Newsday On The Boss’ Return
October 14th, 2006 by murph
“Bossy back, to score sales” reports Newsday.com today. Newsday also reports the Islanders are about 3,000 tickets short of a sellout tonight, and Jeff Tambellini has been assigned to Bridgeport. I’m pretty confident the Colieseum will be sold out tonight after walk-up ticket sales.
Tommy called me about an hour ago. His love/hate relationship with Jacksonville continues to grow. He’s stuck at the airport with a delayed flight. Here’s hoping he makes it home in time for the opener tonight.
How does it feel to be back? “It’s nice, it’s nice. I have been away for a long time,” said Bossy, who was hired by owner Charles Wang to work with the corporate sales team on a mission to reconnect with the Islanders’ dwindling fan base.
Wang previously hired Bossy’s linemate, Bryan Trottier, as director of player development, mending a relationship with the franchise’s great players that had grown strained over the years. “I appreciate that Charles wants to build a relationship with myself and has started to do so with Bryan,” Bossy said. “We played for a long time here. My heart and passion was with the New York Islanders, and I’m really glad to be back.”
Bossy counseled patience with those moves. Regarding DiPietro’s deal, he drew two conclusions: “One, wait awhile before you judge the usefulness or the uselessness of that signing. Rick is still very young, and he still has a lot of maturing to do as a goaltender. Hopefully, he’ll live up to the potential. Two, is that, if Charles likes you, he likes you for a long time, man.”
Firing Smith, who won a Cup with the Rangers, in such short order caught the NHL by surprise, but it’s Wang’s puck. “I can only speak for myself,” Bossy said, “but Charles hired me, I know what’s expected and I know the way that Charles wants to operate. If you sign a contract with someone, you do what the person is paying you wants you to do.”
Bossy, who is brimming over with enthusiasm and opinions, admitted it would be tempting to be involved in hockey decisions, but he’s happy with the sales role outlined by Wang and senior vice president Mike Milbury. “I have told myself I’m going to mind my own business and stay out of it unless someone comes up and asks my opinion,” Bossy said. “If they do, I will be more than willing to get involved. But that’s not my role here.”
Since retiring as the Islanders’ all-time leader with 573 goals, Bossy has made his home in Montreal. But he quit a sales job there and plans to spend at least half of each year on Long Island because he doesn’t want to be just a token presence.
“I didn’t take this just for people to think that Charles is bringing someone back and I’m going to be a bobblehead in the stands,” Bossy said. “I want to get involved. I want to help the Islanders get back to the level, not only of hockey play, but on the business side, too, as we were back then.”
