Newsday: Greg Logan has more on the change with Ted Nolan's comments he knew he had differences with Garth Snow but was just preparing for the season and for his part had no idea the end was coming until the gm called him in the office this morning agreed it would be better off to part ways. He also said from here he will just move on and take some time to go home to be with my family for a few days and that hopefully he will have another chance to coach in the league.
The now former coach also said this was nothing like the situation with Buffalo and that every coach who gets let go, there's some differences of opinions and that he is no different. That he both he and Garth Snow wished the other well and both left feeling good about what they accomplished while never once saying he was unhappy coaching here, only that he was unhappy with the record and not making the playoffs that he loved Long Island that he will certainly miss it and the fans.
Mr Logan for his part writes a league source said the Islanders gave Nolan written permission to interview with other teams after the season but he did not receive an offer then goes to a brand new angle where he quotes unnamed players who had problems with Ted Nolan but does not identify them with a lot of new stuff we have not read to date.
From there the beatwriter plays the unnamed player quote game but makes sure to point out Rick DiPietro is not the player in question nor was there an issue with playing Dubielewicz against the Rangers.
Mr Logan writes as the season came apart in March another prominent player challenged Nolan's strategic decisions where he says he was told by Ted Nolan that Charles Wang was running the show, that the player refused to accept this and went to Snow and arranged a meeting with the GM, Nolan and Wang, who denied interfering with the players quotes Nolan pretty much tried to say he didn't tell me that and portrayed him me as a liar, that the player put his -- -- on the line, and it kind of made me see him the coach in a different light.
In addition Mr Logan writes another key leader who did not want to be identified also had a falling-out with Nolan and began to question the coach's methods that he did some -- -- things, that he wasn't listening to his assistants and he was kind of going the opposite way and that everyone knew that.
Mr Logan reports Nolan declined comment on the report of the sit down with Wang, Snow and the player who challenged his authority, and he also refused comment about postseason job interviews.
NYI Fan Central Comments:I don't know, now I guess it's time to play the unnamed player quote game and air every bit of a teams dirty laundry which is over the line to me for a club barely covered unless it's for this purpose. This could have been done months ago also by Mr Logan but given Comrie resigned, Sillinger was on the sidelines with Sutton, Hunter resigned, Witt resigned and he made clear it's not Rick DiPietro were running out of unnamed veterans unless it's one of the players who were not offered a contract, my guess is we'll never know but it keep the rumor mill spinning.
No wonder Doug Weight has had nothing to say upon signing here. I do not even want to blog on it anymore between the unnamed quotes and the beat writer now turning into deep throat.
Newsday: Mr Logan had a run down of Ted Nolan's Islander coaching career.
Newsday: Wallace Matthews who does other sports for the first time in what seems years jumps all over the bash the Islanders bandwagon starting by writing this will be the beginning of Garth Snow's real tenure as general manager and like Mr Logan he makes sure to find a lot of unnamed sources to rip the club and of course blames Mr Wang's management by committee plan which other NHL teams are now copying which he ignored along with the club making four playoffs in the last six seasons which is hardly great but not dismal as he describes it.
NYI Fan Central Comments:It's hard to take Mr Wallace seriously because he is not around the New York Islanders and never writes about the club. He seemed to know more about the Rangers/Neil Smith past problems but had no problem telling us us a hockey committee approach does not work. Mr Wallace also seemed to go out of his way to find unnamed sources willing to bash the club to overstate his points.
I will say calling the Nassau Coliseum the dreadful Nassau Mausoleum (presumably) hemorrhaging money does not come off as objective here at all, it reflects someone with a bit of an agenda who should be blaming Nassau County for that who was more interested in writing Rangers because of his apparent lack of knowledge of the
current New York Islanders.
Newsday: Katie Strang had assistant coach Gerard Gallant's comments who learned the news via a phone call from the Islanders' public-relations staff just before taking the ice but there was no indication other than the reports of friction in Newsday but he had no idea something was going to happen.
Executive director of player development Bryan Trottier was shocked and had no clue who was informed by assistant coach John Chabot and was wordless and wondered why the team would be looking for a new head coach and said he's a big Ted Nolan fan and was not interested in wanting to take over the job and says he wouldn't consider coaching in the league for another three to four years.
Mike Dunham commented the timing of the decision struck some as odd, but situations like these are never pleasant and felt there is never a good time for this but the club wants to get off to a good start going into the season.
Kyle Okposo and Blake Comeau found out about Nolan by reading it on the Internet in the Islanders' dressing room before their session on the ice. Okposo had no idea what was going on. Comeau praised Ted Nolan and said he was great with him and gave him confidence which led to a bit of success last season for him.
Newsday: Katie Strang also had fan reaction at the prospect camp to the coaching change.
NY Times: Dave Caldwell has another article with comments from Garth Snow and Ted Nolan with little new beyond the general manager being quoted as saying were committed to playing our younger players and a player like Jeff Tambellini deserves a chance to get significant ice time with us while Ted Nolan feels he did the best he could.
NY Post: Dan Martin does an article on the change with a lot of repeat comments from Ted Nolan and Garth Snow and speculates the club could have a problem attracting a name coach.
NY Post: Larry Brooks is the only one so far behind on what's happening with the Islanders he blames it on Rick DiPietro not playing against the Rangers which even DiPietro himself and Newsday's Greg Logan wrote was not the problem. He does make the fair point this was a conflict between the front office and the head coach on the
age-old issue of cultivating kids as opposed to leaning on journeymen veterans.
NYI Fan Central Comments:Of course Mr Brooks puts it on Rick DiPietro, the Ranger games are his only time he really pays attention to the club, and it goes without writing it he had some shots for Ted Nolan and the club not attracting free agents, despite Mark Streit deciding on the Islanders over the Rangers at a bargain price compared to Wade Redden who even had to have a partial no-trade clause according to Mr Brooks.
Sporting News/Atlanta Journal Constitution: Craig Custance reports he tried to contact Bob Hartley today to see if he would interesting in coaching the Isles and what he would bring to the club along with Atlanta getting out of part of his contract for next season.
Canadian Press: Has an article with goaltender Rick DiPietro's comments in a phone interview that he was a little bit surprised at but at the end of the day they made a decision and are moving in a new direction.
He felt teams that are successful with the salary cap have been able to develop talent in their system with good draft picks and have good free agent signings and that there are a lot of exciting guys coming in and that he feels the club needs somebody that is going to be able to grow and teach those guys to become NHL players.
He did not think there were any problems over the situation with Dubielewicz playing against the Rangers caused any problems between him and Nolan nor did he think it created serious issues between the coach and GM and that there are times there will be disagreements, but it is part of being a family and in sports, too.
Cbs Sportsline: Wes Goldstein rates the Isles summer moves a D and feel the club will have the same problem attracting coaches as they do free agents.
Espn.com: Scott Burnside's headline writer at Espn did the Islander-bashing, Mr Burnside made sure to find an unnamed source to take a quick dig but for the most part knows so little about the team other than background and that he felt they were never good enough to begin with he adds nothing new.
THN: Mike Brophy feels the Islanders made a mistake to part company with Ted Nolan and speculates the coach may have been looking for the door and feels the club could be year away from competing. He also writes Pat Burns, Bob Hartley, Marc Crawford, Joel Quenneville and Paul Maurice will have to think long and hard before hitching their wagon to this mess while writing Los Angeles should be quick to contact Ted Nolan.
Globe & Mail: Tim Wharnsby has some incorrect speculation as by the time the news filters with the quotes it is twisted into so many different angles they contradict one another but does tell us Garth Snow tended goal for the Hartley-coached Cornwall Aces of the AHL in the early 1990s, and briefly played for Crawford and Quenneville with the old Quebec Nordiques in 1994-95.
Montreal Gazette: Pat Hickey anoints the Isles as the most dysfunctional club in the league with Los Angeles and writes an article without any quotes with his own speculation on the change with the timing the issue because Garth Snow waited so long to make a change because the owner hired Ted Nolan.
National Post: Mark Spector has his own speculation on the change and makes comparisons with the circumstances in Buffalo that led to his dismissal.
BCHL.com: BCHL Media has a feature on Islanders camp tryout Anthony Perdicaro who was part of the prospect camp on Monday.
Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio reports on the first day of prospect camp with an article on Denver product Peter Mannino with his comments on the lineage with Wade Dubielewicz and his signing with the club.
Ct Post: Michael Fornabaio in the Ct Post blog gives his thoughts on the coaching change and the reaction at prospects camp and tells us a little about Joensuu, Marcinko and gives us who he thinks is signed along with other items.
More on Tuesday:
