Huzzah!

Bye-bye, Mr. Milbury. Don't let the Zamboni hit you on the way off the ice.

In fairness to Mad Mike, he was a solid evaluator of talent, as shown by the drafts he's put together in eight years; but he was always too impatient to let those youngsters mature. These are some of the players that the Islanders have traded (or let walk) during Milbury's tenure:

G - Roberto Luongo, Tommy Salo, Chris Osgood
D - Zdeno Chara, Bryan Berard, Bryan McCabe, Eric Brewer, Darius Kasparaitis, Roman Hamrlik, Adrian Aucoin, Matheiu Schneider
F - Raffi Torres, Jason Spezza, Todd Bertuzzi, Martin Straka, Tim Connolly, Olli Jokinen, Andreas Johannsen, Zigmund Palffy, JP Dumont, Juraj Kolnik

Oh, yes, and he also fired Peter Laviolette, who is now coaching Carolina to a top-four conference spot and leading the US Olympic Team. He will have three of his former players (Rick DiPietro, Jason Blake, and Mark Parrish) on the squad, yet the team he left behind is 18-24.

BTW, owner Charles Wang has always struck me as a decent man and a good owner, content to stay out of things until necessary. His statement on this occasion is very good indeed.