The New York Islanders will have one possible story line out of the way this summer.
Isles GM Garth Snow said coach Jack Capuano will return for his fifth season behind the bench. As Arthur Staple of Newsday shares, Islanders players support the return of Capuano and his assistants.
“You saw Cappy’s system work extremely well at the end of the year,” Kyle Okposo said. “We were outworking and outplaying teams that were ahead of us in the standings. We played within the framework of the team really well. For whatever reason, we got away from that early in the year and it cost us.”
Injuries were a major buzzkill for the Islanders this season. Captain John Tavares and fellow star forwards Okposo and Michael Grabner suffered season-ending ailments as did defensemen Lubomir Visnovsky, Brian Strait, and Calvin de Haan.
Capuano should get a full regalia or players back next season, setting the bar for him to try and re-capture the magic they had last season when they made the playoffs. As long as Snow is bringing back his coach, now maybe he can give him some help by finding a way to improve the goaltending position.