I can honestly say I didn't see it coming.
I assumed all the one-upmanship in the media was nothing to write home about. I figured everything was cool in Islander land; after all, Charles Wang would have seen to it that all the nonsense was stopped. This is the same guy who fired Neil Smith after forty days on job. If things were really that bad, wouldn't he step in and restore order?
Well, he finally did. Or, at least, he forced Snow to do what he felt was right. And it turns out that Wang's hesitance to extend Nolan's contract was, in fact, a harbinger of Nolan's impending doom.
I'm shocked.
I'm not understating what has happened here - this is huge. Let's consider what we had in Ted Nolan. A coach who was respected around the league as a guy who got the most out of his players. A coach who has won in both the "old NHL" and the "new NHL". He was a coach that Charles Wang proudly took a chance on, and he was a coach that got results with a team that was, at its absolute best, mediocre.
Let's look at what we have now - or, more appropriately, the perception of what we have now. We now have an owner who has presided over the firing of two established hockey people, Smith and Nolan, because they couldn't last in his "business model". We now have a general manager who not only was a backup goalie two years ago, but canned the only coach who was going to make people forget the fact that Peter Laviolette won a Stanley Cup three years after being fired by the Islanders. We have a fake youth movement going on in which half the team is unproven youngsters and the other half is aging veterans. We have the smallest fanbase in the league, one that was artificially enhanced by promotions and giveaways, and it goes without saying that this group of people is only going to get smaller now.
And for what? Are you telling me that Ted Nolan isn't the right coach for this team? Was he not the same person who coaxed a great season out of Blake Comeau? Was he not the same person who plucked Kyle Okposo out of Bridgeport, threw him on the first line, and gave him some valuable experience? Was he not the same person who helped push Alexei Yashin out the door in order to make room for Snow's bad contracts? Something is not adding up here.
Look at what we're giving up here. A former Jack Adams award winner. A coach who got the absolute most out of his team. And we're going to watch Garth Snow replace him with either some retread who has already been fired five times, or an unproved head coach from the minor leagues. And I'm sorry to say, but after the Steve Stirling debacle, I'm not exactly brimming with optimism at that prospect.
I guess on some level, I should have seen this coming. I should also have some faith in Snow, Wang, Trottier, and the rest of them to make the right decision. But after making one horrible one, it's hard to see how they can redeem themselves.
Taking a bad situation and making it worse. It sort of makes you wonder how the Islanders view this season and, dare I say it, the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. Not that the Isles would tank or anything, but maybe they wouldn't exactly mind a subpar 2008-09 season. And you've got to love how they did this now that they've spent the past three months of the off-season begging you to buy season tickets. What do you do now? For the second time in three years, the Isles are in disarray in July. Something tells me that wasn't in the promotional package.
It's never easy to be an Islander fan, least of all when your team consistently undermines your passion. Ted Nolan had that passion. And now, the Islanders - the team who constantly whines about losing money - is paying Nolan $600,000 not to coach them. Go figure.
But this isn't about the money. It isn't about the fans. It isn't about grit, character, heart, or any of the other crap the Islanders try to sell us. This is about putting the pieces in place that give the New York Islanders the best possible chance to win. This wasn't a great team to begin with; deep down, we all knew Nolan would have to pull another rabbit out of his hat to keep the Isles in contention down the stretch. With Nolan gone, that task becomes infinitely tougher.
Still shocked. Still pissed.
I'm not sure if any of the above made any sense, but this closer will.
I challenge Garth Snow to find a better coach for this team than the one he just sent packing.
I assumed all the one-upmanship in the media was nothing to write home about. I figured everything was cool in Islander land; after all, Charles Wang would have seen to it that all the nonsense was stopped. This is the same guy who fired Neil Smith after forty days on job. If things were really that bad, wouldn't he step in and restore order?
Well, he finally did. Or, at least, he forced Snow to do what he felt was right. And it turns out that Wang's hesitance to extend Nolan's contract was, in fact, a harbinger of Nolan's impending doom.
I'm shocked.
I'm not understating what has happened here - this is huge. Let's consider what we had in Ted Nolan. A coach who was respected around the league as a guy who got the most out of his players. A coach who has won in both the "old NHL" and the "new NHL". He was a coach that Charles Wang proudly took a chance on, and he was a coach that got results with a team that was, at its absolute best, mediocre.
Let's look at what we have now - or, more appropriately, the perception of what we have now. We now have an owner who has presided over the firing of two established hockey people, Smith and Nolan, because they couldn't last in his "business model". We now have a general manager who not only was a backup goalie two years ago, but canned the only coach who was going to make people forget the fact that Peter Laviolette won a Stanley Cup three years after being fired by the Islanders. We have a fake youth movement going on in which half the team is unproven youngsters and the other half is aging veterans. We have the smallest fanbase in the league, one that was artificially enhanced by promotions and giveaways, and it goes without saying that this group of people is only going to get smaller now.
And for what? Are you telling me that Ted Nolan isn't the right coach for this team? Was he not the same person who coaxed a great season out of Blake Comeau? Was he not the same person who plucked Kyle Okposo out of Bridgeport, threw him on the first line, and gave him some valuable experience? Was he not the same person who helped push Alexei Yashin out the door in order to make room for Snow's bad contracts? Something is not adding up here.
Look at what we're giving up here. A former Jack Adams award winner. A coach who got the absolute most out of his team. And we're going to watch Garth Snow replace him with either some retread who has already been fired five times, or an unproved head coach from the minor leagues. And I'm sorry to say, but after the Steve Stirling debacle, I'm not exactly brimming with optimism at that prospect.
I guess on some level, I should have seen this coming. I should also have some faith in Snow, Wang, Trottier, and the rest of them to make the right decision. But after making one horrible one, it's hard to see how they can redeem themselves.
Taking a bad situation and making it worse. It sort of makes you wonder how the Islanders view this season and, dare I say it, the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. Not that the Isles would tank or anything, but maybe they wouldn't exactly mind a subpar 2008-09 season. And you've got to love how they did this now that they've spent the past three months of the off-season begging you to buy season tickets. What do you do now? For the second time in three years, the Isles are in disarray in July. Something tells me that wasn't in the promotional package.
It's never easy to be an Islander fan, least of all when your team consistently undermines your passion. Ted Nolan had that passion. And now, the Islanders - the team who constantly whines about losing money - is paying Nolan $600,000 not to coach them. Go figure.
But this isn't about the money. It isn't about the fans. It isn't about grit, character, heart, or any of the other crap the Islanders try to sell us. This is about putting the pieces in place that give the New York Islanders the best possible chance to win. This wasn't a great team to begin with; deep down, we all knew Nolan would have to pull another rabbit out of his hat to keep the Isles in contention down the stretch. With Nolan gone, that task becomes infinitely tougher.
Still shocked. Still pissed.
I'm not sure if any of the above made any sense, but this closer will.
I challenge Garth Snow to find a better coach for this team than the one he just sent packing.
The question wasn't so much whether or not Ted Nolan was a great coach. The question was more like if Ted Nolan could work with the personnel the Islanders would be supplying. When asked why the PP was so awful this season, Nolan said personnel- he likes to work with Vets, and talented ones at that.
ReplyDeleteIMO, Nolan is a far superior coach than Snow is GM. But the Islanders need to get younger in a hurry, and since they have a hard to wooing UFA's, they need some serious home grown talent. DP and Okposo ain't going to cut it. Nolan had different and more unrealistic plans for the club, IMO, which is why he was let go.
This is still a loss for the club, though.