Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Garth Snow On Relieving Jack Capuano As The Head Coach

01/17/2017 at 6:28pm EST

from Brett Cyrgalis of the New York Post,

With the team at 17-17-8 and in last place in Eastern Conference following a season in which it won a playoff series for the first time in 23 years, Snow surprisingly said a decision had been made prior to this announcement that Capuano was not going to be the coach next season.

“At the end of the day, organizationally, I don’t think Jack was probably going to be a coach we were going to bring back,” Snow said on a conference call. “At this time, to name Dougie Weight interim head coach, we can start a coaching search now and not have to worry about the ramifications of trying to do that with Jack as head coach.”

So it rang incredibly hollow when Snow dropped the cliche about how Capuano “is an excellent coach.” Snow callously added: “When you’re a coach in this league, sometimes you’re a victim of different circumstances.”

Right, so if all that’s true, there was no way Capuano was going to be the coach next season?

Either way, the circumstances Capuano were put in this season were created by Snow. The GM spent this past summer watching as stalwarts Kyle Okposo, Frans Nielsen and Matt Martin signed elsewhere, and attempted to replace them with a bloated contract for winger Andrew Ladd and the addition of veteran winger Jason Chimera.

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added 6:33pm, from Nicholas J. Cotsonika of NHL.com,

"We owe a ton of gratitude for the work that Jack did," Snow said.

But now that the Islanders have new ownership and will have a new coach, they have a chance to stop being a scrappy, underdog franchise and build a new identity. They need to take advantage of it. It's not about coming back to make the playoffs this season when they're eight points out of a wild card spot. It's about building a first-class winner. It's about signing Tavares, whose contract expires after next season, and surrounding him with the talent to win the Cup.

"We need to turn the ship around," Snow said. "I have a lot of confidence in our coaching staff and our players. It starts with our next game Thursday."

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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