It's not that the team now has its pick of premier talents like Rick DiPietro, Scott Hartnell, Dany Heatley, Rostislav Klesla and Marian Gaborik. It's not that the tension leading up to the selection should make for an exhilarating time at the Saddledome and for the thousands of fans at the Coliseum for the Draft Party. It's not even that the Islanders are the first team in NHL Lottery history to move up and go first overall. No, not at all. As if enough great things hadn't happened to the Islanders since the season ended, now they're even catching lucky breaks.
Happy days are here again.
And yet a week later we're still all pinching ourselves and hoping it wasn't a dream. The purchase of the team by CA founders and civic leaders Charles Wang and Sanjay Kumar was the first glorious break the fans and the team had gotten in a while. We weren't about to get greedy. When it hit me that it was lottery day, I told him he'd better not be kidding or he was gone. And no one here could blame you.