Islanders’ new coach isn’t so sure he wants the job
There are 30 head-coaching jobs in the NHL, and they are the most coveted coaching jobs in hockey. Doug Weight now has one of them with the Islanders, and as appreciative as he is for the opportunity, he doesn’t know how much he wants it.
“Do I want it? Every two weeks you guys should ask me that, because I’ll tell you how I’m feeling,” Weight told The Post before his debut on Thursday night, a 3-0 win over the Stars at Barclays Center that began his run as the interim coach following Jack Capuano’s firing on Tuesday. “I want to win tonight, I want to help our organization, I want to help our owners, our fans, our players. I want them to have success.
“Listen, I want to have success for me, too. I’m interested to see how much I love it. I love coaching, I love the game. I have the same passion as when I played. I don’t want to lose, I’m prepared, and I know the game. So I feel good about what it is.”
It’s difficult to find somebody inside or outside of hockey who has met Weight and doesn’t like him. For the first three years of his career, Isles captain John Tavares lived with the Weight family, and you can hear the affection in Tavares’ voice when he calls him “Dougie.”
“A couple of us played with Dougie,” Tavares reminded everyone Thursday. “He’s been around as an assistant coach and upper management as well over the last number of years. It’s a good familiarity there.”
Since Weight retired following the 2010-11 season, his life has been a self-described “whirlwind.” The kid out of Warren, Mich., was drafted by the Rangers in the second round (No. 34 overall) in 1990, and scored 23 goals in parts of two seasons on Broadway before being traded to the Oilers for Esa Tikkanen. He played 19 seasons, adding the Hurricanes, Ducks, Blues and finally the Islanders to the list of teams he called his own. He won a Stanley Cup in Carolina in 2006, and he was named the 12th captain in Islanders history before the 2009 season.
Lingering injuries forced him to retire, and he finished with 1,033 points, now the seventh-most by an American-born player in NHL history. He was inducted in the US Hockey Hall of Fame in 2013.
And when Weight retired, old pal Garth Snow, who himself was plucked right off the bench to be the team’s general manager in 2006, hired Weight as an assistant coach and special adviser to the GM. No tryout, no minors, no time to spend a year traveling. Weight was later named assistant GM, a title that, honestly, means a lot more in other organizations.
Because how many assistant GMs in the league do you think wouldn’t know their organization had asked for and was granted permission to speak to another coach (recently fired Panthers headman Gerard Gallant), even while the current coach (Capuano) was in place?
“Cro has a good saying,” Weight said, referring to assistant coach Greg Cronin. “‘My elevator doesn’t go to that high of a floor.’ Mine goes pretty high; it doesn’t go that far.
“But what do I think of it? It’s certainly in my business, but it’s not my business,” he continued. “I’m here to coach. That’s for you guys to ask Garth, or you guys to decide. But let’s not be foolish: This league, things have changed. Social media, ownership — they’re paying half-a-billion dollars for franchises. People are going to have some say throughout this league, and they have for many years. But things are a lot more leaky now than they used to be.”
Snow made it clear Capuano would not be the coach next season, and he acted as if he were doing him a favor by firing him before starting a coaching search in earnest. (You know, minus the Gallant thing.) It’s tough to know if Weight is a legitimate candidate for the full-time job, but in the second half of this season — assuming he gets all of it — he could change a few minds. If not Snow’s, then at least around the league.
Of course, that’s only if Weight wants to be a head coach.
“Did I pursue it? Did I ask about it? Did I say, ‘Hey, if anything happens. . .’ I’ve never had one conversation regarding it,” Weight said. “I think Garth is very hands-on, he sees us, he knows me. We’re close, we’ve known each other for six years, so he knows what he’s getting in me. He knows I’m prepared. He knows I’m a professional. He knows I know the game. But was there any rumblings prior to two days ago when I got the phone call? Zero.
“So, that’s a whirlwind for me, too, right?”
And now we’ll see where Doug Weight lands.
Shaw-shank
At some point, you have to just shrug and realize some guys will never get it. One of them is Andrew Shaw, who, having just come back from a concussion, nailed the Rangers’ Jesper Fast with an awful blindside hit this past Saturday in Montreal. Shaw had to answer in a fight with J.T. Miller, and was eventually thrown out the game.
But no suspension came down, likely because Fast stayed in the game. (Coincidently, Fast is now likely out until after the All-Star break with an “upper-body” injury, which occurred late in Tuesday’s wild 7-6 loss to the Stars.) Shaw has a history of bad hits, not to mention his “anti-gay” remark from last April. He also has very little control over his temper. Some guys, man, some guys.
Say Hey, Willie O’Ree
One of the more under-appreciated pioneers in sports is Willie O’Ree, who became the first black player in the NHL when he debuted with the Bruins in January 1958. That was more than a year earlier than the baseball team of that town, the Red Sox, infamously became the last in the MLB to have a black player, adding Pumpsie Green in July 1959.
O’Ree was honored before a Kings game in a game in Los Angeles on Martin Luther King Day. Now 81 years old and the league’s director of youth development and an ambassador for the NHL’s diversity program, O’Ree relayed a strong message.
“When I get up in the morning and look into the mirror, I don’t see a black man or a brown man. I just see a man,” O’Ree said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “Basically, that’s what these fans have to [see]. They’re just another hockey player.”
Stay tuned …
… to the All-Star festivities! Can’t you feel the excitement building for next weekend in Los Angeles? After actually finding a way to make it interesting with the 3-on-3 tournament — not to mention the John Scott debacle-turned-darling — the league is now tamping down the fun by eliminating the Breakaway Challenge. What brought us Brent Burns as Chewbacca and Johnny Gaudreau as a toy is now being replaced by long-distance shooting, like you see at intermissions. Welp, don’t let a good thing last too long!
Parting shot
Of all the players to be at the top of the list for best goal of the year … Andreas Athanasiou? Well, the Red Wings forward showed his speed and skill, and this might be the prettiest goal of the first half.