Islanders Fire Ted Nolan

TED NOLAN WILL NOT RETURN AS ISLANDERS HEAD COACH IN 2008-09
Snow to Begin Search for New Head Coach Immediately

New York Islanders General Manager Garth Snow announced today that Ted Nolan will not return next season as the team’s head coach. Nolan had one season remaining on his contract.

"Ted has helped us achieve some success over the last two seasons, however it has become clear that we have philosophical differences and have decided together to part ways," said Snow. "Since last season and continuing into the summer, I have realized we do not share the same philosophies. I would like to thank Ted for his two years with the team and wish him the best.

"I have a list of several qualified candidates. After a thorough process, we will hire the very best coach to lead the Islanders on the ice."

Added Nolan: "While I am disappointed I will not be coaching the Islanders next season, there have been philosophical differences and we’ve agreed it’s a good time for me to move on. I want to thank the Islanders organization for giving me a chance to coach in the NHL again. I have tremendous respect for what the team is trying to do and I wish them well."

NYIFORLIFE.com REACTION: Well, it wasn't a real surprise, was it? I mean, the worst part about it is that it took place three months after the end of the Islanders' season. As we mentioned in an earlier post, when Nolan was at one end of the Islanders' draft table and Garth Snow was at the other, it was clear that the coach was not being consulted on the draft at all.

I guess now is when we hear the rumors of Bryan Trottier taking over. I would also hope that Snow would interview a guy like John Tortorella. Johnny Torts is not one to mince words and he'd be a quote machine for a team looking to get some publicity. Plus, the guy nurtured (in his own way) the young Lightning stars like Lecavalier and Richards, etc. And the guy has won a Stanley Cup--so he'd come in with instant credibility. Not sure if he is the right fit, but I hope Garth at least kicks the tires.

The End of the Line

By now, everyone has read the great post by Chris Botta on his own site...which is coming to and end this week. Seriously, since the guy left the Islanders, Chris Botta has probably been the single most important person out there for breaking news on the team and giving us the straight talk we are not getting from the team's management. He is so going to be missed.

Anyhoo, for those wondering, the post I am referring to is regarding the relationship (or lack thereof) between Garth Snow and Ted Nolan. Despite everything they say publicly, it would take a complete moron with a frightening blind faith not to realize that there is a real problem there.

Botta makes many points to illustrate when he thinks each man has gone wrong. Suffice to say that Ted has been guilty of biting the hand that fed him and Garth has been guilty of imposing his will on the players and team that Nolan has to coach without asking/getting/receiving input from the man directly responsible for trying to get the group to pull in one direction.

Botta recognizes that both guys are in the wrong and that the longer this goes on, the longer and more painful the divorce is going to be. You could see it at the end of last year and you just know that it has been simmering all summer.

I mean, come on, who didn't say WTF?? when Garth and Ryan Jankowski went up to announce the Josh Bailey pick at the draft? Did you notice that Ted Nolan was at one end of the table and that Mr. Wang, Chris Dey, Garth, and Jankowski were all at the other? The COACH OF THE ISLANDERS WAS AT THE KID'S TABLE, for Pete's sake, while the grownups at the other end were spinning, dealing, and deciding for the entire organization. I mean, Bill Guerin was seated half-way in between management and the coach. Does that mean he had more input in the pick than the head coach did? The head coach that no one conferred with?

Are you a big believer in body language? I am. Ted Nolan was sitting there, shoulders slumped forward, head about a foot off the table, looking every bit like a kid who didn't want to sit down for dinner. You know why? Because no one bothered asking him what he wanted to eat!

Does that mean I think Teflon Ted is the wronged party in this crumbling marriage? Nope. I sure do not. I don't because as Botta mentioned, Ted more than once gave the old "you play who they give you" defense as the team limped to the spring. I mean, that is almost as bad as blaming the players for playing badly even though you think you're coaching well!

And Garth Snow is not absolved of blame in the rift. He's not exactly been the most accommodating manager either. He's ripped guys in the press like Dubie when maybe he didn't have to...

....which by the way is the PERFECT illustration of the breakdown in communication. When Dubie was allowed to walk (all the way to Russia), Garth was in Newsday saying that he had showed up to the previous camp out of shape and that the coaching staff (Nolan) had lost faith in him and that was the reason Rick DiPietro was overplayed until he was injured.

Shortly thereafter, Nolan is asked about Snow's comments and he denies ever losing faith in his backup goalie. He also kind of tossed Rick into the fire by casually mentioning that DiPietro wanted to play a lot (he repeatedly expressed the desire for Brodeur-numbers last summer) and that he admired Dubie for how he played and got the Isles into the playoffs the previous spring.

Um, conflict? Conflict resolution, anyone? Am I the only one who thinks this he said/he said crap is just a little too "High School" for the NHL? How is anything positive going to come of this?

I guess what I am saying is this: we're going to miss Chris Botta's posts and that yes, it's gonna be a long year. This thing is just heating up and unless somebody in power either grows up or makes a decision one way or another, the 2008-09 season is not going to be positive for the New York Islanders or their long suffering fans.

And I think I just threw up in my mouth.

Heading into Free Agency

So, here we are on June 25, just a few days before the doors open for the free agency season.

We have a very popular coach serving out the final year of his contract. So right there, any player who thinks that he will sign with the Islanders to play for Ted Nolan has to wonder what the heck is going to happen to Nolan after this season.

Well, the truth is that Nolan might not last the season on the Island. You heard it here first.

They are so going with the kids and there is some question as to whether or not Nolan is the kind of coach who can nurture young players and help them mature. He has been reluctant to play guys like Jeff Tambellini who light up the AHL and yet has trouble in the NHL. Lots of people think that he has been asked to play a different game in the NHL vs. the one he has had success with in the AHL. The question becomes is Tambellini just one of those guys who is too good for the AHL and not quite good enough for the National League or has the coach not put him in a position to succeed at the NHL level. With Blake Comeau and Kyle Okposo, he put them in situations that fit their skills so you wonder if it is the player or the coach? This season, we are so going to find out.

The scary thing is that should Ted Nolan be fired, who the heck would be the next coach? The organization is not only bereft of playing prospects but also bereft of coaching prospects. That is not a knock on Bridgeport coach Jack Capuano either. I'm guessing that after one year of coaching in the American League that Capuano would admit that he needs more seasoning.

So right now, the year after the Islanders signed The Leftover Line, the team is in a worse position to sign free agents than in any time over the past six or eight years. No agent worth his 5% is going to suggest to his player that he sign with the Islanders because the situation does not look stable.

Doesn't all of this just make you feel great?

More Fantastic News

I hope you all read Newsday today to catch the latest exchange between our GM and our coach.

If you didn't see it, here you go:

When asked about Wade Dubielewicz not being resigned by the team, Ted Nolan completely contradicted a comment made the day previously by Garth Snow. The GM had said that before last season, Dubie had not shown up to training camp in shape and therefore, the coaching staff did not have confidence in playing him...which lead to over-playing number one goalie, Rick DiPietro.

Nolan's response: "It was news to me."

Nolan was also much more diplomatic when discussing Dubie's Islander career; thanking him for the effort and reminding us that the team would have never made the playoffs if he hadn't made The Pokecheck during the shootout vs. New Jersey. But we don't get that in an article where both men are quoted. We get it in two separate articles that literally and figuratively are on different pages. Nice work, guys.

So what do we make of this? Well, for starters, the communication between Snow and Nolan is breaking down again. There's been rumors for some time about discord amongst the Islanders Brain Trust and what we are reading is not going to make those rumors go away. We know that Snow and Mr. Wang are hell-bent on going with the kids this year--a move we support and think is long overdue, quite frankly--and we also know that Ted Nolan has voiced his opinion that he doesn't think this is the best tact for the team to take. Throw in the reluctance of the team to extend Nolan in the last year of his contract and what you see is that they don't know if Ted Nolan is the right kind of guy to play the nurturing role while the kids develop.

Then you get the news that Rick DiPietro had minor knee surgery this week and that this potentially huge news was disclosed not in Newsday or on a fine news source like NYIFORLIFE.com, but that Rick himself spilled the beans on (of all things) The Bubba The Love Sponge Show on Sirius satellite radio.

Seriously. Not on XM's NHL Live, but on Sirius channel Howard 101. Yeesh.

Whether or not the surgery was minor or major is of no importance other than we are one injury away from starting Joey MacDonald in 2008-09. No, this is much deeper than that. It is another organizational breakdown of communication. There was no one involved with the team to either counsel Rick to shut his yap about surgery (because is makes the fans nervous at this point) or to have it on the website or in the paper to get the message out there that it isn't anything major and that The Franchise is okay.

Look--I know what it is like to work in an office where you don't all get along and where you may not trust the person sitting next to you. It sucks. Totally sucks. But it is even worse when you have this alleged discord while running a sports franchise because you're essentially messing with the public trust. The Isles like to think that they are making all sorts of important headway in the community to grow the next generation of Islanders fans and to a point, the work they are doing has been successful. But the one thing that really puts butts in the seats and creates goodwill between the organization and the fans is a winning team. Drama does nothing but create feelings of "more of the same" in regards to the New York Islanders.

I'm sick of reading about and I am sick of caring so much about a team that seemingly has to take two or three steps backwards after they take one step forward. The Isles need to get their shit together for the sake of the people who care about the team. I know this is true because I am like the most patient person ever with this stuff and now I am just getting tired of it.

I had hoped to write something about the upcoming draft this week. I also had thought about writing a post about the game from Monday night because it was simply one of the most enjoyable and fun games to watch in my thirty years of watching this game we all love. I had also hoped to post another Retro Live Blog but in all three cases, I couldn't, because the Islanders gave me something to complain about.

So, you know, thanks for that, guys. Now shut up and figure it out.

Islanders Team Report; courtesy Yahoo! Sports

Ted Nolan seems resigned that he’s not going to be re-signed any time soon.

Nolan’s future as head coach of the Islanders remains muddled, a notion he confirmed in a recent published report. Speaking at a Canadian awards banquet May 2, Nolan said he expects to enter the 2008-09 season as a lame-duck coach and without a contract extension.

“It’s a tough situation,” Nolan told the Sault Star. “But I’ve faced a lot of tough situations before. I just want to go into next season, concentrate on fulfilling my contract, do a great job and make sure I get another contract somewhere.”

Nolan’s use of “somewhere” doesn’t sound promising regarding his expectation to coach the Isles beyond this season. He claims the Isles haven’t reached out to him about an extension, and he doesn’t plan to broach the subject with GM Garth Snow and/or owner Charles Wang.

Bill's note: Please let's not make a huge mistake on this one. Get the man signed and let him and the fans know that he is the guy going forward. Nolan is quite popular with the fanbase and deserves some security.

Another note: We'll have our interview with Mike Fornabaio of the Connecticut Post up some time this weekend. Mike's been covering the Sound Tigers for seven years now and has some great insight into what the day of a beat reporter is like and some insight on some of the guys that will be playing for the Islanders next season.

Ted Nolan

Have you checked out anything in the Canadian media about Ted Nolan and how the Rick DiPietro hip injury has gone down? Well, it seems that media types are speculating that the Islanders "may fire" Ted Nolan after the way he "handled the Rick DiPietro situation".

One thing about being home with the flu is that you have a lot of time on your hands--even more that I do at work--so you can check all this stuff out. I was told that this firing speculation even was discussed on SNY and on NHL Live.

I mean, do I even have to write this? Is it even worth discussing? The Islanders simply cannot fire Ted Nolan after a season ravaged by injuries. It just wouldn't make any sense; no matter whether or not Ranger Beotch Larry Brooks says that Nolan is whining in print on the players not performing as well as they can.

What kind of message do you send to potential free agents and the rest of the NHL if you fire a guy who is very popular with his players and the fans? If you're trying to sell a family atmosphere to players to make Long Island an attractive place to play, all of that gets pissed down the toilet if you let the coach go. You then give license to those detractors who want to say that the team is run haphazardly and lacks stability.

By the way, shouldn't Ted Nolan be pissed off when the team performs badly? Shouldn't the coach want to light a fire under the players? Bottom line, the coach gets paid to win. He shouldn't be cheerleading the team to lay down just so they can improve their chances at drafting Steven Stamkos in June. He gets judged on wins and losses; not on tanking and quitting.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I pray it doesn't happen. There were strides made organization-wise this season even though there won't be any playoffs this year. By firing the coach, you destroy the good will you've built up. As we've seen in the league this year, a team's fortunes can change greatly from one year to the next. Firing the coach at this point simply makes no sense.

Islanders Team Report courtesy Yahoo! Sports

Inside Shots

In the middle of an interview on a top-rated local radio program Thursday, Islanders general manager Garth Snow was asked if Ted Nolan’s decision to start backup goalie Wade Dubielewicz for the third straight game that night caused him to raise an eyebrow.

“One eyebrow or two?” Snow replied.

Snow already was on record earlier in the week that he expected All-Star starter Rick DiPietro back in the lineup Thursday on the back end of a home-and-home series against the rival Rangers, even though Dubielewicz had filled in admirably in a 4-3 shootout victory two nights earlier at Madison Square Garden with DiPietro skipping his second straight game due to the death last week of his grandmother.

The Isles’ ongoing struggles on the power play were more of a factor than was Dubielewicz’s play in Thursday’s playoff-damaging 4-1 loss, and Nolan undoubtedly will switch back to his workhorse starter for Saturday’s visit to Philadelphia.

Still, DiPietro, who returned from Massachusetts in time to practice with the team Wednesday and again at Thursday’s morning skate, has 13 years remaining after this season on a 15-year contract. Thus, it was big news that Nolan had the pucks to stick with Dubielewicz, who entered the game with 13 wins in his NHL career.

“I was told I wasn’t playing,” said DiPietro, who sports a lackluster save percentage of .886 over his past 16 starts. “At the end of the day, that’s a coach’s decision. Dubie played well the last game and got us that win in the shootout. It was unfortunate I was away a couple of days and missed time.”

Nolan also wasn’t pleased that DiPietro announced the decision to the media before he did.

“Ricky has to concentrate on being a goaltender and we’ll concentrate on coaching the team,” he said. “We’re in the business of winning games, so you’ve got to go with the hot goaltender — if that’s the case — or you come back with our No. 1 guy.

“Either way, it’s a tough decision. But actually, it’s a good decision. You want tough decisions to make. If it’s easy, the competition isn’t there. So, a hard decision is better for the team. It’s a great position for us to be in deciding which goaltender should go because they’re both very adequate.”

Rangers 4, Islanders 1: Whatever you think of Ted Nolan’s daring decision to stick with backup Wade Dubielewicz for a third straight game despite All-Star starter Rick DiPietro’s availability, know that goaltending wasn’t to blame for the Islanders’ latest anemic loss. Heck, instead of manning the door at the end of the bench, maybe DiPietro’s vaunted stick-handling skills could have proved helpful at the point to aid another wretched performance by the Isles’ putrid power-play unit. The Isles went 0-for-5 with the man-advantage, including three straight power-play opportunities with the game within reach in the second period. With their fifth loss in their last seven games, the low-scoring Isles slipped to five points behind the eighth-place Flyers in the Eastern Conference, with a visit to Philadelphia on tap for Saturday.

Notes, Quotes

• D Bruno Gervais (concussion) skated Thursday for the second consecutive day, but Isles coach Ted Nolan said there is no timetable presently for his return to the lineup. LW Jon Sim, who had surgery in October to repair a torn ACL, also has resumed skating on his own, but it remains doubtful that he will be back before the regular season is over.

Quote To Note: “I thought Dubie did well. He had a breakaway against him, then a re-direction on the second and third (goals). It certainly wasn’t Dubielewicz’s fault. He played a strong game and kept us in. Rick (DiPietro) will have two practices under his belt and he’ll run with it from here on in.”—Coach Ted Nolan, on his decision to give backup goalie Wade Dubielewicz a third straight start in Thursday’s 4-1 loss to the Rangers.

Richard Park earns everything he gets!

Park's wrister with 1:17 left in OT gave our boys a 3-2 victory over the Capitals last night.

You have to enjoy this new tough-love "earn your playing time" deal that Ted Nolan is using on the guys. While it was strange to see guys like Andy Hilbert and Blake Comeau on the PP in the third period the other night in Pittsburgh, it's also a really good way to let the star players on the team know that they need to be held accountable as well.

Anyone read US Weekly? Did Lizzie McGuire break up with Mike Comrie? The Islanders need him to get his focus back and start doing all of those things that made the guy the star that he was for the first part of the season.

Miro's first period goal extended his latest streak to six games. He and Big Joe have been getting a rhythm of late while playing with a revolving door of wingers. The Isles really need Miro and Vasicek to keep it going as well. Guerin potted the Isles' second goal. He's playing better of late, I think.

I'm really looking forward to the WJC starting Wednesday. It will be great to see Kyle Okposo play so we can get sort of a free preview of coming attractions. The Isles have other junior players in the tournament and we'll get to spotlighting some of those guys once the games get started.

Also, in a last note, I just want to say that Dominik Hasek is a tool. I was transferring a copy of Classic Series to DVD for a buddy who is a Senators fan and they had the 1997 series between Buffalo and Ottawa where Dom may or may not have faked a knee injury to get out of playing. Of course they had some of the ancillary issues of the series as well, featuring Hasek pushing a reporter and then his lame statements about wanting to play, etc. It is really telling to me that in his press statement after the shoving incident that he named the owner by name, John Muckler by name, and when he should have said Ted Nolan's name, he just said "the coach". It wasn't that he just said "the coach" either, he said it fairly derisively.

Seriously, if you were to make a list of the hockey players you just can't root for under any circumstances, wouldn't Hasek be on that list? Hasek. Roenick. Darcy Tucker. Sean Avery. Oh, man. This could be longer than Santa's!

Ted Nolan on WFAN

Click here to listen to the interview!

D-Day for Berard; Bridgeport, and more!

Today is the day that the Islanders need to move on the Bryan Berard situation. Berard has, from all accounts, played well during his tryout with the team. I'm hopeful that Garth and the Brain trust will see fit to offer Bryan a contract for this season. I thought he played very well in Bridgeport the other night (the Devils won 2-1) and the fact that the guy is on Islanders TV all the time shows us that everyone is pulling for the guy.

The tryout route is not set in stone, however. The Isles got lucky last year with Richard Park and Mike Dunham but even a guy like Dave Tanabe--once thought to have a lot of promise--was let go by the Blues after being in camp on a tryout. My feeling is that Berard and his agent are probably working out the details right now.

Regarding the game in Bridgeport, two players really stood out for me for the Isles. The first was, of course, local favorite Wade Dubielewicz. Dubie was the first star of the game and made 40 saves; many of them difficult and (dare I say) spectacular.

The other guy who really made an impression on me was Matthew Spiller. Spiller is a big dude and he plays a very simple game. He was not afraid to step in to defend and help out his teammates either. I'm not sure what his contract situation is but if he does not make the Islanders, he is going to be a solid, solid defenseman for the Soundtigers. Also, with injuries being as they are, Spiller could find himself contributing on Long Island.

To end this post, I just want to send out condolences to Ted Nolan and his family. I don't think it has been reported too widely, but our coach recently lost someone in his family and that's why he missed the game in Bridgeport and others over the weekend while he went home to attend to personal matters.

Panthers 8 Islanders 5

Ugly-ass game tonight in South Florida.

Mike Sillinger had two goals and two assists. Ryan Smyth had his best game as an Islander with two goals and a helper. And miraculously, both players were minus-2! But check this out:

Sean Hill: -4
Miro Satan: -5 and benched for most of the second period. Minus five!
Brendan Witt: -3
Viktor Kozlov: -2 and he only played just over 5 minutes!

You know the feeling you get when you have the flu and you don't know whether you're going to shit yourself or throw up? Well, I have that feeling right now. And I bet Mike Dunham does too. Dunham--who I don't think you can say is still rusty after Ricky played all those games in a row--played a game that he'd like to forget real, real soon. He was so bad that you have to wonder whether or not Teddy Nolan calls the bullpen and starts Wade Dubielewicz on Tuesday in Tampa. Panic move? Maybe it is. But maybe we need to panic right now.

Every time the Islanders scored, the Panthers came right back to answer. It was just a terrible display out there tonight in a game the team really needed. And to see Olli Jokinen go 2 and 3 for an amazing plus-6 is sickening. I wonder what Oleg Kvasha was doing tonight? Mark Parrish?

The Rangers put up a touchdown on the Bruins and their constipated-looking coach, Dave Lewis. Lewis is probably out of answers right now. So the Bruins seem to be falling off.

Montreal picked up two points tonight by taking the shootout from the Leafs and Darcy Tucker; who choked on it when he could have given the Leafs the shootout win. Still, as nice as it is to see failure on Tucker's part, it is as sad to see the Islanders failing to rally behind Dunham. We need Ricky back as soon as is possible--general body soreness or not.

Scott Morrison on the CBC Satellite Hotstove said that the rumor is that Ricky's is pretty concussed and had a nasty gash on his neck from the collision with Steve Begin. Let's hope we see a healed DiPietro on Thursday night.