Once he was given a surprising vote of confidence from the new ownership group on Long Island, general manager Mike Milbury started to look at the future of the New York Islanders -- and that future no longer includes coach Butch Goring.
|  | | Milbury was originally hired as the Islanders' coach in July 1995. He said he's not on the list of potential coaches this time. |
"This has been coming for awhile," said Milbury after he met with the team on Sunday morning. "I guess you could look at last (Saturday) night's loss as the final straw, but all the signs have been bad, and they've been bad for awhile."
That final straw was a 6-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, a game in which the Islanders failed to cash in on four power plays with five-on-three advantages.
As a result, associate coach Lorne Henning will take over the team on an interim basis. Milbury is hinting that a veteran coach will be brought on.
"I'm not going to rule out a fresh face," said Milbury, "but I hope to get a guy who has a track record, a guy who will impose the kind of discipline that a young team needs. I'll leave the list making to you guys, but I'll tell you for sure, I'm not on that list."
At least by description, a tough, veteran coach might be Pat Burns, the three-time Coach of the Year who was fired by the Boston Bruins early this season. However, there are also candidates such as former Penguins coach Kevin Constantine and former Buffalo coach Ted Nolan, among others.
Milbury also will have a chance to wait out the rest of this season and see if there is fall out from playoff disappointments. For example, a quick exit by Dallas, St. Louis or Colorado, could make coaches such as Ken Hitchcock, Joel Quenneville or Bob Hartley available.
Although it was Goring who was fired, Milbury realized he also was under intense scrutiny as the team continued to wobble.
"I told him (Goring) months ago 'If it gets worse, I hope it's me and not you,' and I really meant that. But (ownership) has said that I'm the guy going forward, and if I'm the guy going forward … I've got to make the decisions that I feel are necessary to advance our cause, and this became painful, but obvious."
From the beginning, Goring seemed a curious selection for Milbury. However, the Islanders were dying at the gate, and it made sense that ownership would want him to at least consider a former Islander from the glory days with the name recognition of Goring.
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Islanders' coaching history
since 1995-96
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Coach
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Tenure
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Record
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Mike Milbury
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7/5/95 - 1/27/97
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36-73-19
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Rick Bowness
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1/27/97-3/11/98
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37-50-12
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Mike Milbury
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3/11/98-1/21/99
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21-38-5
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Bill Stewart
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1/21/99-4/18/99
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11-19-7
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Butch Goring
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4/30/99-3/4/01
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41-88-14-4
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Milbury named GM on Dec. 12, 1995
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The Islanders came into this season with high expectations, and a future painted even brighter with goalie Rick DiPietro, the first overall selection in last summer's entry draft. The Isles also had a decent nucleus of players, but there was little advancement for a
young star such as Tim Connolly under the direction of Goring.
"The number of injuries that we had, and the fact that Butch came in last season (April 1999), knowing we were headed toward a $15 million payroll, that made it more difficult," said Milbury, who hired Goring when the previous ownership group was actually considering a move to cut the payroll below $15 million.
"He (Goring) had some real (set backs) to deal with," said Milbury, "he deserved time to get things turned around. But we're about as healthy as we're going to get, and things were not changing.
"The goal was to stick around until March, and see what happens," said Milbury. "We all thought we had a shot. Yes, there were a lot of injuries, but there was no sign of guys coming to compete every night, and you've got to have that. You just have to."
Milbury was scheduled to leave Saturday afternoon for the general managers meeting in California. Once he gets there, he will work on the deals and structure some plan for the signing of at least one big-name free agent at the end of this season to set things up for the next coach.
Perhaps this time the coach will have more of a chance at success than the ones who came before.
Al Morganti covers the NHL for ESPN.  Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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ALSO SEE
Goring fired by Islanders; Henning to be interim coach
2000-01 NHL coaching changes
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