New York Islanders Garth Snow Stubbornness Led To Elimination

The New York Islanders were officially eliminated from the playoffs last night. The reason why they failed to reach the playoffs links back to one person.

With the New York Islanders elimination, we should probably talk about the reason as to why they failed to reach the playoffs in a year they were expected to take a step forward.

First of all not reaching the playoffs is a colossal failure and step back for a team that is in year 11 of a rebuilding process. Were there positives this year? Absolutely, you can take positives out of any bad year but the Islanders didn’t reach their overall goal of making the playoffs and building off a playoff series win.

This step back and failure of a season can be linked back to Garth Snow. Here’s what he did wrong.

New York Islanders

Waiving P.A. Parenteau For Nothing

This was the first of many head-scratching decisions from Garth Snow and company. On the eve of the season Snow elected to waive P.A. Parenteau after a poor camp. He got picked up by New Jersey and actually had a decent start to the season before slowing down.

In the long run, Parenteau didn’t have a fantastic year, he has 13 goals and 15 assists (28 points on the season). Keep in mind he spent most of the year on a bad Devils team.

Maybe with the Islanders he’s a positive on the power play? The power play couldn’t have been any worse with him. Maybe playing with John Tavares he has a better year. You could make the argument that Tavares helped give Josh Bailey his career year maybe he’d rekindle that chemistry they once had so many years ago.

The fact that Snow signed him then cut him before he even played a game with the team is just odd in itself. Regardless, the Parenteau signing then waiving was the first failure via Garth Snow this season.

Hanging On To Cappy Too Long

The firing of Jack Capuano was long overdue. It’s a decision that probably should’ve been made three years ago, but better late than never I suppose.

I was shocked when I found out that Jack Capuano was let go, not because he didn’t deserve to get fired but because Snow had previously shown blind loyalty to his man.

Snow and Capuano seemed like a package deal, like a crappy peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I figured they’d both be let go after the season but Garth, who probably realised his job was on the line, pulled the trigger.

The Islanders are currently 23-12-4 under Doug Weight with one game to go. It was part of a second-half turnaround like I’ve never seen before. If Garth made the switch in November instead of January could the Isles have saved their season?

It’s a valid question, the reality was that the Isles dug themselves into too deep of a hole and they couldn’t get themselves out. Not going to Weight sooner proved to be one of Garth’s biggest mistakes of the 2016-2017 season.

Three Goalie Disaster

Oh my God the stupidity of the goalie situation. The Islanders ruined a perfectly capable one-two punch of Jaroslav Halak and Thomas Greiss by keeping J.F. Berube in the mix.

The Islanders were carrying three goalies for the first couple months of the year and it led to a frustrated Jaroslav Halak, an underused Thomas Greiss and an M.I.A. J.F. Berube.

When the Isles elected to waive the struggling Halak that came as a surprise. Sure he wasn’t playing good hockey and Greiss deserved to get more reps but since Berube was in the picture they had to make a decision on Jaro and they made the wrong one.

The little action Berube saw he looked awful in. Most times on Thomas Greiss night’s off he would have to come in to relieve Berube due to Berube’s incompetencies in net. Garth saw his system failing but waited too long to get Halak back up here.

Halak has been fantastic in his return to the team and is a big reason for their five-game win streak. If only he was here for February and March when the team could’ve used him and still had a chance to revitalize their season before it was too late.

Burying Pulock

Ryan Pulock, after a promising rookie campaign and playoff appearance last year was unused this year. He played one game for the Islanders back in October. ONE!

The initial excuse was that after his injury he needed time to get his feet back under him. According to Garth Snow that turned into the rest of the season because we never saw him again.

I think Adam Pelech and Scott Mayfield can be a seventh d-man type player and be successful in that role but for them to get the nod over Ryan Pulock is laughable.

He was a significant part of the Islanders playoff series win last year over the Florida Panthers. Hell, he helped spark the comeback in Game 3 with a power play goal.

Speaking of the power play, while the Islanders power play efficiency was sitting around 12% for the year Pulock and his 105 mph slapshot was in Bridgeport.

Next: DiPietro's Good Luck Charm

This is only scratching the surface of what went wrong for the Islanders in 2016-2017. These are just some of the things Garth Snow could’ve easily avoided and if he did the Islanders likely would be sitting in a playoff spot right now. His actions this year are fireable and Jon Ledecky needs to take action. Someone needs to be held accountable.

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