Kicked Upstairs?

Another odd move as Isles give GM job to Snow:

From the franchise that brought you scam artist/owner John Spano, those fishsticks uniforms and enough egregious hockey and bumbling management to all but destroy the legacy of one of the National Hockey League's dynastic powers of the 1980s, we now have the curious one-month reign of general manager Neil Smith.

After an exhausting if not necessarily exhaustive search, the oddest duck in the NHL's petting zoo, Islanders owner Charles Wang, awarded Smith a three-year contract in June (along with a neat leather jacket with the Islanders' logo). On Tuesday, he fired Smith--we'll see if Smith gets to keep the jacket and the more than $2 million he signed for over the course of the deal--and gave the job to Garth Snow, an Islanders goalie with a pretty decent record of stopping pucks but nothing else on his résumé that would suggest he is even remotely qualified for the job.

My first thought on seeing this story was that it seemed like only yesterday when Snow was playing net in the NHL. It turns out he was:

Garth Snow announced his retirement from the game just two minutes before being named general manager of the Isles.

Talks about a management fast track.

UPDATE-- Chris e-mails to suggest an explanation:

Now I see why Snow was hired. This guy knows how to work a team.

Who Knew Strange Things Happened In Long Island?

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