With the New York Islanders continued struggles, head coach Jack Capuano is venting frustrations. His job, however, is safe.
The New York Islanders continue to mire in the center of the NHL’s standings after a 3-2 shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. During the post-game interview, Capuano took a harsh shot at Garth Snow and his team for a lack of scoring.
The Ship Is Sinking
The Islanders took the ice last night to play against the Philadelphia Flyers, a metropolitan matchup where the Isles desperately needed two points. For a moment in that game, they had them.
After blowing possession in the offensive zone and resulting in a goal against, Tavares tied the game on the hapless power play in the second period. Seidenberg put the Islanders up 2-1 with a little over eight minutes left in the game. But here is where it gets laughably predictable.
With less than two minutes left in the game, the Flyers pulled Neuvirth and scored a second goal to tie the game late, a trend that the Islanders have repeated in five of their first eleven games this season.
To put the icing on the miserable cake, the Islanders dropped the game in a shootout after spending nearly all of overtime in their defensive zone. A frustrated Halak reportedly knocked over a laundry bin and was shouting expletives. At least there are players that care in the locker room.
Cappy’s Post-game
But the main call to attention was Capuano’s post-game comments. A visibly frustrated Capuano, who hardly ever deviates from his usual post-game reports said this:
“The level of concern for me is that we got a power play goal from Casey [Cizikas], Clutter [Clutterbuck] and Johnny [Tavares], and Seidenberg had a goal. That’s my concern. Where are we gonna get point production from? We took 134 points out of our lineup that we lost. Now we gotta find a way.”
To be fair to Jack, he’s right. Snow signed Ladd as a replacement for Okposo and Chimera as an upgrade over Martin and the two combined have four assists. At 11 games into the season, Cappy is trying anything to make it work.
Despite many fans being somewhat excited to hear this from the coach as a sign that it could cost him his job, Staple has reassured us that complacency will continue when he tweeted the following:
Sources say there's been zero talk of a coaching change for #Isles.
— Arthur Staple (@StapeAthletic) November 4, 2016
The Islanders play the Edmonton Oilers in Brooklyn this Saturday, Nov. 5 and 7 p.m ET. They held a team meeting prior to Friday morning’s practice which caused an hour and a half delay.
9 #Isles on ice for optional. Capuano said team met beforehand, coaches and players.
— Arthur Staple (@StapeAthletic) November 4, 2016
Whatever changes will take effect remains to be seen. Will the isles start to turn a corner in their season?
Or will the owners face no choice but to intervene in team affairs?
