Ted Nolan

Larry Brooks, in the New York Post, writes Ted Nolan's fate was sealed in early March when he didn't play Rick DiPietro in a home-and-home series against the Rangers.

You don't diss the franchise goaltender – which is something Nolan should have learned when he got into it with Dominick Hasek in Buffalo.

Pat Hickey, in The Gazette, contextualizes the Nolan firing in the dysfunctional recent history of his hometown team.

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Heckuva way to celebrate:

Kris Draper tells the Detroit Free Press his diaperless newborn daughter, Kamryn, relieved herself in the Stanley Cup last month.

The seeds of this sacrilege were sown in that TV commercial for the Hockey Hall of Fame that they showed 5,000 times during the playoffs. A day in the life of the guy who  takes care of the Cup has a brief clip of him sitting on the toilet, reading a paper.

What is it with Ted Nolan?

He's been fired, with a year left on his contract, by the Islanders.

They're the team that finally hired Nolan after he'd been fired in Buffalo and out of the league for eight years – a long exile for a former Jack Adams Award winner.

So what is it?

Racism? Nolan is First Nations.

Inability to get along with his bosses? Nolan had problems with general manager John Muckler in Buffalo and, latterly, with Garth Snow on the Island.

Inability to handle star players? Dominic Hasek wanted him out of Buffalo.

Rumoured successor with the Islanders: Bob Hartley.