Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler writes a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," shares his humor and insight with readers every Wednesday. This week unearthed a unique 27-year old photo of three rival New York-New Jersey metropolitan area GMs in a rare roundtable discussion at Madison Square Garden. It's an image worth 100 words.
Generally, NHL general managers like to keep their distance from one another, but it was different Jan. 16, 1998, when Neil Smith of the New York Rangers, Lou Lamoriello of the New Jersey Devils and Mike Milbury of the New York Islanders joined me for a hockey chat.
The result was an MSG Networks feature called "The Great GM Face-Off," which is what producer Jackie Lyons believes "was the first time all three GMs were interviewed at the same time."
We shot it at Madison Square Garden, where the trio exchanged ideas about everything from officiating to making the game better. It was stimulating and amusing, but no blockbuster trades were made.
