I've been catching good chunks of quite a few Islanders games lately, which is a bit of a strange thing to say given the roster they're icing these days. But I had a chance in the off-season to chat with coach Scott Gordon, then with the Providence Bruins, and I honestly think he's one of the bright young minds in the league right now.

Unfortunately he's not being given much to work with in Year 1.

By all reasoning, the Islanders should be well behind the pack in the standings, especially with three key cogs in Rick DiPietro, Brendan Witt and Radek Martinek all sidelined. Mark Streit is playing 26 minutes a night; Bruno Gervais is out there for 22. Doug Weight, approaching 38 years old, leads the team in scoring on the basis of a pile of power-play assists, but only two players have more than four goals through 17 games. And, all things considered, backup Joey MacDonald has been phenomenal as a starter.

Given his team's performance, the Islanders bench boss is a miracle worker.

It's all added up to a 6-9-2 record to this point, but that won't last. When 2008-09 comes to an end, I'd put healthy money on Garth Snow's troops being in the 30 spot and inline to draft big Swede Victor Hedman in June.

As ugly as things are on the ice, however, they're even worse off it, and the Islanders desperately need some movement on their new arena project in order to save the franchise. Crowds have been downright dismal to this point — they announced 10,100 for one game against Columbus — and could fall further as the team tanks in the standings. By all accounts, the Lighthouse Project has been stuffed firmly onto the backburner by local officials.

After years and years of massive losses, there is finally now talk of owner Charles Wang selling the franchise. And without a new building, there's zero chance the Islanders stay put at the outdated Nassau Coliseum longterm.

Even the ever-rosy NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, in Long Island last week, said the focus is: "How does this team get its arena as quickly as possible?"

In other words, this is not some fairytale rink Wang's searching for in the distant future: It needs to come now (or perhaps never) as the situation is far more critical than has been reported outside of the region to this point. As a franchise, the Islanders are now worth an estimated $34-million less than they were eight years ago when Wang bought the team, and they've been one of the worst attended teams in pro sports for at least 20 years.

It's possible that the crippled economy could kill the new arena project entirely and take the Islanders along with it. For all of the talk about the dire situations in Phoenix, Florida, Nashville and Atlanta, at least those franchises are part of a larger picture of revenue generation in a newer facility and there are lease considerations involved.

On Long Island, the plug could be pulled much easier on a money loser playing in a decrepit building in a region where revenue sharing's simply not in play.

The Penguins, with a faithful following in that area, only received the political backing for their arena when owner Mario Lemieux played the game of selling his wares to the Kansas Citys of North America. Wang may soon have to go that route.

We've heard Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie's name linked to just about every troubled franchise out there; it's time to add the Islanders to that mix.