Chemistry 101: the Islanders are hoping their new coach, Steve Stirling, can find the right formula for success - New York Islanders

Hockey Digest, Dec, 2003 by John Kreiser

AN NHL COACH HAS TO BE A LOT OF things. In the case of Steve Stirling, being a good chemist is among the primary requirements.

At age 53, Stirling is beginning his first NHL coaching job--making him among the oldest non-playing first-time coaches in league history. But unlike John Brophy (1986-87 Toronto Maple Leafs) and George Kingston (1991-92 San Jose Sharks, an expansion team), Stirling is taking over the New York Islanders, a team coming off back-to-back playoff berths--and an ugly meltdown at the end of last season.

All was well on Long Island in 2001-02, when 36-year-old rookie head coach Peter Laviolette and newcomers like Michael Peca, Alexei Yashin, and Chris Osgood led the Isles to their first trip to the playoffs since 1994. But the smiles didn't last long. The Isles lost in the first round of the 2002 playoffs to Toronto after Peca had his knee torn up by what the Isles felt was a Darcy Tucker cheap shot.

With Peca still sidelined, the team struggled through the first few weeks of 2002-03, but it righted itself for a while after his return. The Isles then stumbled down the stretch, backing into the last playoff berth in the Eastern Conference and going out in five games to the Ottawa Senators in the first round.

In 2001-02, Laviolette, one of the league's youngest coaches was a breath of fresh air to a franchise that had gone to seed. But a year later, the chemistry that had made the previous season so special was gone.

And by this summer, so was Laviolette. Six weeks after the Isles' season ended--and after a number of exit interviews with the players showed how wide the gap between the coach and his players had become--Milbury pulled the plug, noting that: "Ultimately, the decision was made because the lines of communication between the players and the coach snapped. When that line of communication is snapped, it's impossible to secure it again. We were not an inspired group at the end."

Al Arbour, the coach by whom all Islanders coaches is still measured, used to talk about good teams as clubs where "the players played for each other." That kind of chemistry was a hallmark of Laviolette's first team, but grew increasingly scarce as last season went along. Laviolette angered a number of players with the way he doled out ice time--huge dollops for some, mere shavings for fourth liners and his fifth and sixth defensemen--resulting in feelings of favoritism and cliques among the players. He also often seemed at odds strategically with his team, the power play struggled for most of the season, and the players complained that the coaching staff was often unwilling to accept their input.

The Isles staggered to a 6-11-5 record in their last 22 regular-season games, making the playoffs only because the New York Rangers struggled even more. The Islanders won their playoff opener against Ottawa, then lost the next four games--and the finger pointing began, with the ultimate result being Laviolette's departure.

Enter Stirling, a former minor-league teammate of Milbury who had spent most of his hockey career as a small-college hockey coach and athletic director before joining the Isles in 1997. After serving as a scout and an interim assistant coach, he spent the past two years as coach of the Isles AHL farm team, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Stirling led the first-year franchise to the Calder Cup finals in 2001-02 and got them to the second round of the playoffs last spring despite numerous callups that depleted his roster.

That was enough to impress Milbury, who says he "wanted a guy with gray hair," after two seasons of having one of the NHL's youngest bench bosses. Stirling says that though he's known Milbury for almost three decades, "It's only in the last six years that Mike and I have gotten to know each other better. In the last two years, he got to see firsthand what I may or may not be capable of. That was my break."

Milbury, whose own neck figures to be on the chopping block if the Isles don't revert to their 2001-02 form, has big expectations for his first-year coach.

"Steve assumes the responsibility of a team that has a good deal of talent," Millbury says. "We're hoping he can push us to the next level."

Players like Peca, the team captain, have said publicly that there were no major riffs in the locker room last season. In a summertime chat on the teams's Web site. Peca said that fire players "had different issues that we were dealing with that we didn't communicate enough about. It resulted in a lot of confusion that was difficult." Protestations aside, though, Stirling knows that his biggest task is to improve the lilies of communication--even if the players aren't always wild about the message.

"The one constant theme that has become imperative, is keeping the lines of communication open and being upfront and honest--even if it's brutally honest--all the time," he says. "You don't want to miss all opportunity to make your point with the players, and there's not enough lime in this business to beat around the bush. You've got to make your point in the best way possible. The hardest part is dealing with 20 separate personalities--the presentation of that communication is important."