As the suspense continued to build, fans and experts wondered if Islanders’ GM Garth Snow would indeed make the consensus decision and draft John Tavares with the first pick overall.

Well, the wondering is over. Snow did indeed make the choice that fans were calling for as Islanders chose London Knights center John Tavares with the No. 1 overall selection.

As Charles Wang said, ‘this is no Jesus-savior kind of thing.’

And he’s right. Tavares is not a “fix-all” player for the Isles but rather a solid piece of the puzzle. Don’t look now, but the Islanders suddenly have an exciting team and should be fun to watch this coming season.

Adding Tavares’ 40-50 goal potential to a lineup that includes Kyle Okposo, last year’s first round pick Josh Bailey, Frans Nielsen, and one of the top defensemen in the league last season in Mark Streit gives you the impression that goals may not be a problem.

Tavares shattered Wayne Gretzky’s scoring record as a 16-year old when he posted 72 in 2007-2008. Last season he finished with 58 goals and 104 points in the OHL.

Here’s stroll down memory lane for Islander fans. Remember 2000 when the team selected goaltender Rick DiPietro with the first overall pick?

Sure you do. How could you forget?

For me, it’s a bittersweet memory. Obviously it’s painful to see DiPietro there with so much promise and then compare it to his situation today.

But this isn’t about our boy Ricky, it’s about who the Islanders will select with their first No. 1 pick since that 2000 draft. This is a moment that will shape the franchise for the next 10-15 seasons—for better or worse.

Who do you think the Islanders should select first overall? John Tavares, Victor Hedman, Matt Duchene, or somebody else? Let us know, comments are welcome.

Yes, the Mets have lost four of their last five. Yes, they lost two of three to struggling Baltimore. Yes, the injuries continue to pile up. Who knows if we’ll see Carlos Delgado or Jose Reyes again this season?

But take a quick look at the standings and you’ll see that things are not so bad after all.

The Mets sit just two games back of the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League East. You can even make a case that the defending champions are struggling even worse than the Amazins’ as they are just 13-22 at home this season.

Considering that the Mets are just 3-7 in their last ten games and 15-20 on the road, it’s remarkable that they still remain within striking distance.

However, they should apologize to no one because winning is sports is all relative. You are judged as a team on how you perform in relation to other teams, so right now the Mets are second best in their division. That’s just sports.

Of course they are not playing their best baseball. The Florida Marlins have been coming on as of late and are just a game behind the Mets.

But, as Bill Parcells used to say, you are what you are. And right now, the Mets are 34-33 and just two games out of first place.

Hey, there’s a new football league in town, and it’s called the UFL. Not to be confused with the XFL—that Vince McMahon-founded shot in the dark lasted just one season. And guess who is going to be the quarterback of the league’s Orlando team?

The Yankees’ hitting coach apparently has a few pointers for Alex Rodriguez.

Giants’ head coach Tom Coughlin had a few touching words for his team on the last day of mini-camp. By the way, the G-Men don’t start training camp until August 2nd—their latest start ever.

We all know the Mets need another starting pitcher, but how realistic is Brad Penny?

And Greg Logan’s prediction for the Islanders No.1 overall draft pick is…Matt Duchene? Speaking of the Isles, former players Bryan Berard and Michael Peca are suing a golf resort developer over a bogus investment.

LighthouseHockey.com has a nice article about the upcoming NHL Entry Draft on June 26. Particularly, what they think the Islanders should do with the first overall pick.

And while the opinion of hockey experts has definitely been mixed (especially lately), Dominik and Doug believe that John Tavares has to be the guy—and I’d have to agree with them.

My choice, of course, is also to go with John Tavares. It’s imperative that the Islanders infuse some excitement into their lineup. There hasn’t been a player this hyped coming to the Islanders via the Draft since Denis Potvin. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have a defenseman with the skills and skating of Victor Hedman. One has to remember however, that defensemen such as the two Dom mentioned above and even Zdeno Chara as an example, didn’t truly hit their potential until they reached their 2nd and 3rd teams.

That’s not to say that Hedman won’t be a smash hit when he gets to whatever team drafts him, but it certainly gives me pause. I just feel that the more pressing need is not defending our net but putting the puck in the other team’s (unless you’re Ryan O’Byrne). Something the Islanders have sorely lacked for several seasons.

They couldn’t have hit it more directly on the head—this team needs an exciting player that people will come pay to watch and awaken a fan base that, let’s be honest, has been dwindling the past few seasons.

Listen, if you don’t see The Lighthouse project as a good enough reason, or the fact that the team is in danger of skipping town, then just look at the pure hockey reasons as to why this team needs a pure goal scorer.

They ranked second-to-last (29th) in goals scored last season (198) and second-to-last in GFA (2.41). That right there is reason enough to draft Tavares.

We hope (and pray) that Rick DiPietro is back and healthy next season which will make the defense ten times better.

Now, if you draft Tavares, you’re getting a exciting player who can put the biscuit in the basket and mesh with up-and-comers Kyle Okposo and Josh Bailey.

Suddenly the future would look a heck of a lot brighter.

Talk about bad luck.

Nike was relying on a Cavaliers-Lakers NBA Finals when they released the puppet commercials, now they are about to release a new shoe that has been designed by Chien-Ming Wang to be released later this year.

But will Wang even be around by the time the shoe hits stores? He can’t afford another poor outing this week against the Nationals for a couple of different reasons.

Number one, it’s the Nationals! But more importantly, the Yankees can’t afford to keep burning out their bullpen every fifth day in hopes that Wang will get his game back.

After it appeared that he had corrected his problems on the mound coming off the DL, he has had two consecutive poor starts and with Phil Hughes sitting in the bullpen waiting to move back in the rotation, Wang has to step up or step out.

Either way, at least he’ll have customized shoes to do it in.

When news came down from Denver that Brandon Marshall had requested a trade, two thoughts immediately crept into my head.

First, is there something in the water over there that is making these superstars run out of town?

Jay Cutler, now Marshall? I guess Mike Shanahan wasn’t such a bad coach after all if these star players want to leave even after the coach was fired!

More importantly, I thought the Giants should seriously consider going after this guy. I really believe that this current roster will struggle to score points if we go into the regular season like this. Eli Manning threw only two TDs in the last five games, including the playoff loss to the Eagles.

We all know that rookie wide receivers simply don’t make an impact in their first year and the Giants not only have to replace Plaxico Burress, but let’s not forget how critical Amani Toomer was to Eli’s passing game.

Steve Smith is a nice wide out but he is only effective out of the slot, and Domenik Hixon has a lot of upside but part of his game is returning kicks, and with Ahmad Bradshaw playing a more significant role in the running game, Hixon should continue to return kicks thus making his playing time as a receiver limited.

Marshall has had his issues in Denver, and I certainly don’t condone his actions off the field but the bottom line is that his numbers are scary good and it would be silly to not even consider it.

Character is important to a locker room, but that’s nothing that a strong leadership presence wouldn’t be able to control or at least contain.