Coaches Around the NHL Share Barry Trotz’s “Old School” Tendencies Part 1

New York Islanders – Jack Capuano

Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

OK, so maybe Pens and Caps have coaching issues to complain about but surely the Islanders who have gone from mediocre to Cup contender in a short time have to be pleased with Capuano, right? Not exactly. While Capuano seems to have made strides this year, it seems he has a history of curious deployments and favoring guys who PLAY THE GAME THE RIGHT WAY!! IE get crushed in possession numbers.

I asked Dan Saraceni of Lighthouse Hockey to weigh in with his thoughts. Give him a follow on twitter if you want to see more smoking hot #content such as this:

"I wouldn’t say he leans on veterans necessarily, but he definitely goes back repeatedly to guys he trusts, whether the stats bear out or not. Last season, he split ice time almost equally between all four lines despite the fact that the fourth line of Matt Martin, Casey Cizikas and Colin McDonald were a possession nightmare. That wasn’t why they lost a lot of games (again, bad goalies), but they weren’t helping. Also, like clockwork, Capuano rolls that fourth line out after almost every goal for or against for reasons only he really knows, mostly likely heart, grit and all that crap. He also has a habit of giving the team’s worst defensemen gobs of ice time. Last year, it was Andrew MacDonald who led the team in ice time despite allowing easy entries to any opponent on the ice. This year, Brian Strait seems to be the team’s go-to 6/7th rotation guy and his effect on the team is very similar to MacDonald’s; lots of hemmed-in D zone time and running around. Meanwhile, guys like Michael Grabner, Thomas Hickey, Calvin de Haan and Anders Lee don’t see as much of the ice as we would prefer."

Imagine if the Caps had a defenseman who wasn’t good at Fenwicking but still got top pair minutes or something along those lines? People would go CRAZY and be calling for Barry Trotz’s head.

"This season has been a little different for a few reasons. Capuano talked about analytics during training camp, although we’re not 100% sure what analytics he was talking about because the Islanders don’t really say. He has decreased the fourth line’s ice time a tiny bit, and the addition of Cal Clutterbuck on that line full time has really helped. Obviously, adding Mikhail Grabovsky, Nikolay Kulemin, Johnny Boychuk, Nick Leddy and Jaro Halak will help win games. A very vocal contingent of Islanders fans hate Capuano for these and other reasons. He’s still called an “AHL coach” despite coaching in the NHL for four and a half years (he’s currently second on the Islanders all time wins list, way behind Al Arbour)."

It’s funny, you’d never really think it’s possible but I suppose there’s an argument to be made for better talent making a coach’s job easier and covering up his annoying tendencies. Of course, all is not so bad on The Island.

"Personally, I don’t think Capuano is a bad coach at all. The players clearly love him and love playing for him. Effort hasn’t really seemed like an issue, and there hasn’t been any public player strife or anything. There’s probably another gear they can reach, but it looks like he’s going to let them find it, even if it means making mistakes on the ice until they figure it out. At some point, he will be replaced as all coaches are, and how the next guy changes things will be interesting to see."