UNIONDALE, N.Y., June 3 (UPI) -- New York Islanders General Manager Mike Milbury fired Coach Peter Laviolette on Tuesday, saying just making the playoffs is not good enough.
Assistant coaches Jacques Laperriere and Kelly Miller also were fired.
Milbury replaced Laviolette with Steve Stirling, who spent the last two seasons coaching the Islanders' American Hockey League affiliate at Bridgeport. It was his first head coaching job at the professional level.
Greg Cronin, an Islanders assistant the last five years, will succeed Stirling at Bridgeport. Stirling will be introduced at a news conference on Wednesday.
Two years ago, Laviolette guided the Islanders to their first playoff appearance since 1994. They made it again this season, but lost in the first round both times, something that didn't sit well with Milbury.
"We felt a change was necessary for this team to move to the next level and compete for the Stanley Cup," said Milbury, who also has been on the hot seat. "Just making the playoffs is not good enough."
Laviolette was given his first NHL coaching job by Milbury in May 2001. The move paid immediate dividends as the Islanders opened the 2001-02 season with a franchise-best 9
1-1 mark.
As a rookie coach, Laviolette led the Islanders to the fourth-biggest one-year turnaround in NHL history as the team went from 21 to 42 wins.
The Islanders lost a hard-fought seven-game series to Toronto in the 2002 Eastern Conference quarterfinals, losing team captain Michael Peca in the process.
More was expected of the team this season, but Peca missed the first fifth of the season while recovering from knee and shoulder surgery, and no one else was able to take over the leadership role.
Alexei Yashin, the team's leading scorer, was quiet until the final month of the season, when the Islanders held off a pair of teams to earn the eighth seed in the East.
The playoffs started on a high note. The Islanders won Game One of their conference quarterfinal series against top-seeded Ottawa, but they lost the next four games by a combined score of 13-4.
With a mixture of veterans and youngsters with potential, the Islanders turned to a coach responsible for developing players in the minor league system.
Stirling won at Bridgeport, leading the team the Calder Cup final in 2002. The Tigers advanced to the second round of the playoffs this past season.
"In Steve Stirling, we are promoting a coach who has developed at the pro level with us during the last six years after an outstanding college coaching career," Milbury said. "Our entire organization believed strongly that Steve deserved this chance."
In two years at the AHL level, Stirling went 83-51-19-7. He has spent six seasons in the Islanders' organization, three as an assistant coach and one as a scout.
Stirling coached Providence to the 1985 NCAA final.
