I was surprised when Mike put the Cat in the net against the Washington Capitals on January 11, two days after he was aquired, because Mike had made it clear that he wanted to wait until Potvin was properly conditioned. Obviously, the owners were throwing their voices and using Mike as a vantriliqual figure. As Mike bluntly put it later, "My coaches wanted to wait, give him enough time to make him look good. Well, bleep that! I don't have enough time to wait. We're treading water here." True dat! You knew Mike was getting a little loss-weary when he sighed heavily following the Isles/Canadiens game that took place after the trade and actually said, "Whew. I have to ask: 'Where's the beef?'" Insert processed meat joke here.
Now we can add Ian Browne from CBS Sportsline to the list of Anti-Mike Nazis that I must hunt down and beat down some time very soon. Mr. Browne (if that is his real name!) printed a HORRIBLE article about Mike in which he says Mike must be "stopped," called the Islanders "lame" and their coach and GM "ill-equipped" to handle it! The freakin' nerve! I don't get any particular pleasure out of printing negative things about Mike Milbury on this website, but I feel I have to name names in these situations! Scott Lachance summed it all up for me when he rebutted, "This is all on our shoulders right now. Teams make moves when you don't win. That's why changes are made." THANK YOU!! Even Mike himself knows what's going down: "I've got a pretty good job. I'm just not doing it real well at this time. But I don't score goals, either." Okay, so be it. A lot of people in and out of the NHL realm think that Mike went off the deep-end by trading for a goalie which they seemingly didn't need and at the same time traded rising star in Bryan Berard. But Former Islanders general manager and current Panthers president Bill Torrey told it like it was: "I think Berard has a big upside but it's the old story: How long can you wait?" And that, my friends, is what I have been saying all along, thank you very much.
