Players shoulder blame for Gordon's firing

Garth Snow informed the Islanders Monday morning that Scott Gordon was out and Jack Capuano was in.

If a team on a 10-game winless streak needed a kick in the hockey pants, that was it. And captain Doug Weight promptly called a 20-minute players meeting so that the Islanders could remind themselves who was really responsible for Gordon being fired.

"Make no bones about it, no one in that room thinks it's all Gordo's fault," Weight said. "We had to look at ourselves in the mirror and realize we are a big piece of this. Our attitude, our play, how we come to the rink affects a lot of people. This is a shake-up."

Gordon had plenty of skirmishes with players during his two-plus seasons, and almost all of the players who were unwilling or unable to play his up-tempo style were jettisoned. Mike Comrie, Chris Campoli, Bill Guerin and Brendan Witt, all veterans, bristled at Gordon's style and system and were either traded or demoted.

Rick DiPietro was hurt for much of Gordon's tenure and he has struggled to be consistent this season, not having played in the last five games, but DiPietro, who is now playing for his eighth coach in a decade with the Islanders, had kind words for Gordon.

"Scott was a great coach and a great person," DiPietro said. "It's always tough to see someone have to take the fall for when things are going wrong, but that's the nature of the business and the nature of the game. The coach is always first to feel the effects of it."

Gordon's Islanders had troubles in stages: goaltending issues in 2008-09, with more than 500 man-games lost to injury; defensive woes last season and, finally in the first 17 games this season, a lack of offense, with just 14 goals during the 10-game winless streak.

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Losing Mark Streit and Kyle Okposo before the season began hamstrung Gordon, who couldn't get the production from his thin forward group.

When things needed to get desperate, Gordon's players didn't respond.

"For whatever reason, we haven't adapted well to each game," Weight said. "In the past when you see teams are struggling, you see some desperation and some difference in the game and I just haven't seen it from the first period on. It's been the same stalemate. We had to have a change."

The skate Monday at IceWorks was loose and the players were not overly somber; they seemed to expect that the long winless streak would prompt some action.

"And now," Dwayne Roloson said, "we have to take responsibility. We have to take it upon ourselves and be ready to play after what's happened."