This one will be difficult to write, especially without expletives and with the headache I’ve been nursing all day. A headache that was only made worse when the news came over one of my electronic devices (I can’t remember now which one) that the New York Islanders had made the decision to fire Scott Gordon.
Once the first notice came over, the repeats of the information came in a wave. Yes, this was breaking news, broken by the ONE media outlet that has direct connect to the team. In all honesty, it didn’t matter what outlet had it first, I hated the news. While it wasn’t shocking, it was disturbing. I
wrote this quickly this morning since I was working. You can use this link to get back to the comments page there if you'd like.
Scott Gordon was not the problem with this team or the cause of a ten game skid. But his public firing is a tactic widely used in the NHL to take the heat off the problem and an organization for at least a few days.
The real problem is the talent pool or lack thereof. Yes, I said it. No orange colored glasses tonight. Whether it is due to injury or contract decisions, when Radek Martinek is your best defenseman, there’s a definite problem with your roster. (Sorry Marty. No offense.)
Scott Gordon may not be the best coach at matching lines, but what did he have to work with? Many nights, the Islanders’ first line is only equivalent to their opponent’s third line and it only gets worse from there.
Certainly there is talent here that will improve and flourish and Scott Gordon was attempting to nurture that young talent because that’s what he’s good at. He’s a teaching coach. That’s probably why he was hired in the first place. He was there to “teach” the youngsters and he spent many hours doing just that. But while he was teaching his youngsters they were playing against already seasoned NHLers.
It doesn’t make any sense to me that a coach that was receiving accolades for a “confident” winning team in mid-October could be the one shown the door in early November. I’ll admit, something looked painfully different. I believe it was the line-up sheet. But Gordon’s demeanor also changed. From the day he was hired he said he would work every day as if it could be his last day on the job. NHL coaches have no real job security. And AHL coaches hired as NHL coaches are an even easier fire.
AHL Coach Jack Capuano has been named interim coach. Garth Snow said Jack is familiar with the team. Of course he is. A good portion of them have played for him as recently as last week. I have nothing against Capuano, I just don’t see it as changing anything in the big picture.
During the brief and difficult to hear conference call, Snow said that they need to concentrate on winning Wednesday. I can assure you, they’ll win. Generally shake ups such as this result in high-energy games first time out of the box. So they will win against Tampa Bay on Wednesday and maybe even on Saturday against the Thrashers. But when push comes to shove, the ultimate record will not be any different than it would have been with Scott Gordon behind the bench. No.
This was in my email when I got home tonight:
A good man lost his job today through no fault of his own.
Yep. He did.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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