The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Saturday Night Live couldn't have written a funnier script. I had to laugh with disbelief upon hearing the news that the New York Islanders replaced GM Neil Smith with their back-up goalie Garth Snow. Feel free to laugh your you-know-what off right now. I was watching the Don Taylor and David Pratt sports talk radio show on Sportsnet Pacific and the show focused on the hiring. According to TSN, Snow becomes the fourth person in NHL history go from being a player one season to GM the next. Jack Adams was the first to do it, followed by Bobby Clarke, and Serge Savard, who ran the Canadiens after completing his career with the Winnipeg Jets. How does the saying go? Don't quit your day job? I wonder if Snow realized his career was spiraling to an end. In his final season, Snow went 4-13 in 20 appearances. Plain and simple, this move is a joke. The front office of a team with championship history has sealed its fate as the laughing stock of the NHL. In an effort to bring back respectability, the Islanders hired Bryan Trottier and Pat LaFontaine. Of course LaFontaine resigned from his position following the news conference announcing Snow's hiring. It's good to see the concussion problems LaFontaine suffered didn't interfere with his smarts. An Associated Press story in the Winnipeg Free Press quoted Islanders co-owner Charles Wang as saying he had no choice in firing Smith. Apparently on numerous occasions, Smith felt he couldn't work successfully in the conditions he was placed in. What was the problem? Smith wanted to run the show. Isn't that what GMs are supposed to do? Perhaps with a miracle, Snow might do a good job. If he does happen to pull it off, he doesn't deserve credit for bringing in Mike Sillinger, Brendan Witt, Chris Simon, Tom Poti and Andy Hilbert. That goes to Smith. Hiring Snow could create a snowball effect and add further damage to what former GM Mike Milbury has already done. Wang's move further proves he has no business owning a hockey team, especially if he's getting too involved with the operations. Does Wang need his hand held when making decisions? The guy might be intelligent enough to be successful in the computer industry, but he lacks hockey business smarts. If Islanders management continues their idiotic ways, they may as well bring back the ridiculous Fisherman's Friend jerseys.
