LAVIOLETTE PROVIDES A REFERENCE
Ex-coach raved to Gordon about his LI experience
8:45 pm - As the Islanders were performing their background checks on Scott Gordon, the candidate for the Islanders’ coaching post was doing his homework on the Islanders. One of his key witnesses was former Islanders coach Peter Laviolette, a major part of the franchise’s revival in 2001-02 and now a Stanley Cup-winning coach with the Carolina Hurricanes.
Laviolette gave Gordon two enthusiastic thumbs up about the region, the fans and especially owner Charles Wang.
“You don’t know,” Gordon said today, “so you ask around. Peter had a lot of great things to say about Charles - how much he loves the game and the team, how much he’s dedicated to the community, how supportive he is, how good a man he is to work for. Peter had nothing but raves for him.”
The Islanders gave Laviolette his first NHL head coaching job, just days after he was left at the altar by the Bruins when almost everyone in Boston thought he was the heir apparent for their job. On the eve of the Islanders season opener, Laviolette said the words “Stanley Cup” in an article for Newsday, took some ridiculous heat for being goal-oriented and then led the team to a 11-1-1-1 start. Along with the classic seven-game playoff with Toronto later that Spring, it was the best time to be an Islanders fan in the last 15 years. The head coach was as big a piece of that as anyone.
Laviolette led the Islanders to the playoffs his second year, bowing to Ottawa in five. Since this blog launched four weeks ago, a popular topic of private emails is a request for the circumstances that led to Peter’s dismissal. There was nothing more to the story than what the press reported five years ago. There was some player backlash. The players won. Well, and the Carolina Hurricanes did, too. Won big.
In private discussions with friends, Laviolette only has good feelings about the Islanders and his two years here. He still has his close buddies from his old Huntington neighborhood, and he knows that if the Islanders didn’t come get him in 2001, he might still be looking for his first NHL head coaching job. He will willingly tell confidantes that mistakes he made here, he took those lessons to his second job. In Carolina, Laviolette got to utter the words “Stanley Cup” at the end of the season.
Scott Gordon is the closest thing the Islanders have had to him. Hopefully, the Islanders also learned from the Laviolette experience.
15 Responses to “LAVIOLETTE PROVIDES A REFERENCE
Ex-coach raved to Gordon about his LI experience”
Please Wait
Lavi still should be our coach. At that time we started to rebuild and we were only a couple of players away from being a serious contender.
Remember the d-men we had then with Aucoin, Jonsson, Hamrlik and Niinimaa. That was possibly the best d-men combination in the league at the time. Put that along with the “Lucky 7’s” line and the Blake-Scatchard-Wiemer line and wow, we really had something going there.
That was our chance to actually build something good here. Just think about what kind of team we could of had by now if we just followed the same pattern.
don’t know which Niinimaa you were watching… he SUCKED..raffi torres would look good in our jersey today..milbury was a retard for that trade and in fact still is today.
BTW the best thing about the Islanders this season is this website. Thanks Chris and all the best to you with this project.
Sorry, CB. I will NEVER buy into that whole “players sold Lavy out” BS. To this day I still believe that Milbury was jealous of Laviolette’s popularity and that together with Yashin’s moodiness about not being named captain when he signed here is what cost Peter his job.
When Carolina won the Cup, I was so happy for Laviolette, but at the same time I was so ANGRY because I felt that should have been OUR Cup. It probably would have been if Peter had still be around.
I loved the guys on that 01-02 team, and I felt that they had something really special going on. Too bad it had to end so soon.
Well onward and upward. We still have 76 games to go in this very YOUNG season.
Travelchic: What I wrote was there was player backlash. Didn’t say it was right. Didn’t say it should have been listened to. But I was standing right there.
And thanks, Beatle…CB
Travelchic59, do you REALLY think we’d have been a champion in 2006 if Laviolette stayed? Considering the contracts that ended before that season and the team was built around Yashin, whom you speculate without evidence hated Laviolette, that seems like a pretty wild assertion.
Don’t get me wrong: I wish we kept him, too, but there really isn’t any evidence for anything else. The Milbury theory is pretty wild: how is it that Milbury looks BAD for hiring a popular coach? Milbury never came off better than he did during the Laviolette years.
I too would have liked Lavy to stay. Who were these players that Milbury backed over him? Garbage like Yashin and Peca. Yashin was never a man or a leader the way the coddled him made me sick. The little baby even dated a woman who was old enough to be his Mom that is clue #1 he is not a leader. Remember Cairns yelling at him accross the dressing room “SHOW ME YOU CARE!!!” No response from Yashin. Remember Milbury getting rid of Aucoin, Scatchard, Cairns and a million other guys in order to make Yashin feel more comfy? Then importing more lazy Russians? Milbury was the worst and Wang held on way too long.
Niinimma sucked and so did Hamrlik and a few other of those d-men who were from the era. Aucoin, Cairns and Jonsson were good.
I like the Gordon hire.
Hey Botta now that your free here is something I have wondered. Remember years ago Newsday reported Tampa badly wanted Hamrlik back and were offering Lecav? At the time Torts hated him and Lecav didn’t look so good but everyone still saw the potential. Any truth to the rumor that Milbury turned them down?
Also, A DIRECT QUESITON TO BOTTA: WHY DO YOU THINK GARTH SNOW HAS TURNED SUCH A BLIND EYE TO TOUGHNESS?
Joe Strummer: please call me Chris, and feel free to use your real name. We’re all mostly friends here, right?
Tampa Bay never offered Vin to the Islanders for Hammer or anything else. Pure fiction.
As for the toughness issue, I don’t think the GM has turned a blind eye to it as much as he has been unable to acquire the kind of heavyweight who could also play ten minutes. Right now he has a long-range, maybe long-shot project in Rechlicz, plus Fritz in the arsenal in Bport.
Pretty sure he would love to have Georges Laraque here, but that’s not happening. If he was anti-fighting, he wouldn’t have anyone in the system or given Sugden a shot. Right now, I don’t think he wants to give up a regular spot to a Fritz while he’s trying to see what he’s got with his forwards. Best I can come up with, Strum…take care…CB
JKP - 3 points for the record -
1. No where did I say that we would have won the Cup in 2006. Maybe I should have clarified my statement by saying I felt we would have eventually won a Cup with Laviolette as coach.
2. Where in my post did I assert Yashin “hated” Laviolette? I did not speculate or make any such claim. I wrote Yashin was moody. How does that translate into “hated” Laviolette? (your words not mine)
3. I did not write hiring Laviolette made Milbury look BAD. I said Milbury was jealous of Laviolette’s popularity.
It seems like a contributing factor in why Peter was able to find success elsewhere is that he learned from what happened here. He would not have become a winner if he continued to think it was OK to watch and even contribute (as inadvertently as it likely was) to divisiveness and personal jealousies developing in his lockerroom. A successful coach doesnt lose chunks of his team.
I was and still am glad for him in his success, though- because he, and believe it or not Brad Shaw, were the only coaches throughout the entire MM era who I watched and from my POV genuinely liked what they did.
Chris TMC, I liked Brad Shaw a lot too.
What is Brad Shaw doing now? Totlly forgot about him
He should still be our coach! I always thought this team would win a cup with him.
In my opinion, Lavi got run out of town because of prima donnas like Yashin, Peca & Parrish. If Milbury’s ego was a contributing factor I wouldn’t be surprised, but I don’t think it was the primary reason he got bounced.
Good call on Brad Shaw - I liked him also and it’s too bad he never really got a fair shot to coach this team.
Over the last 25 years other then getting rid of that ASSHOLE Mildew when has this organization gotten anything else right?
I bet the players in Carolina didn’t have a problem with Peter as they sipped from the cup?