Chase a Higher Draft Position or Beat Your Rivals: What is a Fan to Root for?

As you may know, I'm an avid New York Islanders fan. I also have an avid east-coast bias. Journalistic integrity be damned, at least I'm being honest with you, right? So while the Islanders are setting up tee times for Saturday after they finish up another lackluster season against their cross-town rivals on Friday, I will still be thinking about hockey. And in doing so I have been faced with a rather large dilemma. You see, after the Islanders gained a point against the Devils tonight in an overtime loss, there are now issues at hand that are larger than tee times and putting greens. With 77 points, the Islanders are currently looking at having the 5th most lottery balls in the bucket for the draft lottery. That's a nice spot and with some losses and a little help from St. Louis that position could improve to 4th. With two more games to play, it's also possible that they could win and fall to 7th behind Columbus and Phoenix. But, you see, life is funny. It turns out that those finals two games both happen to be against the arch-rival New York Rangers. The scheduling gods sure had some fun with this one.

I think you can see the dilemma here. I can take the blue pill or the red pill. Take the blue pill, and I root the Islanders to two wins against the Rangers, and with some losses from Columbus and Phoenix they move into the 7th lottery spot. This is completely possible given that the Islanders are 4-2-0 against their rivals this season, an 8-3-2 mark when combined with last season's record. The other option is that I take the red pill and watch the Islanders lose twice in regulation on their way to 5th and potentially 4th on the lottery list. Meanwhile, I would be committing the cardinal sin of sport by rooting against my team when they face their most hated of hockey teams.

Do I root for the Isles to beat their rivals or should I ask the heavens for a better draft position?

The answer to that question is something that I have to look to the bottom of my sports mad soul for. There's no easy solution.

On one hand, any true fan is always looking out for the best interests of their team. I would be crazy not to want my team to have the best shot possible at lucking out and grabbing that #1 pick. What's two meaningless games at the end of the season if we end up with a player to build the franchise around? And sure, asking a team to tank is looked down upon in the sports world but when it comes to your team, it's never as much of a crime. And it is just so damn tempting!

On the other hand, I would never be able to deny the fact that for two nights, I was a complete and total traitor of the worst kind. Rooting, even if indirectly and discreetly, for the team that I am sworn to hate is as low as it gets. I've been born and bred to have a distaste for the Rangers and I was taught early on that they represent everything that is wrong and evil. They're the empire and we're the rebels. It's good versus evil, and so on and so forth.

The worst part is that there's no simple answer to any of this. Until Saturday morning, I'm going to turn to Taoism and let nature take it's course -- turn off the TV and try not to think about what's unfolding in New York. The Islanders haven't won a playoff series in 15 years and no matter what happens this week, that number isn't going to change. And no matter who wins, my loyalty isn't going to either.