Capuano Off Character Comments Reflect Pressure On Him/Team

“I’ve always respected what you guys do,” he said after a practice in suburban Dallas last week, before the team’s two most recent losses in a 1-4-2 slump. “There are times where I probably could boil over, but I don’t. There are times I could call out certain players, but I don’t. “To me it’s about the team. It’s not about what everybody thinks and everybody writes. I don’t really listen to what outside people have to say.”

Jack Capuano- 3/22/16 On media.....

And now he did call out certain players. 
What can I write? Obviously the coach going to the barely fringe media calling out players by name reflects a man feeling the pressure or having a very bad day. NHL coaches call out struggling players by name almost daily in this league but we know with no friendly home media it does not work that way for the New York Islanders.

Capuano Postgame vs Tampa.....
 "Since I've been here I've never singled guys out," Capuano said. "The only reason I singled them out is because I care about them. I care about them as people and I care about them as hockey players, and we have to do something to ignite them. We won the hockey game tonight. They know the areas they need to get better and at the end of the day we win or lose as a team and it was a good team win tonight."

Brock Nelson Postgame vs Tampa.......
"Nothing is fair," Nelson said regarding Capuano's pre-game comments. "It is what it is. You go out and play. I don't think you can ever be too complacent in this League, but I thought it's been a pretty good year so far, so you just keep going. "We had a little bit more jump. I think we were pretty decisive in our decision making. I thought we did a good job of attacking."

NYIFC Comments:
Everyone knows where I stand. It's a miracle they went from nine over to seventeen over playing 12/14 on road with the least days off of any team by a mile. Every game someone not expected to score (Hickey, Cizikas, Clutterbuck) found a way to to earn very ugly points, and they went 6-1 on one trip to move into a playoff spot.

They faced some goalies who struggled badly to even reach nine over, the Islanders pk/goaltending and defense in third improved. (intangibles)

I did not even expect a five hundred record given schedule/lack of days off playing 12/14 with no day at home. I expected a team coming out of that stretch 6-10 points out of a playoff spot.

Having written that, here we are. If not for the Flyers/someone's surge (as expected) they are already in a playoff spot.

As written many times this kind of schedule produces injuries (any schedule could) now they have to do it without their #1 goalie/Hamonic + Grabovski x 3 for openers.

Add Calvin deHaan injury number 3 to that list. 

That could get worse the final week again with no real time off. 

I don't see winning much from them ahead given injuries or constant games as competition improves, but we get our answer by 4/10/16 the latest one way or another.

One thing for sure is if the coach is acting out of character, this could be the end of the ugly wins or any wins if he lost his team. They gave all they had to win four of five recently even against out of contention teams that are never an easy game. 

And they were the better team against Tampa, but it only keeps getting tougher. 

---