Tuesday, January 17, 2017

The Skinny on The Coaching Change

Doug Weight will assume the head role behind the Islanders bench on Wednesday.  It is the 19th new coaching assignment for the Islanders (Arbour, Milbury and Henning each had two stints; I'm not counting Arbour's 1-game cameo in 2007).

The Isles are 6-10-2 in their first game for a new coach.  This is the 9th time that the Isles have made an in-season change, and the Isles are 4-4-0 in the first game after the previous 8 changes.

Earl Ingarfeld       1/31/1973  L 5-3 @ Toronto (replaced Phil Goyette) 
Al Arbour II         12/9/1989  L 6-5 @ New Jersey (replaced Terry Simpson) 
Rick Bowness      1/24/1997  W 5-2 @ Hartford (replaced Mike Milbury) 
Mike Milbury II    3/12/1998  L 2-1 Washington (replaced Rick Bowness) 
Bill Stewart         1/21/1999  W 5-2 @ Pittsburgh (replaced Mike Milbury) 
Lorne Henning II    3/4/2001  W 5-2 @ New York Rangers (replaced Butch Goring) 
Brad Shaw           1/12/2006  W 3-2 vs. Calgary (replaced Steve Stirling) 
Jack Capuano     11/17/2010  L 4-2 vs. Tampa Bay (replaced Scott Gordon) 
Doug Weight         1/19/2017  vs. Dallas (replaced Jack Capuano)

Five of the nine in-season changes have come in January, with the Isles going 3-1-0 in the previous four.

Capuano is only the 2nd coach to be dismissed mid-season following a win. Overall, Isles coaches are 2-6-1 in their last game before an in-season change.  The only other win was from Mike Milbury's first stint, when he replaced himself after an 8-1 win over Edmonton.
 
Weight will become the third former Islander to coach the team:
  • Lorne Henning coached the team in the 48-game 1995 season and then again for 17 games at the end of the 2000-01 season.
  • Butch Goring led the Isles for 147 games in the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 season.

Weight also captained the squad in John Tavares' first two seasons: 2009-10 and 2010-11.  

Weight will attempt to become a trend-breaker.  The Isles have never made the playoffs during a season which they made a coaching change.

Jack Capuano, the 2nd winningest coach in Islander history leaves the Isles with a record of 227-192-64 in 483 games.  Only Boston's Claude Julien, Chicago's Joel Quenneville and Arizona's Dave Tippett had been in their current position longer than Capuano, who became the 2nd NHL coach fired this season (Florida fired Gerard Gallant on November 28).  Among the 9 New York area teams, only the Yankees' Joe Girardi had led his team longer than Capuano. 

Most games coached (Islanders):
  1. Al Arbour 1,500
  2. Jack Capuano 483
  3. Mike Milbury 191
  4. Terry Simpson 187
  5. Scott Gordon 181

Most wins by Islander coaches:
  1. Al Arbour 740
  2. Jack Capuano 227
  3. Terry Simpson 81
  4. Peter Laviolette 77
  5. Ted Nolan 74

Capuano is 69th in NHL games coached, 7 games behind Tom Watt and 8 behind Craig Hartsburg. His 227 wins places him 64th all-time, two behind Robbie Ftorek and seven behind Bob Johnson.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick

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