Isles Lose 11th Straight... Isles Pull Chris Botta's Credentials... A Plea from the Fans

The New York Islanders just lost their eleventh straight game tonight to the struggling Tampa Bay Lightning by a final score of 4-2. Yes, you read that correctly. No, your eyes are not deceiving you. I did just say, ELEVENTH STRAIGHT GAME.

This comes two days after the Islanders fired their head coach Scott Gordon. I actually do agree with Gordon's firing, because I don't believe his system is suited for the NHL, but firing Gordon basically just masks the true problem with this team. The true problem is the fact that they are not an NHL-caliber team. Their captain is on the third line and probably in his last year before retiring, their best player is 19 years old and has no support from anybody else, Trent Hunter has an 'A' on his jersey, and Bruno Gervais plays on a regular basis.

That said, the eleven game losing streak is not the most frustrating but of information to come out of Long Island today.

That distinction belongs to the blog site Islanders Point Blank being "indefinitely shut down" yesterday evening. Chris Botta, former director of Public Relations for the Islanders runs IPB and does a great job. He gave his opinion on anything Islanders-related whether people agreed with it or not. Very recently, Chris wrote some harsh posts about the firing of Gordon, and the current state of the organization. Then, on Tuesday, he posted that IPB would be shut down indefinitely and did not offer any explanation.

Well, earlier today he gave an explanation to Islandermania, a forum board for all things Islanders. His explanation is as follows.

"Hello, Islandermania.

There is an issue, which started on Tuesday morning after the franchise’s manic Monday, between the Islanders and me regarding press credentials for practice and games at the NVMC. I’m hopeful something can be worked out so I can resume attending practice and posting line combinations and the kinds of features I like to write for PB (like on Frans Nielsen) and FanHouse (most recently on Zenon Konopka). The games are important for my work on PB and on visiting teams for FanHouse.

For now, it is out of my hands. The Professional Hockey Writers Association, both the New York and national chapters, have expressed their concern about the team’s actions to the NHL. The league is investigating. I have also heard from many fans, coaches and players around the league and will get back to most of them when this is resolved one way or the other.

This certainly has nothing to do with my employers at AOL or SNY, who have been amazingly supportive. Whether this gets mediated or not, my plan is to shoot more video interviews at SNY studios Thursday. I have some good guests lined up, so hopefully it fills the void. The blog is not going to die. (That’s a threat!)

Until this post, I have stayed out of the public about this. I know Imania has a huge audience and I respect the work and passion of the thousands of NYI fans on here, so I thought I’d step in and say hi and hopefully the word will spread.

Needless to say, there are far bigger problems in Islanders Country, which is why the team’s timing caught me by surprise. I’m embarrassed this has happened. I hope the boys get a win for you tonight. Okay, time to go back in hiding. No matter what happens, life will still be good. Take care.

Chris Botta"

This is extremely disheartening to read. Chris is one of the most loyal members of the media that the Islanders have. Sure, sometimes he was harsh, but he was always loyal to the team. He by no means deserved to have his credentials pulled from the team. Islanders Point Blank has an incredibly large and loyal following. Even in the midst of this losing streak, the comments sections of his post would have 600-plus comments. When they were winning earlier in the year the numbers were even greater. So many die-hard Isles fans followed IPB because there are very few media outlets that offer true, honest opinions on the state of this organization. Apparently the Islanders cannot handle the truth.

With everything that has gone on with this organization, one would think the Islanders would be a little bit smarter when making decisions. The team is constantly labeled as the "joke of the league," a "disorganization," and other terms of the sort, and yet they go out and do something like this. This move truly is comical.

So, I say to Mr. Wang: Charles, please sell this team to someone who cares. You saved this team back in 2000, but now you are permitting your dissatisfaction with local government officials to kill this organization.

We deserve better.