In the meantime, the Islanders aren’t eligible for the NHL’s revenue-sharing, because the TV market has more than 2.5 million households. And most residents of the New York Metropolitan Area aren’t Islander fans -- in fact, the team’s fan base doesn’t extend much beyond Long Island, which includes the Ranger territories of Brooklyn and Queens on its western tip.

Larry Brooks, who hangs his hat at the New York Post and is the best hockey writer in town, has suggested that next season’s NHL outdoor game should be played in Yankee Stadium, or on the Mets’ Citi (C) Field, between the Rangers and the Islanders. The match-up would do boffo business at the gate and rack up huge TV ratings in a region populated by hockey nuts. Playing the outdoor game in the Big Apple would also boost the bedraggled Islanders' fortunes.

The idea makes so much sense that you can bet the NHL bigwigs won’t even consider it. Such myopia has its rewards: Without the NHL, the lunkheads who run Major League Baseball would be crowned the biggest dummies in professional sports.

In the meantime, the Islanders will try to drag their sorry butts out of last place in the NHL’s Atlantic Division, where they won 26 games, lost 47, and tied 9 last season. If the Islanders don’t start winning, the empty seats at the Nassau Coliseum could outnumber the fans, and Long Island might become the cul-de-sac of no return for the team that once won 4 championships in a row.