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Archive for July 20th, 2006

Whoooo wanna some Wang?

20 Jul 2006 @ 4:38 AM

Ladies and gents, I think we’ve found the worst NHL owner since Richard Gordon–and his name is Charles Wang.

For those who have been under a rock for the last week, here’s a quick recap:

Islanders owner Charles Wang fired GM Neil Smith. Two hours later, he announced the hiring of Islanders backup goaltender Garth Snow as the new GM. Three hours after THAT, Pat LaFontaine resigned his post as advisor to Charles Wang–and, according to Bristolero EJ Hradek, did it largely because Wang blew off his advice to 1) give Smith more time on the job before pulling the trigger, OR 2) wait a while (i.e. longer than two hours) before naming a new GM. Wang then went on WFAN’s “Mike and the Mad Dog” show in an attempt to defend the indefensible, and wound up admitting two things: He doesn’t know dick about hockey (which, I guess, at least makes him better than Richard Gordon), he seriously believes that he can run a pro sports franchise like it’s just another business, and that it is (in his opinion) a great idea to have manglement by committee–despite the fact that such a model has NEVER worked in the history of professional sports.

The only one untouched by this, so far, is Isles’ coach Ted Nolan–who is very wisely saying what amounts to “Don’t ask me man, I just work here”–but I suspect that right around the All-Star Break, Citoyen Wangspierre will send him to the guillotine, too.

So my question is this: What did IslanderNation do to deserve getting saddled with a terminally clue-free owner and a GM who’ll spend all his time scopin’ all the little puckbunnies at the NVMC?

Seriously, I’m askin’ here.