Scott Gordon is out as head coach of the Islanders.
Isles' GM Garth Snow announced today that Gordon was being replaced on an interim basis by Jack Capuano, the head coach of the team's AHL affiliate in Bridgeport. Gordon will remain with the organization as an advisor to Snow.
Gordon was in his third year as the Isles coach and after getting off to a solid start this season, the Isles are currently in a 10-game losing streak.
"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," Snow said in a statement. "Scott has made tremendous strides with our team the past three seasons and I look forward to continuing our relationship in an advisory capacity."
Gordon obviously isn't solely to blame for the Isles woes but as the saying goes...you can't fire all the players.
The shot term problem for the Islanders is the fact that the Kyle Okposo and the under rated Mark Streit haven't played this season. The Isles were working on a pretty thin margin to hang around the top half of teams that wouldn't make the play offs (somewhere between 9-12 in the conference). Take those players out, add in a lackluster start by John Tavares and...ladies and gentlemen, here are your 2010-2011 Islanders.
The bigger issues for the Islanders are an owner, Charles Wang who is holding the franchise hostage to a real estate deal and a GM, Garth Snow, who thought giving Rick DiPietro a 15 year deal was a great idea.
As someone who grew up in the NY area as a Ranger fan when the Islanders were dominating the league, I should enjoy this but it's sad what's happened to this once proud franchise. The best hope is either for Wang to sell the team or move it.
While the firing of Scott Gordon is big news in the Gordon home, it's not really here or there in the Islanders' list of problems. They'll be a new coach behind the bench at the Nassau Coliseum Wednesday for Tampa Bay. Unfortunately, it'll be the same guys in the ownership box and on the ice in blue and orange.
