Capuano Pulls A "Herb Brooks"

Jack Capuano Justifiably Irate, Pulls A "Herb Brooks" On Islanders

Let me start off by saying that I will not be doing any review of last nights Islander game because there was almost nothing to discuss. Simply put, the Islanders did not care. There was zero effort and a complete lack of interest in the game. I honestly cannot think of one moment in the entire 60 minutes that I was impressed by something an Islanders player did. 

Surprisingly enough Jack Capuano agreed and had one of his most spirited post-game press conferences in his coaching career (LINK). He made it clear that he would not stand for that type of play, and from what I've learned he wasn't just saying that as many coaches often do. It seems as though Capuano had so much fire in his belly that he decided to punish the players that night. After all the press conferences and interviews wrapped up, he decided to put all the players in the same room, at which point he made the players sit and watch the entire 60 minute (non) effort by the team. Once he was done, he was even more fired up and he brought the players back out onto the Coliseum ice. He had every single player skate very hard until around 2AM. 

Yesterday morning "Miracle" was on, so maybe Capuano was channeling his inner Herb Brooks, but what ever it was that pushed his decision, I am very happy it did. Last year there were some members of the Islanders who thought the Isles locker room felt like a "country club", and I believe its more than necessary to do things like this to change that, and make each player feel a bit more accountable.

When I heard about it this morning, I will honestly say my respect level for Jack Capuano sky rocketed. Its very nice to see that the players are being held accountable, and that he won't let this failure continue. I am desperately hoping this wakes the team up a bit because the game last night against the Bruins had to be one of the worst games; start to finish, that I have seen played by the Islanders in a long time. I expect and hope that there is a better effort on Monday against the Penguins. If there isn't, I will expect a big move to come before Wednesday's game. The Islanders coaching staff and management are very upset with how this team has performed and are looking at many options to improve.