So how about all those “Mike Must Go” chants that have reverberated through Nassau Coliseum lately?
“I’m taking responsibility for a lot of this,” Islanders GM Mike Milbury said as his team drowns in a six-game losing streak, “but, hey, the guys in the locker room gotta look in the locker room.
“We got All-Star players on defense that are playing like chumps. We’ve got goaltenders that are quality goaltenders, looking behind them every time somebody shoots the puck at them before they even have a chance. We have All-Star forwards that have scored so few goals, it’s unthinkable.”
Milbury is responsible for collecting the players and keeping a core group of fragile personalities intact. They are the same players he sided with over the summer when Peter Laviolette was fired.
“We’ve got a new coach [Steve Stirling] that’s organized,” Milbury said. “Frankly, they wanted a coaching change. They know they wanted a coaching change. They got a coaching change. What’s the problem now? What’s the answer now?”
The Isles boast a haywire power play, lackadaisical defensive play and a general, all-round lack of confidence that has manifested itself into stupid and undisciplined play for the last three weeks. “This is not a question of skill,” Milbury said. “These are character issues that have to be addressed.”
Captain Michael Peca has recently come under fire for losing control of the locker room, but Milbury shrugged that off saying, “When I played, I didn’t come to the rink asking, ‘Where’s my leader?’ Take a look at each other, and if you’ve got something to say to somebody, say it.”
Milbury admitted that “tinkering” with the winning lineup after the first month of the season caused some “confusion” when Jason Wiemer was waived. In order to quell some of the ensuing unrest, Milbury told the team, “Relax. Nothing’s going down. We’re not burning and slashing and cutting payroll right now,” yet they continued losing.
Staring down the barrel of a seventh straight loss tonight against the hated Rangers, the Islanders should show up with a considerable load of emotion. If they don’t, Milbury’s trigger finger is already twitching.
“Something’s got to give,” he said. “Somebody’s got to go.”
