An Open Letter to New York Islanders' Fans

Dear Isles' Fans:Welcome to the rescue dinghy. Really it's astounding what securing a no. 1 overall draft pick can do to assuage your agony. And not just any no.1 overall but a special player, a buzz youngster, like the one you secured Friday night in Montreal in John Tavares. It's not that today you've necessarily forgotten all that has ailed your team in recent years, which has been voluminous and grotesque. Additionally, we don't have a crystal ball, and so we don't yet know what John Tavares ultimately is going to do for your beleaguered franchise, but we do know that he's been the prospect apple of everybody's eye ever since he was the youngest player ever drafted into the Ontario Hockey League in 2005. Only Bobby Orr entered the OHL at a younger age. Talk about good company. Now Tavares is yours. Congratulations. This is a time for dreaming large. This isn't a time for fretting over how successful Tavares will or won't be as an NHL rooki...