blocking a shot against the Flyers on March 19, 1996. Photo by George Widman for the Associated Press.
FIG. 10. Nyisles taping a segment with Rangers goaltender
Mike Richter at an Extreme Championship Wrestling event that aired on April 2, 1996. Photo courtesy of Rob Di Fiore.
FIG. 11. ( opposite top) Jean- Pierre Dumont ( right), selected by the Islanders with the number- three pick in the 1996 draft, with number- two pick Andrei Zyuzin of the Sharks ( left) and number- one pick Chris Phillips of the Senators on June 22, 1996. Photo by James A. Finley for the Associated Press.
FIG. 12. ( opposite bottom) Todd Bertuzzi ( left) wearing the reimagined Islanders jersey that debuted during the 1996– 97 season, which combined the original logo with the color scheme, lighthouse patches, and wavy numbers from the fisherman uniforms. Photo by John Dunn for the Associated Press.
FIG. 13. ( above) Žiggy Pálffy ( left) battling for a loose puck with the Maple Leafs’ Jamie Macoun on October 31, 1996. Photo by John Dunn for the Associated Press.
FIG. 14. ( above) Rick Bowness in his first game as head coach of the Islanders on January 24, 1997. Photo by Steve Miller for the Associated Press.
FIG. 15. ( opposite top) Bryan Berard warming up in Calgary on January 28, 1997. Photo courtesy of Chris Krystalowich.
FIG. 16. ( opposite bottom) Tommy Salo before a game against the Flames on January 28, 1997. Photo courtesy of Chris Krystalowich.
FIG. 17. Rich Pilon ( left) skating past a goal celebration by the Devils’ Doug Gilmour on February 26, 1997. Photo by John Dunn for the Associated Press.
FIG. 18. Pat Flatley, the first player from the fisherman jersey era inducted into the Islanders Hall of Fame, revealing his name on a banner on January 14, 2012. Photo by Nicholas Hirshon.
FIG. 19. A fisherman logo hoodie for sale at Nassau Coliseum in 2014.
Photo by Nicholas Hirshon.
FIG. 20. The Islanders’ Cal Clutterbuck wearing the fisherman logo in warm- ups as part of a one- night promotion on February 3, 2015. Photo by Irene Jedrlinic Hirshon.
6
Spano for President
After the ignominy of the 1995– 96 season the Islanders went out on as high a note as a last- place team could muster, w
ith a win and two ties in their final three games and the anticipation of the return to their traditional logo the next season. In five months as dual coach and general manager, Mike Milbury had rid the team of Kirk Muller and Wendel Clark, two high- salaried veterans who were out of place on a rebuilding roster. As the 1995– 96 Islanders skated off the ice for the final time, their supposed goaltender of the future, Éric Fichaud, tapped helmets with their defenseman of the future, Kenny Jonsson, and their forward of the future, Todd Bertuzzi. It was one of the final images that fans saw before the off- season. “Fichaud, Jonsson, Bertuzzi, such important parts in the future of this hockey club, handling the puck for the final time as the final few seconds wind down,” analyst Howie Rose said on the television broadcast. “And although the season did not end anywhere near the way Mike Milbury wanted it to, people you just saw handle the puck will be a large part of what you’ll see from the New York Islanders next year and beyond.”1
Entering their second season in the fisherman jerseys, the Islanders had reason to expect their young talent would keep developing. Žiggy Pálffy had scored forty- three goals, tied for fourteenth in the league, while linemate Travis Green broke out with twenty- five. They had a respectable winger in Niklas Andersson (fourteen goals); a solid defense corps with Jonsson, Darius Kasparaitis, Scott Lachance, and Bryan McCabe; and a potential number- one goaltender in Fichaud, who sported a .897 save percentage in his rookie year. In 1995– 96 the team suffered through the distraction of a tanking top- line center who never wanted to play on Long Island and the misfortune of a league-141
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leading 528 man- games lost to injuries. Now Muller was gone, and Milbury fired the team’s orthopedist, two trainers, and an equipment manager, whom he held accountable for the injuries.2 With any luck the 1996– 97 Islanders would be healthier and free from soap- opera drama. “Next year,” Pálffy said with confidence, “we’ll have a chance to make the playoffs.”3
If the Islanders were going to live up to Pálffy’s prediction, they had work to do. Any attempt at salvaging the rebrand depended on winning, and the existing roster was too inexperienced and inadequate to escape the NHL cellar. In a stinging announcement in May, Brett Lindros, once positioned as the face of the franchise, confirmed that he was retiring at just twenty years old due to concussions.4 The Islanders reached a three- year deal with defense prospect Bryan Berard in June, but that would still not be enough to push them into contention.5 Milbury acknowledged that he needed a veteran NHL goalie, a solid defenseman, and three forwards for the top two lines, but he assured reporters that the Islanders could attract elite players by offering opportunity and the chance to live on Long Island.6 “I can see it— the good things that are coming ahead for this team,” he promised.7 If Milbury’s vision was correct, skeptics might finally be sold on the fisherman jerseys. A Post reporter contended that if the Islanders made the playoffs, fans would not care “if Travis Green was dressed in a toga.”8
For weeks Milbury emphasized the importance of the Islanders’ third overall pick in the 1996 draft.9 With little money to offer free agents and few chips for trades, the Islanders’ best route to improvement was the draft, and Milbury was intent on securing a player ready to make an immediate impact or trading the pick for one.10 The Islanders had little to show for their high picks in recent seasons, selecting busts such as Dave Chyzowski (second overall in 1989), Scott Scissons (sixth overall in 1990), and Brett Lindros (ninth overall in 1994), so there was pressure on Milbury to select wisely in his first draft as general manager. “If we don’t make the right call, it sets us back a lot, one or two years,” he admitted.11 Nonetheless, in a bizarre move only days before the draft on June 22, Milbury told his four full- time scouts, whose recommendations were crucial to the selection process, that he 142
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would let them go when their contracts expired on June 30. Milbury’s decision put the organization in an awkward position of entrusting the future of the franchise to four men who knew they would not be around to see it.12 At the draft Milbury chose right wing Jean- Pierre Dumont, coming off a forty- eight- goal season in juniors but lacking the intensity or defensive awareness of most NHL players. Despite his previous mantra that the Islanders had to translate the pick into an instant- impact player, Milbury said he did not think the eighteen-year- old Dumont would play right away.13
With the erratic Milbury at the helm, the organization descended into the same sort of chaos that unraveled the previous season. During a negotiating stalemate with the team’s best player and leading scorer, restricted free agent Žiggy Pálffy, Milbury publicly insulted Pálffy’s agent, Paul Kraus, for asking for what appeared to be a reasonable salary bump. “We hope that Žiggy will come to his senses,” Milbury said.
“We have no hope Paul Kraus will.”14 He also called Kraus a “moron.”15
(The nasty tenor climaxed two years later amid another round of negotiations between Pálffy and Milbury. Speaking of Kraus, who lived in Edmonton, Milbury cracked, “It’s too bad he lives in the city. He’s depriving some small village of a pretty good idiot.”)16 Negotiations were equally contentious with the Islanders’ second- leading scorer, restricted free agent Travis Green, and Milbury stubbornly said that he was prepared to play the season without two- thirds of his top line.17
In a sign that Milbury was pushing out veterans in search of young players to fit the hard- hitting Bruins mold, the Islanders bought out the contract of their captain, Pat Flatley, ending his thirteen- year career on Long Island.18 Flatley’s departure concluded a poor relationship between captain and coach that included an incident when Milbury, incensed by the team’s poor play, told the players they were unworthy of practicing in Islanders uniforms. According to Mick Vukota, a disobedient Flatley retrieved the jerseys from the trainer’s office and put them in every stall, firmly telling Milbury that he had sacrificed his body for the Islanders and was not about to give up his jersey. Milbury reluctantly relented. “He thought we were some college team that you just strip the jersey off my back. No,” Vukota said. “There’s far more 143
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commitment than he realized.”19 In Flatley’s absence the Islanders would play the 1996– 97 season without naming a new captain. Milbury was assured an uncontested position as the face of the franchise.
Besides his tension with the players, Milbury was losing his coaches.
After one year on Milbury’s staff, goaltending coach Bob Froese resigned in the off- season, leaving the Islanders’ young netminders without one of their first mentors in the NHL. Froese wanted to care for his father, who had been diagnosed with cancer, and his mother-in- law, who had Parkinson’s disease, but he had been limited by a demanding travel schedule as a coach, going on the road with the Islanders and visiting their minor league affiliate in Salt Lake City.
“The morning I had to give my answer, I wept at my kitchen table for about two hours, because I just loved hockey and I loved what I was doing,” Froese said. In an emotional phone call with Milbury, Froese said he had decided to join the pastoral staff of a church in upstate New York. Thirty seconds of dead air ensued, as Milbury pondered losing a respected coach whose gentler style complemented his own rough approach. Finally, Milbury, sensing a negotiating ploy, asked, “How much are they offering you?” Froese laughed. “I said, ‘Mike, if I told you what they were offering me, you’d think I was absolutely crazy.’”
In a last- ditch attempt to retain Froese, Milbury arranged for him to meet Al Arbour at the draft. “Al Arbour told me that he was going to take me out and talk me out of this,” Froese recalled. “He said, ‘But Bob, I know you,’ and he said, ‘You’re doing what is best.’” With that Froese was gone.20 Around the same time, one of Froese’s protégés, Tommy Salo, requested a trade. Milbury refused to ship him away.21
Meanwhile, another assistant coach, Guy Charron, was becoming disenchanted. In order to infuse the Islanders with the
Bruins mentality, Milbury had not only fired the Islanders’ four scouts in favor of former Bruins chief of scouting Gordie Clark but also hired former Bruins goalie Gilles Gilbert to replace Froese and promoted former Bruins coach Rick Bowness from an assistant to associate coach, even though Charron had seniority. While Charron had the unglamorous tasks of running specialty teams and serving as a mediator between the hard- driving Milbury and his mutinous players, Bowness became the 144
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coach’s right- hand man, the first choice to fill in when Milbury traveled and in prime position to take over the bench someday if Milbury ever decided to focus solely on his GM duties. Charron felt slighted. He had been a much better NHL player than Bowness was, and he was still sore from being passed over for the head- coaching job in Calgary, where he had been an assistant for five seasons. “I felt [with] my loyalty to Mike and some of those things, I would have at least been given an opportunity or had discussions prior to the hirings and knowing what the direction Mike wanted to take was,” Charron remembered. “I didn’t think it was the right communication to me.”22
With holes in their lineup and behind their bench, the Islanders were desperate to finish the off- season with at least one top- flight forward.
Opportunity arrived when restricted free agent Jeremy Roenick, an all- star center who twice scored fifty goals in a season for the Blackhawks, could not come to terms on a new deal. Long Island appeared to be an unlikely landing spot: Roenick was one of the game’s biggest offensive threats, and any team that signed him would have to pay about $4 million per year and compensate Chicago with five first- round draft picks, a high cost for a rebuilding team that was relying on the draft.23 Besides, Roenick had little incentive to rush from a contender to a cellar dweller. Still, Milbury set up Islanders fans for an almost inevitable letdown by playing up the possibility. “As a coach, I keep hearing myself say, ‘You’re up, Jeremy, you’re up, Jeremy, you’re up, Jeremy,’” Milbury told Newsday, which ran optimistic headlines like
We Want Fish Sticks Page 19