There was a clear message that Doug Weight issued to the Islanders as he readied for his first game as a NHL head coach, having taken over for Jack Capuano, fired on Tuesday. It was a message that Weight personified during his terrific 19-year career as a player.
“I want passion, I want inspiration,” Weight said before the Islanders beat the Stars 3-0 in Brooklyn. “I want to be inspired by their play. I want them to achieve things for themselves and have success. I really do. That’s why I’m doing this. I believe in them.”
How much, you ask?
“I think we’re a playoff team,” Weight said before his team moved within six points of the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot with 39 games to play and seven teams to leapfrog. “Obviously we’ve dug ourselves quite a hole, and passing teams in this league is obviously historically been a tough thing to do. But we’re going to take it a game at a time.”
Weight, 45, retired only five years ago, and was immediately handed the job as Capuano’s assistant coach, as well as the title of assistant to general manager Garth Snow. When he found out about Capuano’s firing, Weight said he only had one emotion.
“I was sad for Jack,” he said.
But after spending a few hours together before Capuano went back to Maine, Weight began to think about the new task in front of him. The plan was for him not to change all that much of the team’s system, but to try to draw some more emotion out of a group that came into the season with high expectations following its first playoff series victory in 23 years.
“I want some relief, I want some jerseys flying off their back [from skating fast], and I want to be inspired as a coach,” Weight said. “You have to make me look at your number, and have me like, ‘I got to get this guy back on the ice. He’s competing, he’s fresh, he’s jumping, he’s got confidence.’ And there’s that fine line of, ‘If you’re not going to manage the puck when it’s 2-1 in the third period, take a seat.’ So it’s going to be matter-of-fact that way, I’m going to be very honest.
“Full disclosure, I love this group, I love these guys. I want them to have success.”
This Islanders group was very fond of Capuano, who so many of them had grown up with, not just since he took over in the NHL on Nov. 15, 2010, but before that, when he had a handful of them as the headman at AHL Bridgeport. But Snow had explained that Capuano was not going to be the coach next season, regardless, and the record of 17-17-8 through 42 games was an impetus to pull the trigger sooner rather than later.
“I think it’s disappointing,” captain John Tavares said. “He gave everything he had — day in, day out — to the organization, and certainly the guys in the locker room. So we really feel like we let him down.”
Yet the players have also known Weight for a while, and his history as a skill player brings with it a certain panache to his appointment. He wants the team to spend less time in its defensive zone, but he wants that to happen by being more “dynamic” when the Islanders have it in the offensive zone.
Above all, the franchise hopes a new voice can turn this season around before its too late — if it’s not already.
“We all have to take some onus [for Capuano’s firing], and then I think I’ve moved on to putting my own stamp on things,” Weight said. “Everybody is a different person and coach, and I’m a different person than Jack. I learned a tremendous amount from him. He’s an awesome guy, but moving forward, I’m going to do things the way I have to do them.”