Second thoughts about Wang

My knee jerk reaction to the firing of Neil Smith, and his replacement with Garth Snow is below, but as a thought experiment, I wondered if perhaps Wang might actually be smarter than he looks.

Conisder first the background.

Some trace the departure of Lafontaine, the signing of Alexei Yashin, or the retirement of Bossy as the hall-mark moments when the Islanders began their steep descent as a hockey team. In truth though, all are reflections of what has been a chaotic (to say the least) ride for the franchise.

Key to understanding the situation is Mike Millbury. Brought in to run the team at a time the ownership was in complete meltdown, he was forced to strip his team of player costs for prospects and cash. In a string of highly questionable (Luongo, Jokinen, Palffy as 'Village Idiot' during contract negotiations, etc.) moves, Millbury dismantled the team and kept his masters happy.

So when judging Millbury's performance in this period of time it's important to remember that while he was making deals he was being judged by a standard that no one other than his owners had - cut payroll, and his performance in this regard was eventually rewarded.

Millbury with Wang and Co. now in charge takes Dad's Porsche out for a spin for the first time, stomps the gas at his first green light and slams full speed into a pole, nearly killing all passengers on board.

To be blunt, his attempt at remaking the franchise is a horror show;

- Jason Spezza (actually the 2nd pick overall) and Zdeno Chara to the Senators for Alexei Yashin.
- Then he signs the Mike 'the Mirage' Peca to be his second line centre.

Both moves are outright disasters, and it's at this point that any sane man would pull the trigger on Millbury.

Then the lockout happens, and the guillotine is suspended.

I suspect it was during this time that Wang and Millbury reached an understanding that would move Millbury up and out, and blow up the mgt. structure underneath. Which I think unduly rewards Millbury (does he have compromising pictures of Wang?) but is otherwise the most sane thing Wang has done since he bought the team.

So they blow it up - and the result is Neil Smith (a tried and true GM), and Ted Nolan. Both of these guys are vets, but both come with a Beyonce-on-tour level of baggage. Still, both have upside, are intelligent and wouldn't have been surprise hires elsewhere.

Then he brings on Pat Lafontaine as an advisor. This again, looks like a good move. Lafontaine is one the NHL's good guys, smart, affable, a workaholic, and virtually synonymous with 'integrity'.

And that goes without saying he was also the last 'Great' Islander.

So the reasons for optimism for the Islanders are falling into place.

Smith's moves over the last few months haven't been stupid, but instead focussed on making the Islanders; faster, add power, and add toughness, in a difficult post CBA marketplace. He was also crippled by the untradeable/unbuy-outable Yashin contract, and overall I thought he was doing OK picking up the pieces given his limited worskpace.

My own verdict? A solid 'B'.

So what happened?

My guess; Smith got into a power struggle with someone, either; Nolan, Lafontaine, Millbury, or Wang.

However it played out among those four, the announced result is that Smith was having his wings clipped by a committee structure, and couldn't/wouldn't live with that. Lafontaine, either sided with the fallen Smith, or couldn't believe the infighting was so bad and decided to bail.

So here after all of this pre-amble is my second thought;

"Maybe Wang was right to clip Smith's duties, even at the cost of Lafontaine as an advisor?"

That is, maybe Wang is genius enough to reconfigure the traditional management structure of a hockey team, and replace not just the people, but the roles with something completely new.

And then I recalled that along with all of this weirdness with Smith and the disapointing departure of Lafontaine is that we've already got a glimpse of this bold reimagining that Wang has in mind.

And apparently it starts with Garth 'oversized pads' Snow.

So much for second thoughts.

Hang on everybody, cuz it looks like the Islanders are going to be one incredible car accident for us to gawk at!