New York Islanders Doug Weight Sparked The Turnaround

Although the New York Islanders finished one point out of a playoff spot, there were still a lot of positive moments to this 2016-17 season that Islanders fans can be proud of, especially their amazing run under Head Coach, Doug Weight.

The New York Islanders started the season looking like a bottom feeder, holding the last place spot in the Eastern Conference up until January, when they fired then head coach Jack Capuano. Many people thought that the New York Islanders had no shot at the playoffs at that point, but that’s where they went wrong.

After Doug Weight was appointed as interim head coach, the New York Islanders played with a renewed sense of faith, and found themselves in a playoff spot just a month later. The orange and blue shocked the hockey world in a span of a month, playing like a completely new team under the guidance of Doug Weight, and it looked as if they were making the playoffs up until the end of the season.

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When fans harp on why the Isles missed the playoffs, they tend to forget about our record under Doug Weight, 24-12-4, which adds up to a point percentage of 65%. While the Islanders did lose several big games at the season’s end, the biggest reason why the Isles missed the playoffs was due to poor play at the beginning of the season.

Under Jack Capuano, the team had a record of 17-17-8, in which many of those games were blown leads where the Islanders should’ve won. The New York Islanders gave Jack Capuano 42 games to prove himself, and he clearly didn’t do a great job doing so.

If the Isles would’ve fired Jack Capuano 10-15 games earlier and they played the way that they did for the last 40 games of this season, they would’ve made the playoffs guaranteed.

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So when you look back at this season, try to use a positive lens. Look back at how amazing of a run Doug Weight took us on, after being last place in the Eastern Conference, to make us just one point out of a playoff spot.

Is it October yet?