The struggling New York Islanders fired coach Jack Capuano on Tuesday, ending his tenure in the middle of its seventh season.
General manager Garth Snow named assistant GM/coach Doug Weight as Capuano’s interim replacement. Snow told reporters Tuesday that the Islanders weren’t where they wanted to be in the standings and that everyone’s disappointed in their performance his season.
”At the end of the day organizationally I don’t think Jack was probably going to be a coach that we were going to bring back,” Snow said, adding that the team will begin a full-time coaching search now.
Snow said the halfway point of the season played a role in the timing of firing Capuano a day after beating the Boston Bruins 4-0. The Islanders were 17-17-8 and are in last place in the Eastern Conference with 42 points.
Capuano had been behind the Islanders bench since 2010 and was the fourth-longest tenured coach in the NHL behind Claude Julien of the Boston Bruins, Joel Quenneville of the Chicago Blackhawks and Dave Tippett of the Arizona Coyotes. Capuano’s 482 games and 227 wins rank second in franchise history behind four-time Stanley Cup-winning Hall of Fame coach Al Arbour.
”I don’t know that Jack fell short of expectations,” Snow said. ”When you’re a coach in this league sometimes you’re a victim of different circumstances.”
Snow signed Andrew Ladd to a $38.5 million, seven-year contract in July and the winger has been a disappointment with 12 points in 41 games. The Islanders have also dealt with some injuries and waived veteran goaltender Jaroslav Halak to send him to the minors.
The Islanders under Capuano went 227-194-64 and made three playoff appearances. They have not lived up to playoff expectations this season and new majority owner Jon Ledecky is expected to consider major organizational changes this offseason.
Snow said he takes ”100 percent” responsibility for the underachievement but that he doesn’t worry about his own job security. He said he has full confidence in Weight, the coaching staff and players to ”turn this ship around.”
Weight, 45, has been with the Islanders in an executive and coaching capacity since retiring in 2011. Snow said his relationship with all players, including Ladd, was positive and that he called captain John Tavares and others to inform them of the ”organizational decision” to fire Capuano.
Snow said assistant coach Bob Corkum would move down from the press box to the bench as part of the restructuring.
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