Stakeholders Meeting

I'm a little late posting my thoughts and reactions to last night's event at the Coliseum. Rather than rehash everything already reported by Newsday's Greg Logan in his article and blog, I'll just add my two cents on a few items.

First, a request for the Lighthouse developers. If we're lucky enough to ever see this project happen, can you do something about the acoustics in the Coliseum? I was sitting about 15 feet from Garth and Ted as they spoke, and literally could hardly understand what they were saying. It's as if the arena was built to funnel all sound out to Hempstead Turnpike. But enough griping.

After the dog and pony portion of the evening was done, Charles Wang addressed the Lighthouse Project and updated us on the latest status. Nothing new, but a nice update for those that aren't turned on by Town of Hempstead bureaucracy. He still hopes to break ground by July 2009, which to me seems unrealistic. The highlight of his presentation came when he introduced Garth, and acknowledged that most people thought he lost his mind to appoint our back-up goalie to the GM position. He made a "Garth slept at a Holiday Inn Express the night before" joke, which I'll admit was at least a little bit funny (would have been more funny if I was 100% sure he was actually kidding).

I thought Garth's presentation was pretty run-of-the-mill, and his three-point plan for success - draft wisely, develop prospects, sprinkle in UFAs - wasn't exactly a revelation (although, in fairness, what else could he have said?). He understandably didn't give any inkling to his thoughts on the upcoming draft. During the Q&A portion, Garth seemed inclined to say as little as possible. The only "news" in a sense is that he seems very keen on bringing in a true "enforcer" before next season.

Ted was more verbose than Garth, and I thought the portion of the evening devoted to him was more useful. It's very clear that he is very high on both Bergenheim and Comeau, as he should be. Hopefully Bergenheim will be signed soon, an issue which Snow was asked about but danced around quite well. In fact, over the course of the evening there were several instances where the "kids" were discussed. Both Nolan and Snow spoke about Bergy, Comeau, and Okposo. Not one mention of Tambellini until a question was asked specifically about him. To me, that said a lot. The one topic that annoys me a bit...the powerplay woes. Nolan indicated he studied a lot of tape and concluded it was too stationary. I could have told him that in November! Why didn't he address and CHANGE this before it was too late? No good answer to that, unfortunately.