TAMPA, Fla – What happens when you take the best defenseman and one of the top forwards off a young team with some talent but very little depth? Well, in the NHL, if they don’t win games, it must be the coach’s fault!
Really?
As cliché as it sounds but what a Snow job! One comment heard over and over again from NHL players about the New York Islanders under Scott Gordon was how tough they played and how hard they fought.
Photo by Lewis Bleiman
Mired in a 10-game losing streak is certainly not pretty and at some point effort is over rated but in this case, given the injuries to Mark Streit and Kyle Okposo in pre-season firing the coach seems to hardly be the answer.
Maybe the answer is one level up in the organization. Under GM Garth Snow the Islanders have won 139 games with a 0.400 winning percentage in four plus seasons. The team has been saddled with overpriced contracts, and despite four years of lottery picks the team has finished higher than 26th in the NHL only once. That was Snow’s first season as general manager.
This once proud franchise that 30 years ago this fall was defending its first Stanley Cup crown, on the way to their second, has become something of a laughing stock. They are somewhere between the Washington Generals and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
They play in a rundown building, with little fan support, and who could blame them! Islander fans are mad-as-hell and they are not going to take it anymore! They can add a new GM to their Christmas list.
Photo by Lewis Bleiman
While it seems like hopes for a new arena grow dimmer every year maybe they can at least get a new GM. Mr. Charles Wang can give them that without approval from Nassau County.
It seems reasonable that Snow, in five years, might have been able to build a contending roster. Look at what Steve Yzerman has done in one summer with the Bolts in Tampa.
For Islander fans the ultimate pain is yet to come. They now spend Thanksgiving pondering this question, where will Scott Gordon make his Stanly Cup run? They have watched former coach Peter Laviolette lead Carolina deep into the playoffs and Philadelphia, the dreaded Flyers, to the Cup Finals!
Scott Gordon will coach again in the NHL. And he will win. The questions all Islander fans are asking themselves are which team will he lead past us and how much longer will it Snow on the Island. Contact Joe.Malta@prohockeynews.com Contact the photographer Lewis.Bleiman@prohockeynews.com
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