The New York Islanders relieved head coach Jack Capuano of
his duties behind the bench on Tuesday replacing him with assistant general manager,
Doug Weight.
The Islanders who advanced to the second round of the
Stanley Cup Playoffs last season, currently sit in last place in the Eastern
Conference with a 17-17-8 record. They reached the .500 mark after defeating
the Boston Bruins on Monday afternoon 4-0.
General manager, Garth Snow said, “Obviously, we are not in a position where we want to be standing wise.
I think everyone is disappointed where we are at. At the end of the day,
organizationally, I do not think Jack was probably going to be a coach that we
were going to bring back. At this point in time, to name Dougie Weight interim
coach, we can start a coaching search now and not have to worry about the
ramifications of trying to do that when Jack was head coach.”
Snow did not give a time frame of how long Weight would be
behind the bench for the Islanders. The team will practice on Wednesday as they
prepare to host the Dallas Stars at the Barclays Center on Thursday night.
Snow added, “We are
going to look at everything. Dougie has a great hockey mind. He has been behind
the bench coaching for the last five years and has a ton of respect for the
players in that room. But we are going to look for every opportunity to win
games as they come. I am not going to comment on who I am meeting with or who
we are talking to. It is a situation where we are just worried about one day,
one game at a time. We will do our business quietly and efficiently.”
He continued, “We are
at the halfway point of the season, and we are a .500 hockey club. It has just been
a different season that has unfolded compared to the last two years. We need to
turn this ship around and I really have a lot of confidence in our coaching
staff and our players and it starts with our next game on Thursday.”
Weight, who spent 19 seasons as a forward in the National
Hockey League, has served as an assistant coach and assistant general manager
for the Islanders since 2011. He will begin his first stint as a bench boss, on
Thursday night and will be joined by assistant coaches Bob Corkum and Greg
Cronin as they try to get the Islanders back on track.
The franchise has struggled in the first season under the
new ownership group of Jon Ledecky and Scott Malkin, who took over control from
Charles Wang this past summer. The Islanders lost three key free agents, in
Frans Nielsen, Matt Martin and Kyle Okposo, as Snow signed Andrew Ladd to a seven-year
deal and Jason Chimera for two years on July 1st.
Snow did accept most of the blame for the struggles this
season saying, “I do not think there is a
player on our roster I have not had a hand in either drafting, picking up off
waivers, a trade or free agent signing, same with the staff, whether it is the
trainers, coaches or scouts. I am not hiding the fact that it starts with me.”
He added, “Our expectation
as a team is to always win a Stanley Cup. We are no different than the 29 other
teams that are out there trying to win hockey games. I do not know that Jack
fell short of expectations, I think when you are head coach in this league,
sometimes you are a victim of different circumstances and situations. You have
23 players on your roster, and it is hard to make moves, obviously in a salary
cap world. You do not see much movement during the season. Unfortunately, the
coaches bear the brunt of those decisions.”
Snow who has been the general manager for the Islanders
since 2006, is not too concerned about his job security, even with Ledecky and Malkin
thinking about adding a team president.
He said, “I do not even worry about that. I just worry about
what I have to do on a day-to-day basis and what I need to do, whether it is
preparing for a draft, being a support system for players, coaches or trainers.
As managers, we can’t control anything else than what we do on a day-to-day
basis.”
Capuano who coached the Islanders since November 15, 2010,
when he was promoted from their American Hockey League affiliate, the
Bridgeport Sound Tigers after Scott Gordon was let go. He has been a part of
the Islanders organization since 2005-2006, when he was an assistant coach.
His 482 games behind the bench and 227 victories are second
in Islanders history to Al Arbour. He was the fourth longest tenured coach
behind, Claude Julien of the Bruins, Joel Quennville of the Chicago Blackhawks
and Dave Tippet of the Arizona Coyotes.
Capuano said, “It is an
honor to have served this historic franchise and its passionate fans. I would
like to thank Garth and our ownership group for the opportunity to be head
coach of the Islanders. I would also like to recognize our coaching staff,
training staff and players for all of their hard work.”
The past two seasons the Islanders put up back-to-back 100-point
seasons under Capuano. Last year they were able to knock off the Florida
Panthers to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the
first time since 1993.
Snow added, “We owe a
ton of gratitude for the work Jack did. A lot of these players on our team came
up through our system in Bridgeport and [Capuano] coached some of those players
as well. From where we went, going from a rebuild to making the playoffs three
of the last four years, getting to the second-round last year, he was a big
contributor to that. We thank him and wish him all the best. I know he is going
to have success wherever he ends up.”
