5 Reasons Jack Capuano Should Be Worried About Job as New York Islanders Coach

New York Islanders coach Jack Capuano recently came out and said that he is not worried about his job security. The Isles GM, Garth Snow, has recently come out and backed up Capuano and said that his job is not in danger.

No worries, right? Dead wrong.

The Isles continue to sputter in the wrong direction and team needs to find a way to win. They currently rank among the bottom teams in wins and the team is currently 0-7 in overtime games, a time in which the team has flourished in the past.

He can say that he is not worried about his job all he wants but the fact of the matter is there are several reasons in which the coach should fret that he will get "that call" into the GM's office.

1. Lack of Results

Potential...next year is our year...rebuilding—all three, common expressions among Islander fans. After a while though, you need to turn potential into production.

It is no secret that professional athletics is a “what have you done for me lately” profession. Lately, the Islanders are playing better, which might have bought Capuano some time, but if he wants to be the coach, this team needs to begin to produce. You can talk about potential all you want and eventually the Islanders' potential will turn into production.

If Capuano can't right this ship very soon, it will be someone else trying to make next year our year.

2. Adjustments

The players are the guys that play the game. The coach is the guy that is supposed to put the players in a position where they are most likely to succeed. Has Capuano done that?

The Tavares-Moulson-Parenteau line has played well this season. But after a strong start, the Okposo-Nielsen-Grabner line has cooled off considerably. The third and fourth lines have been missing in action.

When things are not going well it is the coach's job to make adjustments to, again, "put the players in a position where they are most likely to succeed." Capuano has failed to do that; he stuck with the same lines for the majority of the season. The only time in which he didn't was when he was forced to, when Grabner missed some time due to injury.

The result? A 4-0-1 record, including efforts in which the team scored five goals against Dallas and four goals against Chicago.

Grabner returned Thursday night and the lines were back to where they were, and the result? Right back to where they once were. Thanks to another great effort by Montoya, the Isles were able to get a point but once again the offense sputtered, managing only two goals which came off fluky slap shots from Travis Hamonic and Steve Staios.

If Capuano continues to not make any adjustments, it will be management making an adjustment behind the bench.

3. Who Is Jack Capuano Anyway?

This is not Scotty Bowman; this is not Hap Day. This is Jack Capuano.

He has never won anything as a coach and does not have a track record of success as a coach. He was brought up as a temporary solution for the departure of Scott Gordon. He was semi-successful during the second half of the 2010-2011 season, which gave him an opportunity to coach the team for the 2011-2012 season. So far he is yet to take advantage of that opportunity and he could be elsewhere if the team does not keep up their current hot streak.

Since Capuano has never had success, he needs to "earn his bones" and he has an opportunity to do just that if he can lead the Isles to a great comeback and put them in the playoffs. But if he can't, he could be out of a job.

4. Islanders Management

Can the management for the Islanders be trusted? They have pulled off some great moves including acquiring Al Montoya for a sixth-round pick and signing two huge pieces of their roster in Michael Grabner and Matt Moulson with waiver claims.

They've made a few bonehead moves too, including getting back practically nothing for a solid goaltender in Dwayne Roloson, trading him to a team that absolutely needed a goaltender.

But that's not the point. The point is, they said that the Capuano's job is safe. This isn't the first time they've said this. Scott Gordon heard the same thing from Snow previously and was fired days later.

5. Support for a New Coliseum

The final and most important reason. This is more than just another season for the New York Islanders. This may be the most critical season for the Isles in their team history.

A bad year is more than just another lousy season put up by the Isles.  A losing season may just mean the death of the Islanders in 2012. Fans won't come see a losing team; it's just common sense. The Islanders need fan support now more than ever, as they continue to figure out a way to get funds for a new arena in Nassau County.

More often than not, the scapegoat of a failure is the coach and if the team continues to fail, that is going to fall on Capuano. This is a critical time in an extremely critical year for the New York Islanders and if Capuano can't turn this thing around now, someone else is going to be brought in that can.