Scott Gordon Fired From NY Islanders

Added on Nov 15, 2010 by J Merrill in

NHL

You have to expect the hammer to fall when you are the coach of an NHL team and you manage to drop 10 in a row. Its official, Scott Gordon was fired as coach of the New York Islanders on Monday after a ten game skid that left them in the bottom of the NHL standings. Gordon will remain as an advisor to the Islanders, and to General Manager Garth Snow. Gordon was a relative unknown from the AHL when hired by the Islanders in 2008. In two-plus seasons with New York, Gordon went 64-94-23.

He will be replaced by assistant coach Jack Capuano on an interim basis.

“When we’re in a situation we’re in right now, we’ve lost 10 games in a row, sometimes you have to go with your gut and make decisions that are tough,” Snow said during a conference call. He continued “We believe we need a change in direction and, with the majority of the regular season still ahead of us, our goal remains to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs, Scott has made tremendous strides with our team the past three seasons and I look forward to continuing our relationship in an advisory capacity. It’s very disappointing, It’s a situation where Scott is an excellent coach and a good friend. It’s been a great experience to work with him the past three seasons.”

This isn’t a real shock to fans, as the statistics for the Islanders have been awful. They have scored only 37 goals in 17 games for an average of 2.17 per game. Only New Jersey and Florida have scored fewer. They have gone 0-9-1 in the last ten games, they have the fewest goals per game since October 23 with 1.2, worst points percentage since 2008-09 season with .417, and 29^th goals per game with 2.2 for the year. Obviously a drastic change was needed.

The question moving forward is why Capuano? He is familiar with many of the Islanders’ young players who were with Bridgeport before reaching the NHL and from his work with the team during training camp. Capuano was 133-100-8-14 with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. He joined the Islanders as an assistant coach for the 2005-06 season after serving as general manager of the ECHL’s Pee Dee Pride from 1997-2005.

“I think having a coach like Jack Capuano, who has a familiarity with the players who have been in our system through Bridgeport and taken part in our training camp here,” said Snow. “I can take comfort in that there doesn’t have to be a feeling-out process for the players. He knows our players — that familiarity, to me, made it the best fit for us.”

Scott Gordon had nothing but good things to say about the club, and the team. “As a team, this is a great group of kids that are good people and enjoyable to work with,” said Gordon. “There isn’t a guy on the team that you wouldn’t want to work with. Whoever coaches the team down the road will reap the benefits.”