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Good Morning, Islanders Country.
It's a Quick Fix featuring Joe Buono (@IslesFix) and former VP of Communications for the Islanders, Chris Botta (@ChrisBottaNHL).
What felt inevitable to some but unlikely to others happened on Tuesday afternoon when the Islanders announced that the contract of Hall of Fame executive Lou Lamoriello would not be renewed after seven seasons as President of Hockey Operations and General Manager.
This type of change is significant for any team, but for the Islanders, it represents a seismic shift for the organization, both on and off the ice, due to how Lamoriello operated. He did things his way, and those methods instilled professionalism, credibility, and, yes, success that was missing before.
But the time was right for a change. After four mediocre at best seasons, the Islanders were not going to turn into Stanley Cup contenders over the summer. This wasn’t a one-year fix; it's now a multi-year plan, and that’s best for someone else with a fresh face, fresh eyes, and fresh ideas to take the franchise forward.
The fanbase was clamoring for ownership to show decisiveness, and that happened on Tuesday. Now, the search for the next GM to lead this organization into a new era of Islanders hockey begins.
Listen and enjoy!
📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, Lou Lamoriello has the second-highest win total for any general manager in NHL history:
David Poile 1,531
Lou Lamoriello 1,479
Glen Sather 1,319
Leaders of the Pack
Lamoriello (1,479) and Patrick Roy (185) combined for 1,664 career wins as general manager and coach. That was the highest in the NHL among active combinations by a wide margin.
🎥 ISLES REWIND: On April 23, 1982, the New York Islanders defeated the New York Rangers 5-3 at Madison Square Garden to close out their best-of-seven series in six games. Butch Goring scored twice, and Dave Langevin tallied the game-winner at 13:52 in the third period. Billy Smith made 22 saves, none bigger than robbing Reijo Ruotsalainen to secure the win. Bob Bourne put the game away with an empty-netter. The Isles went on to win eight more consecutive games to win their third Stanley Cup.
📺 Up The Turnpike: Islanders Fire Lou Lamoriello “Matt and Mitch talk about the New York Islanders moving on from Lou Lamoriello in a statement released by the team.”
🔗 Potential candidates to replace Islanders' Lou Lamoriello as GM by Andrew Gross, Newsday “The Islanders are expected to cast a wide net in interviewing candidates to be their general manager or, potentially, president/GM as Lou Lamoriello was for seven seasons. Islanders operating partner John Collins will lead the search for the team’s next GM, with some of the candidates he’s likely to talk to still involved in the NHL playoffs.”
🔗 Islanders fire Lou Lamoriello: What they need in the next GM and president, and why they have to move fast by Arthur Staple, The Athletic “This season, the team was never in the hunt, beset by key injuries and roster decisions heading into the trade deadline. Lamoriello traded Brock Nelson to the Avalanche for top prospect Calum Ritchie and a first-round pick but held onto the other tradable veterans as the team fumbled toward the finish line, ending with 80 points and many questions about the direction of the franchise.”
And we leave you with this …before he was a Hall of Fame hockey GM, Lou Lamoriello was a High School Teacher who left a mark on his students.
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