2006-09-12T11:11:00.000-07:00

Famous Spanish philosopher George Santayana once said (famously and probably in Spanish), "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Your New York Islanders have just signed their goalie to a 15-year contract. Billy Smith played 15 years, so maybe Wang is smarter than I give him credit for.

Until the year 2022, Rick DiPietro will tend between the pipes in blue and orange. So why does this fail to excite me?

Possibly because there is no defense in front of him like Denis Potvin. Possibly because DiPietro has shown flashes of brilliance, but also a penchant for inconsistency. Possibly because how'd that last long-term deal the Islanders spun, 10 years for Alexei Yashin in 2001, work out?

Yashin is a perennial disappointment (Yankees fans don't know how lucky we are to complain about A-Rod) and the contract has become the anchor that has locked the Isles' ship firmly at "All Stop" until #79 finally rides off into the Long Island sunset, $100 bills fluttering out of his pockets.

I don't want to feel the same way about DP the way I feel about Yashin.

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This is the opening salvo in what will hopefully be a canon of information and opinion on the New York Islanders, a team who remains woefully uncovered by the media, mass and otherwise. I know of no other Islanders blogs. "Isles Be Back" may well be the first. E-mail me if you know of another.