Islanders Fire Bowness

The New York Islanders kept pace with the rest of the NHL’s Atlantic Division on Wednesday--they fired their coach.

Rich Bowness was the fifth coach in the seven-team division to lose his job this season. He was replaced by General Manager Mike Milbury, now in his second stint as Islander coach.

“It wasn’t at all fun,” Milbury said. “It was very unpleasant. Rick is a decent human being and a friend and a good coach, but he took it like a pro.”

The players learned of the firing from Bowness before practice.

“It was a huge shock,” defenseman Scott Lachance said. “He was all choked up. I don’t recall what he said after he was let go because I was in shock myself. Basically, everybody sat for about five minutes with our mouths open.”

Bowness, an assistant under Milbury in Boston, was Ottawa’s first coach and stayed there three years. He replaced Milbury as coach of the Islanders on Jan. 24, 1997. His overall record with the Islanders is 37-50-12.

Milbury took over as head coach on July 5, 1995, and assumed the general manager’s job on Dec. 12 that year. He had a 35-83-19 record as Islander coach, and an overall record of 125-122-40 including a sting with the Bruins from 1989-91, when they made the Stanley Cup finals once and the semifinals once.

Milbury will retain assistant coach Wayne Fleming but has given scouting duties to Bowness’ other assistant, Brad McCrimmon. Player personnel director Gordie Clark will become Milbury’s other assistant.

The Islanders are in fifth place with a 22-32-9 record--nine points behind Ottawa for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with 19 games left. They have not made the playoffs since 1994.

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Maurice “Rocket” Richard, one of hockey’s all-time great players with the Montreal Canadiens, is being treated for a cancerous tumor on his abdomen, according to his agent.

Richard, 76, has lost considerable weight but is improving because of special medication, Jean Roy said today.

He was a member of eight Stanley Cup-winning teams and was named to the first or second all-star team in 14 of his 18 seasons. The first player to score 50 goals in a season, he did it in a 50-game season in 1945.

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An apology, and maybe a check, would go a long way toward resolving the dispute over the trashing of Olympic dorm rooms by U.S. hockey players, said USOC President Bill Hybl and Executive Director Dick Schultz.

They also said they were not ready to impose sanctions against the 23 NHL players on the team and hoped the two or three players responsible for the vandalism still would confess.

Hybl and Schultz said all their options remained open, including the most severe--banning all the players from future Olympic teams.

But they are willing to wait a week or two in hopes of cooling the rhetoric and reaching a solution that was fair to all players as well as Olympic organizers in Japan and the United States.

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The Detroit Red Wings called up goalie Norm Maracle from their Adirondack farm team to replace injured Kevin Hodson. Hodson suffered a hip injury in Tuesday night’s game against the Boston Bruins. Maracle will back up Chris Osgood.