Islanders Fire Coach Scott Gordon

Yes, the Islanders are still in the NHL. Just barely.

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.

What Did We Learn, Game 8: Pittsburgh 10, New Orleans 20

So we're about halfway through the regular season, and let's look at some bigger-picture things...

Of the six NFC playoff teams from last year (New Orleans, Minnesota, Dallas, Arizona, Green Bay, and Philadelphia), two are completely dead in the water, and the remaining four aren't exactly bathing themselves in glory.

The successful teams this year largely are playing good defense and have a solid running game. It seems at this point that if your quarterback throws for 300 yards, you're very likely to lose. As examples, I offer you Kansas City, the New York Giants, Baltimore, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, the New York Jets, New England... you get the idea.

Name me a quarterback who is having an awesome season. I can't do it- the usual suspects are not hitting a lot of dramatic deep balls for touchdowns.

We'll get to the AFC in a moment, but the sexy picks for the Super Bowl from the NFC- Dallas, San Francisco, Minnesota, Green Bay- are largely out of it. Green Bay still has a shot- as their defense really put it together yesterday- but it's hard to feel terribly good about anyone in the NFC other than Atlanta and the Giants at this point. Not just because I'm a Saints fan, by the way- Atlanta is showing a perplexing tendency to let teams hang around.

So let's consider what we saw yesterday in the NFC South.

Tampa did what the Saints couldn't against Arizona- play smart, ball-protecting football and minimize mistakes. The quarterback-challenged Cards threw an INT within tying field-goal range, and Tampa continues to build its confidence. They play the Falcons this coming week, and that will tell us a lot about what's going to happen in the NFC South.

Carolina hung in there with a coaching staff that's completely mailing it in, and lost to a rapidly-improving St. Louis team. They have the Saints this coming weekend in Charlotte, and this is dangerous territory for the Saints.

And now we get to the Saints.

Protect the football, from arguably the most physical defense in the NFL. Drew Brees threw one bad pick and fumbled a scoring opportunity on a safety blitz.

Enter the Saints' defense. One fumble recovery (by Darren Sharper, no less). One pick (career first by Leigh Torrence). One fourth-and-four from the Saints' 40, defeated. One 52-yard miss from Jeff Reed- and it led directly to the game-tying field goal from Garrett Hartley. And- most importantly- the Saints' D held the Steelers' offense out of the end zone from the six-inch line.

Finesse team, my ass.

Garrett Hartley had two must-make kicks. No problem- although I really wish he'd clean up that hook. Emmanuel Sanders was electric for the Steelers on a couple of big returns- one kickoff and one punt. The fake field goal call completely stunned the Steelers, forcing them to call timeout. On the opposite side, Jeff Reed missed a crucial 52-yard field goal (no shame in that) that changed the momentum of the game and led to the late 1st-half tying field goal.

The Steelers' defense is rated number one against the run for a reason. They demonstrated that ferocity against the Saints, who rushed for a total of 30 yards. The Saints' defense is ranked 16th against the rush, but held the Steelers to a total of 108 yards on the ground and one TD. The TD happened on the same call as the one that the Steelers won their overtime encounter with Atlanta on, and this one went for 38 yards.

The Steelers are not as impressive against the pass, ranked 25th, and gave up 305 yards to Drew Brees, as well as two touchdowns. They did recover a Brees fumble on a safety blitz, and intercepted him once. The Saints, on the other hand, are ranked 3rd against the pass. They gave up 195 yards to Roethlisberger, with one fumble recovery in the passing game and intercepting Roethlisberger once.

The story of this game comes down to turnovers, as ever. On the scoresheet, it only lists four, total- a fumble and an interception for each team. Add to that a missed FG, a blown fourth-and-four, and a goal-line stand, and you make a strong argument for the Steelers having left about ten points on the table.

What now? The Saints have what should be a tune-up game against Carolina in Charlotte. It ain't gonna be that way. This game will be annoyingly close, as ever. If the Saints can extend a lead on Carolina, I'll begin to believe they're really putting it together.

Finally, some thoughts on the AFC...

The class of the conference appears to be New England, the Jets, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh. New England quietly keeps winning, the Jets (aside from the head-scratchingly poor offensive play this past week) have a solid winning formula, and Baltimore and Pittsburgh will beat themselves (and their opponents) silly each week.

Not to be overlooked are the Chiefs, Raiders, Indy, Houston, and Tennessee. The Chiefs have a shockingly good defense, the Raiders seem to have found themselves... Indy is, well, Indy, and Houston and Tennessee have delivered notice that they aren't going away either.

Who can say? It's easier to pick out the teams that are history- Buffalo, Denver, San Diego, Cincinnati, Cleveland- than to pick out a clear favorite. Everything from here on out in the AFC will depend on staying injury-free.

Anyway, we shall see. In the Who Dat Nation, however, there is a sigh of relief, as the ship is righted... for one more week.

Gary Bettman Has A Rather High Opinion Of Himself

The Commish knows exactly how to soothe the feelings of the Minnesota Wild fan who got into a bit of a thing with Vancouver forward Rick Rypien...take him out to dinner.

An irate Rypien grabbed heckling Minnesota fan James Engquist while heading to the dressing room following a confrontation with Wild enforcer Rob Staubitz near the Vancouver bench. The two had fought earlier in the game. In addition to suspending Rypien, a 26-year-old Coleman, Alta., native who is in his sixth pro season, the NHL fined the Canucks US$25,000.

"It's a real eye-opener for me, so I think I'm going to come back real strong and better than ever," Rypien said in his first public comments since the incident occurred. "I think I'm going to be more focused and more determined to play the game that I love the most."

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has reportedly offered to take Engquist to dinner and provide him with a pair of tickets for another Wild game. The move came after the fan told a Minnesota newspaper he was contemplating legal action against Rypien for the incident, which lasted a few seconds before Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault and teammate Manny Malhotra quickly intervened.

If I ever had to have dinner with Bettman, I'd sue for emotional distress. Besides, wouldn't most hockey fans rather spend time with someone from the NHL who actually likes hockey?

As for the incident itself. Six game for Rypien, fine. I mean, it's not like it got out of hand or anything.

What Did We Learn: Game 7- Cleveland 30, New Orleans 17

For the second time in three weeks, the defending Super Bowl champions were done in by that which was one of their great strengths- their offense.

Four interceptions by Drew Brees. Two of those INTs were returned by defensive end David Bowens for touchdowns. Remove those scores from the game, and the Saints win. The same can be said of the Arizona game.

Colt McCoy didn't beat anyone. The defense, as ever, did their part.

On special teams, the Cleveland coaching staff dialed up a spectacular fake punt and a very impressive lateral on a punt return. Cleveland players reported some eye gouging and crotch punching by Saints players later in the game.

One can only say the same things over and over so many times. Yes, it helped that Scott Fujita was able to recognize formations and substitutions he'd seen with the Saints, but the fact remains that if the Saints don't turn the ball over, they win the game. Cleveland scored one offensive touchdown, much like the Cardinals previously.

Now Pittsburgh looms, with the strong probability of being 4-4 after eight games. Then comes a trip to Carolina, where the Saints seldom play well.

The fact of the matter is, there are no games that the Saints can count on winning for the rest of the way out. 9-7 may be enough to make the playoffs as a wild card, but it seems entirely likely that the Saints will suffer the embarrassing fate of not making the playoffs in their title defense. They may surprise us- predicated entirely on the offense rediscovering itself- but I wouldn't put any money on it.

Early Western Conference thoughts...

Well, collectively not even ten games in, we have some genuine surprises in the West so far. We'll see over time what the longer-term trend is, but let's start in the Central Division.

Ladies and gentlemen, in first place and undefeated in regulation, I give you your Nashville Predators. They had a three-game stretch of overtime losses to Montreal, Washington, and Pittsburgh, but then righted the ship against Dallas and Pittsburgh on the road. They appear to have improved in net with the addition of Anders Lindback, and they're giving up a sterling average of 2 goals per game.

Detroit, St. Louis, and Chicago all check in with at least four wins... a 1-0 overtime win for St. Louis over Pittsburgh was particularly noteworthy, and Detroit somehow just keeps cooking along. Chicago does not appear to have corrected their goaltending woes with Marty Turco... much like in Dallas, he seems to be solid in net until the waning minutes, and then fails to make that one key save.

Finally, Columbus is showing some interesting sparks with a pair of victories over Chicago. They're still wildly inconsistent, but if the season ended today, all five Central Division teams would be in.

Over in the Pacific, Marc Crawford has the Stars up and humming... a couple of key victories over Detroit and St. Louis, along with what is currently the 6th-rated offense in the league have them off to an impressive start. I'm not convinced that their blue line is deep enough to sustain a run, but they're rocking so far.

Los Angeles is right there with the Stars, as key wins over Vancouver and Colorado have them rolling. They recently lost G Erick Ersberg to the KHL, but he wasn't exactly a favorite of the coaching staff. D Drew Doughty has a hand injury that will keep him out for a week.

San Jose, Anaheim, and Phoenix are kind of a mess right now... the Sharks have beaten up on some weaker sisters, Anaheim can't keep the puck out of its own net, and the Coyotes are just kind of all over the place. The Coyotes looked strong in their opener against Boston, then didn't win another game except for a strong win over the Kings.

Finally, the Northwest is pretty much the weakest division in hockey right now, more so than the Southeast. Calgary is on top of the division playing .500 hockey, followed closely by Colorado. Both are entertaining teams to watch, but have had some nightmarish games defensively. Vancouver, who should be running away with things, is also playing .500 hockey despite massive upgrades along the blue line.

Careful followers of the discussion here and at Ace of Spades HQ will know that I'm not much of a believer in Roberto Luongo, and I think that will play itself out this year as well. Much like the San Jose teams of recent years, goaltending is what stands between Vancouver and the Cup.

Finally, Minnesota and Edmonton are in rebuilding mode, though Edmonton's Jordan Eberle is exciting to watch. That said, the Oilers have dropped four straight as of this posting...

Anyway, it'll be interesting to see who can sustain the pace in the West. Any thoughts?

NBA Contraction, and why you should care...

Hi, folks...

Just as a heads-up, we may have a new feature for you here at Moron Hockey in the very near future. That is, as soon as I can get out from under the organic chemistry dragon and some other things resolve themselves. We're very excited to do this, and thanks for joining us.

David Stern has openly spoken about NBA contraction in the interest of cutting overhead. No franchises were mentioned by name, but some obvious targets would be Sacramento (they want a new arena, and the city isn't budging), Memphis (you can hear the players rapping on the court during most games), Golden State (depending on the success of their proposed sale), and the Clippers (who can't give away tickets).

So how would that affect the NHL?

There are a lot of folks out there who feel like contracting the NHL would be a good thing. They feel like the talent pool is watered down (debatable, but not ridiculous), and that elimination of the Sun Belt teams would be a good thing (hotly contestable).

Nonetheless, the bottom line (pun unintended) is that though it's probably just hot air, it's still an open acknowledgment of the fact that the NBA is spending money that it doesn't necessarily have. The NHL has had a couple of franchises flirt with folding, although the landscape is substantially different in the NHL.

If the decision were made that any of the Sun Belt franchises were untenable, Canadian cities like Winnipeg, Quebec, Hamilton, and Saskatoon would be sitting there with arms wide open for them to relocate north of the border.

But let's remember something: two Sun Belt franchises have been in enough trouble that they publicly discussed moving. Two "traditional" markets- Pittsburgh and Buffalo- came just as close to moving. The Islanders have a hard time drawing fans to Nassau, and so forth.

Undeniably, franchises like Atlanta and Miami don't draw well at the gate, despite their significant TV markets. Part of that is directly related to their sometimes laughable on-ice product, but an equal problem is the oft-overlooked issue that hockey fans in their markets are often from other hockey markets- not homegrown fans.

So what is the solution?

To my way of thinking, the NHL doesn't do enough in its non-traditional markets to build the sport. Using the Dallas Stars as a model (where they built 7-10 rinks around the D/FW area), you have no equivalent market penetration in Miami, Phoenix, Tampa, Atlanta, or Nashville. In point of fact, Nashville (a previous residence of mine) had a total of two rinks. They drafted their first Nashvillian in the last couple of years (Blake Geoffrion, grandson of Hall of Famer Boom Boom Geoffrion), and celebrated by closing the rink in Franklin, TN, right as I was leaving.

The sport sold well in the early 90s because of aggressive market penetration by its existing franchises, along with a good contract with ESPN. The increased visibility led to the explosion of minor league teams around the country, and you had a boom in USA Hockey registry.

So it begs the question- is it time to abandon Versus and crawl back to ESPN (if they'll take the NHL back)? Under the circumstances, yes.

Opinions?

What Did We Learn Game 5- New Orleans 20, Arizona 30

Hi, folks. Sorry about the delay with this post- it's been a bit of a weird week, with an organic chemistry exam today and a car to pick up later this week.

Anyway, as of this afternoon, John Carney and DeShawn Wynn have been cut, and replaced with safety Matt Giordano (no idea) and former Seahawk Julius Jones. This would seem to indicate that Pierre Thomas' ankle is in worse shape than we realized, and that Reggie Bush may not be back to action as quickly as hoped.

So let's settle down and review this cluster (expletive deleted) of a game...

First of all, Max Hall didn't beat anyone. He threw a pick, fumbled twice, and went 17 of 27 for 168 yards and a pick. The Cards' running game didn't beat anyone- they had 41 yards on 27 carries, and the only semi-offensive touchdown they had was a Levi Brown recovery of a Max Hall fumble in the end zone.

The Saints' defense kept the Arizona offense out of the end zone, even when given the ball at the Saints' 3-yard line. Touchdowns were scored on two fumble recoveries and an interception returned for a TD.

The defense did its job, pure and simple. Four sacks, five QB hits, and an interception. That said, four fumbles were put on the ground within reach of the defense, and nobody got to them. Yeah, the ball didn't bounce in their direction, but...

No, this game was lost in two phases: offense and special teams. Let's do the special teams first...

John Carney is gone today because he blew a 29-yard field goal. That FG would have given the Saints the lead at 16-13, and changed the complexion of the game. It also more or less counts as a turnover- a scoring opportunity was thwarted. As before, 29 yards needs to be automatic. Anything less is simply unacceptable.

The kickoff coverage team yielded two 50-plus-yard returns to LaRod Stephens-Howling. Each one led to a Jay Feely field goal. The punt coverage teams did their jobs.

And then there's the offense, and this is really the story...

Ladell Betts tipped a catchable ball at the Saints' 2-yard line directly to Arizona LB Greg Toler. The resulting touchdown tied the game at 10. For an encore performance, he fumbled the ball straight to Kerry Rhodes, who cheerfully scooted into the end zone for the game-winning touchdown.

Drew Brees threw three INTs on the day. The first was on the aforementioned tip, and the second and third were when he had to press with the Saints down ten-plus points. The third was the Domonique Rodgers-Cromartie return for a TD while the Saints were (on paper) still in position to tie the game.

Again, we come to drops... Colston dropped a couple of drive-extending passes, Betts had his great tip, Devery Henderson... you get the idea. Part of the problem is that teams don't respect the Saints' running game at all, and drop 8 into coverage. There were and have been remarkably few receivers uncovered or in single coverage. The one time there was that situation was when Robert Meachem got behind coverage late for a 38-yard desperation heave that turned into the Saints' second TD.

It is worth asking whether the interior line is capable of blocking anyone at this point. The bottom line is that there are no longer any even probable wins left on the schedule. Tampa Bay looks like they're for real... Cleveland nearly knocked off Atlanta... nobody really knows what to think of Seattle or St. Louis, and the other AFC North teams appear to be quite real.

So now what in the short term? Well, the Cardinals could see the bread-and-butter screen passes coming, and Brees often threw the ball away in those situations. In any event, the three field goals kicked by the Saints were red-zone field goals. Until they correct their red-zone offense, wins will be tough to come by. Looking at the upcoming four games (at Tampa, vs Cleveland, vs Pittsburgh, and at Carolina), it's hard to feel good about any of them.

The rushing game is carrying the day for most teams this season, and it will now be up to Sean Payton to adapt his offense to what the defense is allowing: short and middle passes until the defense tries to take those away. It will also require Reggie Bush to do something he has to date been unable to do: run effectively with 20-25 touches in a game until Pierre Thomas returns.

The Saints are 3-2, and trail Atlanta by two games and Tampa by half a game. The playoffs are still a possibility, but unlikely until significant offensive and special teams adjustments happen.