The 2009 NHL Draft:Voice of the Islander Fans

(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

The 2009 NHL Draft is tonight.

At 7:10 p.m., Garth Snow will finally walk to the podium and thank the City of Montreal for its hospitality. He will acknowledge the Islander fans "at our draft party" who will be 20,000 strong at Nassau Coliseum.

Snow will then thank Gary Bettman and say what an honor it is to have the first overall selection in the draft and thank all of the top prospects.

The next words out of his mouth had better be—"The New York Islanders are proud to select with the first overall selection.. From the London Knights of the OHL, John Tavares."

Or Else.

Unless you are an Islander fan you simply do not understand.

Way back on draft lottery day, every Islander fan expected some other team's logo to come out of the envelope that contained the owner of the first pick.

As fans, we all let out a collective applause as the shock and happiness came over us like a late third period tying goal.

We all thought in our heads we're getting the next great player; a can't miss superstar sniper the Canadian press and all hockey publications have been clamoring over since he was 14.

Then reality came over us like a wave enveloping The Wizard on "Deadliest Catch."

What if they screw this up?

Non-Islander fans reading this may wonder what it is that I am talking about. Non- Islander fans have not been through what we have. As bad as it has ever been for the team you pull for, it has never as bad as being an Islander fan for the past 15 years.

Non-Islander fans make the grave mistake that there are no Islander fans, the base isn't there because no one comes to the games.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Islanders are expecting over 20,000 fans to come to the draft party at the Coliseum ...on a Friday night.

Any time there has been a playoff series in the last 15 years, the Nassau Coliseum has rocked like the old days, even if the odds were hopeless against heavily favored top seeds like Tampa Bay, Buffalo, and Ottawa.

During the 2003, seven-game series against the Toronto Maple Leafs—the last time the Islanders experienced success—the place was jammed full of Islander fans.

Now back to the "Or Else" I wrote above.

The Canadian media has more than done its part. They have managed to convince some people that John Tavares isn't all they said he was for the last five years.

They have even gone so far as to compare Tavares to Alexander Daigle.

Canada is sick of its superstars playing on what is conceived to be "its teams." Canada has seen most of its favorite sons of the last 30 years playing for Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Boston, Long Island, Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, New York, Detroit, Chicago, and anywhere else but Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary.

Edmonton is the exception, but they had to break up their dynasty for financial reasons or they may have never ended their run of winning Stanley Cups.

The Islander fans who have been watching Tavares' career know the truth; this kid is the real deal. Though his stock is not that of Sydney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, or Evgeni Malkin, would the stock of Vinny Lecavialer be that bad? How about the next Henrik Zetterberg or Pavel Datsuik?

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