From goalie to GM: Islanders hire Snow
Neil Smith was abruptly fired after less than a month as general manager of the Islanders and replaced Tuesday by New York goalie Garth Snow, who retired to take over the position.
Islanders owner Charles Wang said Smith told him he had difficulty working within the team’s revamped front office.
“In light of our differences, I felt that I had no choice but to make this decision,” Wang said in a statement.
Snow, who went 4-13-1 last season as the backup to top Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro, will be in charge of making trades and will oversee the pro scouting department.
•The Carolina Hurricanes acquired forward Scott Walker from Nashville in exchange for center Josef Vasicek, giving the Stanley Cup champions a veteran scoring threat to help replace departed free agent Matt Cullen.
Soccer
Red Bulls hire Arena
Former U.S. national team coach Bruce Arena was hired by Major League Soccer’s New York Red Bulls. Last Friday, the U.S. Soccer Federation opted not to renew Arena’s contract with the national team.
Arena took over the U.S. team in October 1998, shortly after the Americans finished last of 32 teams at the World Cup. He brought them to respectability in 2002, taking them to the quarterfinals. But those hopes were dashed at the World Cup last month, when the U.S. failed to advance to the second round.
Football
Davis leaves hospital
Dallas Cowboys safety Keith Davis checked out of Baylor University Medical Center, recovering nicely from two gunshot wounds and optimistic about making the start of training camp late next week.
“No one has said he’s not going,” agent Curtis Stephens said. “Our belief is that he is going to Oxnard, Calif., with the rest of the team.”
Davis, 27, was shot in the head and thigh while driving on a Dallas highway around 5 a.m. Sunday.
•Len Teeuws, who spent six seasons as an offensive and defensive linemen for the Los Angeles Rams and Chicago, died Friday in Indianapolis. He was 79.
Miscellany
Williams wins in return
Serena Williams won her first competitive tennis match in six months, beating Anastasia Myskina 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open at Mason, Ohio. Williams has been bothered by a chronic left knee injury.
•Justine Henin-Hardenne of Belgium plans to skip the Fed Cup tennis final against Italy.
•At Bozeman, two former Montana State University athletes pleaded not guilty to charges they murdered a suspected drug dealer and covered up evidence of the crime.
Former basketball player Branden Miller and former redshirt football player John LeBrum are charged with murder, kidnapping and tampering with evidence.