Isles Coaching Staff Undergoes Changes

As the offseason goes on for the Islanders, expect the coaching staff to look a little bit different even during the draft.

That's because assistant coach Dan Lacroix and strength/conditioning coach Chris Schwarz have both left the team by mutual agreement, and the status of John Chabot is still uncertain. Among the reasons for the splits have been a need for both a training coach who is based on Long Island (Schwarz lives and practices in Ottawa during the offseason) and a defense coach with NHL experience.

You can read the article here, by Greg Logan:

http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/hockey/islanders/blog/2009/05/exclusive_isles_changing_staff.html

These are both valid reasons for the changes to be made, including the fact that numerous players have been injured this season, causing the Isles to have lost over 580 man-games to injury. This could be a result of overtraining during the summer, causing muscles to be overworked by the time training camp rolls around. As for Lacroix, although he and Chabot seemed to have worked well with Scott Gordon, it wouldn't hurt to have a guy brought in who can really work with the blueline from experience.