As a disappointing Islanders season beset by scheduling and COVID-19 hurdles ground to its inevitable conclusion with the team’s first playoff miss since 2018, Barry Trotz took to describing it as “bizarre.”
Seemingly as strange was president and general manager Lou Lamoriello’s decision on Monday to relieve Trotz of his coaching duties after four seasons, only one of which was not impacted by the pandemic.
“It will be a tremendous understatement to say that this wasn’t an easy decision to make,” Lamoriello said in a teleconference. “Unfortunately, it was my role to make the best decisions for the organization going forward. And I believe that this group of players needs a new voice.”
