Owners Stubborness Costing a Player Spot in Team History!!

In tomorrows edition of the Wall Street Journal there will be an article from Mike Sielski of the about how former Islander forward Pat LaFontaine has been basically erased from Islanders history after his spat with team owner Charles Wang after resigning from his position with the team in the summer of 2006.

If you have been to any games this season you know how the team for a few minutes before the teams take the ice shows a highlight video of some of the more memorable highlights of the teams history commemorating their 40th season. However, there is one notable highlight missing. That is of the Easter Epic. When at nearly 2:00 am on April 19th 1987 after hours upon hours of battling and big saves, an overtime goal by Pat LaFontaine gave the Islanders the win and has gone down as one of the teams top games ever, especially since the dynasty ended.

In 2006 after Mike Milbury was taken out of his spot as GM of this team Wang hired former Rangers GM Neil Smith to run the team. On the same day Wang hired Smith he also hired Pat LaFontaine as a senior advisor to the owner. However, citing philosophical differences a little more then a month after he was hired Neil Smith was fired by the owner and Garth Snow the teams backup goalie at the time was made the GM. On this same day, after spending hours trying to get Wang to reconsider his decision, Pat LaFontaine decided to resign from his position with the team.

The article states that Pat has tried to call Wang twice since then, that being at Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2006 asking Wang to meet him for coffee so they could reconcile. However, Wang never returned his calls.

So now, because of the owners childish behavior a great Islander and a fan favorite doesn't get the recognition he deserves. If you think about it, its not really a big mystery as to why fans want a change with regard to the management and overall running of this team.

If you would like to read more from the Wall Street Journal article you can find a link to it on our facebook page. I highly encourage you to do so as it was an excellent read.