Should we have expected anything different? We all should know one simple fact about the New York Islanders, it is really hard to lose your job when you work for them. On Thursday, Islanders General Manager Garth Snow announced that the entire staff will return for the 2015/2016 season.
After writing my thousand word manifesto summing up why I think this entire staff fired, I knew in my head that the coaching staff would be retained and maybe it is good for our own sanity that this was announced quickly so we know where we stand. I don’t care what anyone tells you and this may be harsh, but in my opinion I do not believe that this coaching staff is capable of leading the Islanders to a Stanley Cup. I do not think they are taking this team from a rebuild to an annual cup contender.
With so many quality coaches available this summer, this would be the offseason to upgrade the staff. Moving into Brooklyn next season I thought they might want a coach with a stronger resume and past playoff experience. This is not the case though.
Garth Snow has hooked his horses to the bandwagon of Jack Capuano, Doug Weight and Greg Cronin. No offense to those individuals but if this bandwagon was rolling down the Oregon Trail, we would die of dysentery, break a leg or get stolen by a bald eagle. There is no way we would make it safely to the end.
This is where we stand now, Snow has made it clear that this season’s results were good enough to retain the staff. He praised the staff and the players for this year. Despite the fact that a horrid penalty kill caused this team to throw away points throughout most of the year and the power play hurt the Islanders the last 40 games and throughout the playoffs.
This will be the final season that Charles Wang will be majority owner of the Islanders. I fully expect that the new owners will clean house if we are in the same boat 12 months from now. The Islanders’ roster is good enough to be a playoff contender. They need a staff to field the best lineup possibly and maximize the talent of the roster. I’m not sure they are capable of that.
It will be interesting to see what this roster looks like come opening night in Brooklyn. Perhaps the young players learn from this playoff disappointment. I do believe that there is plenty of talent on this roster and the the players might be good enough to make a run on their own. I just don’t trust this staff and I would have cleaned house but we are where we are now. Garth is getting the band back together for one more run next season. Call me skeptical, and I would love to be wrong, but until this organization shows me something different, I fully expect to be writing this same article 12 months from now. As always for more on all things hockey follow me on twitter @DanDanNoodles78.