Islanders’ breakup day grounded in ‘miserable’ reality of missing playoffs: ‘Absolutely sucks’

Cristiana Gigina

Breakup day on Long Island, for the past handful of seasons , came with a theme: We believe in the group.  No matter what the rest of the league, or the stats, or their own fans thought, the Islanders, almost uniformly, insisted on optimism. Not Wednesday. Big picture, yes, the organization is in a much better spot than it was a year ago. It’s got an 18-year-old superstar in Matthew Schaefer, a prospect pipeline that looks legitimately promising and real reason to believe there can be a