Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Sometimes I'm glad when it's quiet here

The alternative is mind-numbing flame wars.

The article's kind of simple, really. The Islanders are hurt, slumping, and the coach acknowledges that if they don't play better, a few of those guys are going to wind up on other teams.

If it's that simple, then you'd think that the discussion would be about which teams would want players who are currently Islanders, and what could be gotten in return, and what the Isles could do in the upcoming draft, regarded as talent-rich. You would be a raging pollyanna optimist with an aw-shucks grin the size of the Dakotas. The "discussion," as such, starts here.

First three comments make sense. Then someone insults Rick DiPietro, who's been carrying this team and its matador defense for most of the season. Then someone insults another poster. And then, when I try to actually talk about actual hockey, the response from "Busey" in Melville is to tell me to sod off. (Twice, actually.)

I can suppose that he saw the **** in my comment and assumed that I wasn't worth dealing with. (For the record, the board monitors struck out the word "crap." I presume that Busey wasn't telling me to "crap off.") I also see his grasp of numbers is slack; the Isles drew over 9600 fans that night, not 5000. But after that it's people telling other people to die, and other useful information.

At times like this I'm glad for The Puck Stops Here - a guy who just loves hockey and posts about everything that's happening in the league. When there are comments, they're smart and polite. His sidebar is another wealth of hockey goodness. Newsday hides the comments unless you click to them, which is just as well; but I'm not reading the articles, either. Life is too short.

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