The Puck Stops Here

A few days ago I wrote a post entitled a poorly run team in which I called the Los Angeles Kings a poorly run team in part because the have still not yet hired a coach for next season. Any well run team would have put their coaching and management in place well before the draft in June, so that this management can discuss their options and make their best attempt to improve themselves in the off season. This was a follow-up post to a sign of a poorly run team, where I criticized the Atlanta Thrashers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs along with the Kings for their lack of a clear coaching and management team a few days before the draft. Of course this is not the only way a team can be poorly run. It is possible to install Beavis and Butthead as you coach and general manager well before the draft and you would still have a poorly run team.

In the comments of the poorly run team thread faux rumors commented that you can add the New York Islanders to the list of poorly run teams. Of course he is right. To show how poorly run the New York Islanders are, one must only read this post from a couple years ago about the mess created when Garth Snow (the backup goalie) became the team's GM.

It seems the Islanders were eager to prove Faux Rumors right. They waited until two weeks into July before deciding to fire coach Ted Nolan. Nolan was one of the few things that worked well in the Islanders organization. He is a good coach who I would have nominated for the coach of the year this year and last year also. In fact for a while in the 2006/07 season, I had Ted Nolan as the Adams Trophy favorite.

Why was Ted Nolan fired? Largely because he sees that Islanders owner Charles Wang (through his puppet GM Garth Snow) is running the team into the ground and he spoke out about it instead of staying quiet. On a poorly run team (as in George W Bush's administration) loyalty is more important than competence. If the people who own the team are making stupid moves, telling them the moves are stupid will lose you your job. Making those stupid moves keeps you employed. This is exactly how you fail. A good team doesn't have "yes men", they have good hockey men. Ted Nolan was the last good hockey man on Long Island.

The Islanders find themselves opening their rookie camp with no head coach and with the assistant coaches (who were largely brought in by Nolan) in limbo. The Islanders definitely belong on any complete list of poorly run teams.

Here is TSN's story on the Ted Nolan firing.