Monthly Archives: November 2010
Please check out my column with thoughts on, and from, Scott Gordon.
Also: the Hockey News on the State of the NYI
Due to circumstances currently beyond my control, Point Blank will be closed indefinitely starting today at 4:00 pm. Could be for a few days or longer. I do not know, but will keep you posted. Thank you for the support always, and for hanging in. Coincidentally, a dear friend of mine in the business sent me this video from today of Don LaGreca on “NHL Live,” that touches on the state of Islanders talk in the media. Funny and true.
Of my eleven broadcast stints yesterday, this one on HNIC with Jeff Marek and Kelly Hrudey is a fair summary of my thoughts on Monday’s news. Jeff and Kelly cover it all here – on Scott Gordon, Jack Capuano, potential long-term replacements and the roles of Garth Snow and Charles Wang. Comments.
7:15 pm: There’s one significant long-term problem with the Islanders’ rebuilding program, and I believe the organization – deep down – knows it, too. A lot of it has to do with luck and timing. But yes, one of these days the Islanders have to start running the franchise like a professional outfit – not a mom-and-pop store where a few good friends make decisions and tell themselves they can’t wait to prove everybody wrong…one of these years!
The issue was not Scott Gordon. Everyone, even Garth Snow, has to know that. So much for that brothers-in-arms GM/coach relationship he wanted.
The Islanders went with this idea four years ago, led by Snow and Charles Wang, that they would buy time by making everything about Mike Milbury’s trades of a decade ago, and mid-first round drafts picks ranging from catastrophic (Robert Nilsson) to shrug (Sean Bergenheim). So Snow got Kyle Okposo from the Neil Smith draft and started compiling top-five picks as he watched his Islanders go from 26th to 30th, back to 26th and currently tied for last in the NHL.
Make no mistake: the rebuild had plenty of merit, as did Snow posing as the anti-Milbury. But it’s one thing for the Islanders to be not close to good yet. This is a hard job and it takes time. Right now – whether the current club lost ten games in a row or not – it’s tough to see how this is going to end in winning a Stanley Cup or contending for years to come.
Thanks to the miserable season of 2008-09, the Islanders wrapped up the gift of John Tavares, as selected by Snow and Wang. Tavares will eventually score 40 goals in a season.
But look at Chicago – Kane and Toews.
Look at Washington – Ovechkin and Backstrom.
Pittsburgh has Crosby and Malkin.
LA has Doughty and Kopitar.
Those, of course, are just the top two with their teams. All these players are young and either have been or will be locked up long-term. They’ll still be with their teams when the Islanders have all their kids on the big club.
The Islanders have Tavares, who may not reach the level of any of the players I mentioned, and a bunch of good, but not top-tier players like Okposo and Josh Bailey and Calvin de Haan and Nino Niederreiter. They are not franchise players. Either through mistakes or bad timing, they don’t have two or three kids yet who make you think, Wow, they’re going to be great for a long time.
Perhaps if they finish in the bottom-five for a fourth straight season, the Islanders will be in a better position to reach that built-to-last-contender goal they’ve been selling. Or at least make the playoffs. Today, they merely used a coaching change to change the subject from the bigger picture – how the Islanders are rebuilding, and how the Islanders are run.
Comments on this subject.
1:30 pm, Iceworks: Woh! Put the breaks on the post below about system-busting. In his first meeting with writers as Islanders head coach, Jack Capuano said there will not be major changes to the system he coached in Bridgeport and Scott Gordon coached in Uniondale the last two-plus years.
“Scott brought in a lot of structure,” said Capuano. “There are some things that we’ll tweak, but nothing major.”
Asked about his understanding of his status as “interim head coach,” Capuano said he only had a conversation with Garth Snow about taking over today and the two haven’t discussed anything further.
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1:15 pm, Iceworks: Changes from the Scott Gordon system, also played in Bridgeport the last two years, have already been implemented. I asked captain Doug Weight about it after practice today.
“I didn’t know about that in Bridgeport,” said Weight. “We changed a lot of things today.” Weight said the coaches “simplified the game” and addressed issues. “Some guys were having trouble with stuff,” he said. “We made some changes, and I think a lot of guys are excited about it.”
And there you have it: immediate evidence that the system of play coached by Gordon and endorsed by Snow for the last two years has been abandoned as the Islanders search for a win after ten consecutive losses.”
12:35 pm, Iceworks: The Islanders are 30 minutes into their first practice under interim head coach Jack Capuano. The practice resembles every practice I’ve ever seen after a coaching change: delirious, manufactured energy. Lots of positive talk from the new man in charge. Over-exuberant reaction to every little nice play. For example, one line just scored as Trent Hunter roofed one past Rick DiPietro. The team exhalted with the same level of passion as when they beat Tampa Bay in overtime 24 days ago.
Moulson – Tavares – Parenteau
Weight – Bailey – Comeau
Grabner – Nielsen – Hunter
Martin - Konopka – Sim
Schremp – Gillies
Along with Capuano, Dylan Reese has been recalled from Bridgeport.
***An Islanders staffer approached after Garth Snow’s conference call was completed to say that my not getting the press release or details to call in was purely an honest mistake.
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11:45 am, Iceworks: As I stood here as one of two reporters at practice at Iceworks, Islanders staff did not provide me with the call-in details for his conference call to announce the firing of Scott Gordon. Ten writers – including a few who weren’t interested in the call, or don’t even cover hockey anymore – sent me the details, which was kind. Others said they’ll send me the quotes, also very nice.
Instead, I enjoyed the tweet-by-tweets. As you know, Snow doesn’t say much. After some technical difficulties that were the laugh of writers on Twitter, the general manager said his team’s struggles were a “confidence” thing. Ironic, since Gordon made it clear two weeks ago what he thought of that psychobabble.
The Islanders just completed a run of 12 of 15 on the road and have been undermanned all season. Since they didn’t travel an extra dman, Scott Gordon’s last game as Islanders head coach was with just five defensemen. Now that they play a bunch of home games over the next month, the Islanders should be primed for a few wins.
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11:15 am, Iceworks: The Islanders have fired head coach Scott Gordon. Bridgeport coach Jack Capuano takes over as interim head coach. With time left on his contract, Gordon stays on as an advisor to Garth Snow.
The major question now is, will the Islanders hire a head coach and perhaps some hockey operations personnel with experience and proven track records? Recent history in the Charles Wang era would seem to indicate they will not, but there is always time for a change in policy.
In a statement, Snow said the Islanders needed a “new direction” and the team still intends to push for a spot in this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs.
Comments.
9:30 pm: ESPN hockey columnist Pierre LeBrun referenced a recent Point Blank video segment in a report on Sunday. In response to a reader’s call-in question on Wednesday, I said the Islanders would never have considered Rick DiPietro starting this season in Bridgeport. However, if the comebacking goaltender continued to struggle for “another week or two,” then it would be fair to begin the discussion about whether DiPietro would be better served by some time in Bridgeport.
In his weekly recap for ESPN on Sunday, LeBrun reported that he spoke about this speculation with Garth Snow. The Islanders general manager outright dismissed the notion of DiPietro to Bridgeport. “There’s been no conversation in that regard at all, internally or externally” Snow told LeBrun. “(Dwayne Roloson) is just playing well right now. We have two No. 1 goalies, but right now, Rollie is playing really well and we need wins.”
DiPietro is 44th in save percentage (.854) among the 44 goaltenders to play in the NHL this season. He is 43rd in goals-against average (4.21). Even novices have noticed DiPietro’s lateral movement is not yet nearly as explosive as it used to be.
As LeBrun noted in his article, the Islanders currently have three goaltenders in Bridgeport. But that certainly would not be a hindrance if it was decided DiPietro needed more time to improve his game in the minors. AHL affiliates serve the NHL club. One goaltender would come up to backup Roloson, another (like Nate Lawson) could be sent to the ECHL or another AHL club on loan. This is not rocket science.
On the other hand, the demotion of DiPietro and his $4.5 million salary cap hit could put the Islanders under the CBA-mandated cap floor. How about that?
Over the last two seasons, DiPietro played 13 of a possible 164 NHL regular season games. Rust would only be natural. On Saturday in Los Angeles, Dwayne Roloson started his fifth consecutive game. When DiPietro starts (as expected) against Tampa Bay at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Wednesday, he’ll have gone a full two weeks between games.
As I said in the video segment last week, you wonder when the conversation turns to what is best for the long-term playing future of Rick DiPietro. If the goalie is not yet at his best, no one is doing DiPietro any favors. LeBrun also noted in his column DiPietro’s “close relationship with Islanders owner Charles Wang.”
Likely starting Wednesday, DiPietro will have the chance to play hero. He can help the Islanders start winning games after a drought of almost four weeks, and begin his candidacy for the Masterton Award. What DiPietro is trying to overcome has been minimized by the national media. The only question that should be answered in the next two weeks is, where is it truly best for the goaltender to be attempting his comeback?
Comments on this subject ONLY are invited. The Islanders return to practice on Monday.
Follow Chris Botta on Twitter for updates today
Throughout this losing streak, the Islanders have found different ways to lose hockey games. For consecutive loss No. 10, they failed to field a complete lineup.
Opting against the protocol of most every team in the league, the Islanders decided to not bring an extra defenseman such as the reliable Dylan Reese for the West Coast trip – despite playing three games in four nights 3,000 miles away. With Jack Hillen sidelined today with the flu, Scott Gordon was left to coach the game with only five defensemen. As if playing the first-place Kings wasn’t enough of a challenge.
The Islanders dressed Jon Sim as the 13th forward. He played two shifts. Dean Chynoweth gave his five defensemen more than 20 minutes each, and the team spent most of the night chasing the Kings around the ice. As Butch Goring said on TV, “It’s going to take its toll on you.” Acknowledged Gordon, “I don’t think it helped. At times I thought we were over-extended.”
Anze Kopitar had two goals early, plus an assist. The Kings out-shot the Islanders, 34-19, including 13-3 in the third period even though they were already leading 3-1. Under GM Dean Lombardi, the young Kings have been re-built. The Islanders, losers of ten straight, have a long way to go.
A change to the coaching staff would just be a temporary distraction from far bigger issues. The Islanders have scored a total of eight goals in their last eight games. Key youngsters John Tavares and Josh Bailey, among many others, have been ineffective. This roster is shorthanded by injuries and a lack of talent.
“Pathetic,” captain Doug Weight called the losing streak. “We’ve got to find a way to get 60 minutes going, and find a way to win a hockey game.”
On Saturday night, Islanders management didn’t even execute the basic fundamentals of fielding a complete lineup.
Comments.
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