My biggest hopes are these: that Wang stops meddling and lets Snow run the team, and that Snow actually knows what he’s doing.

First thing out of Charles Wang’s mouth in an interview was that he told Ted so regarding playing prospects and rubbed it in his face.

Chris Botta said it all in that he had never seen a coach since Bill Stewart act so selfish with as this ” they stuff ” instead of talking about we. He blamed Snow too for being a wise ass with his cracks about the eyebrows.

All three gave us a poor show but what has not been mentioned here is for all the talk of Nolan had problems with prospects he had major problems with some veterans.

If he had problems with both where you do go?

Nolan got terrible seasons out of Satan, he played Richard Park and Andy Hilbert like top six forwards and he kept Robert Nilsson away from this roster his first camp and seemed to want to do the same to Jeff Tambellini.

You like the old way of doing things? The Milbury way of cashing in prospects for mediocre veterans, that’s what would have happened if Nolan stayed because that’s what he wanted to win now.

Snow has not been given contract extension why should Nolan have gotten one unless you want more dysfuncion in your front office.

Nolan was a man in tears back in 2002 when Laviolette got the job, he was willing to coach a club out of the playoffs for seven years in a row back then he had one year left on his deal and owed it to the man who gave him a chance to stop talking to Canadian papers about his difficult circumstances on 5/2 and get back to work.

Wang should have fired him right there after he was told management contracts are not for the paper, he completely ignored the owner and drew a line in the sand.

I like Ted Nolan and respect him but his coaching here was to play Dunham until they were practically eliminated last year and he had no choice before he finally made the call and saw what everyone saw and that was Dunham was useless.

These kids get a full chance nothing is going backwards regardless who the coach or gm is.

Thank You

This will make GM’s a little leery to take a chance on Ted. He sat on his sword with his comments in March and April. It took time to ‘end the deal’, but I think it HAD to be done. Move on Garth, and get a COACH! (I want Hartley).

Let me first say that I love your blog and I generally agree with your views, BUT I’m just not sure how the fault does not land squarely on Ted’s shoulder’s here???? a wise man once said “a coach’s job is to coach and a manager’s job is to manage”. In this case Ted wanted to coach and manage.

Ted wanted a team of veteran’s that would have competed for the 5-8 spot in the East. You can’t objectively tell me that the team Ted wanted on the ice would have a reasonable shot at the Stanley Cup. You watch the games….come on now….

Our organization needs a youth movement (hopefully not one where we sell off our youth piece by piece “a la” Millbury). One to compete with the Crosby/Malkin Pens for the next ten years. It’s a vision that Garth and Wang had and one that Ted didn’t have the patience for.

You say Nolan “wasn’t a Yes Man” and I say Nolan “was a No Man.” It’s one thing to sit with Garth and Wang and argue over the future of the organization but once that decision is made by the organization it is your duty as coach to get on board. To publicly act in defiance of the organizations decision is unacceptable. Remember, Nolan is the one with the track record of causing problems in management.

In the end, I think your posting your anger about the organization as a whole. Is Ted a good/great coach? Yes. On the surface it looks like just another player/coach that the isles fumbled away and in two years we’ll be the one’s with egg on our face when Nolan coaches a different team to the Stanley Cup finals. But I think this was the result of an employee acting insubordinate to his superiors and his superiors having no other options.

I will say this, if Garth Snow is smart, the coach he should hire is John Tortorella. That man is the reason the Lightning have a Stanley Cup banner at the St. Pete Times Forum.

If you guys get Tortorella, you guys will have a Cup in 3-4 years. He’s a disciplinarian, a no-nonsense coach, and he hates losing, and looking from afar, the Islanders need a dose of Camp Torturella and in a hurry.

The media sessions on Long Island with Torts as the coach, would be very interesting to say the least.

So that basically makes your “systems were lacking comment die in the water like an amour hot dog. Any team with as many injurues as the Isles last season would have a problem create a system in the first place. How that team won over 30 games is nuts.

And as far as you’re acting defiantly against the organization, what ever happened in an organization supporting a coach?

LoL and against “what he is told”? Wasn’t it his team to run? If that’s the way you work with people, remind me to never fill out a resume at the company you work for.

Like I said in the post, Nolan partially sealed his own fate by no being a ‘yes’ man.

Now the Isles will look for a teacher who can work with Garth Snow.

Nolan was not the means to an end, I am sorry. His systems were lacking, he could not keep the team to a system he put in place and could almost directly be blamed for the way the team fell apart physically (style of play).

This was a necessary move with the end of the “committee”. Nolan couldn’t handle not having the same influence and made his own bed with this one.

I look forward to a complete fresh start and something everyone single one of us has asked for – a plan put in motion and stuck to, for a change.