Wayward Isles Cast Off Henning

Lorne Henning, Al Arbour’s aide during the New York Islanders’ most successful seasons, was fired as coach of the team Wednesday after only one year.

“There were philosophical differences and I felt it necessary to make a change in order to move the franchise forward,” general manager Don Maloney said.

The Islanders finished 15-28-5 in the lockout-shortened season, 13th of 14 teams in the NHL’s Eastern Conference.

There was no immediate comment from Henning, who took over the team after Arbour stepped down at the end of last season after the Islanders were eliminated by the New York Rangers in the first round of the playoffs.

Maloney is looking for a strongwilled leader to take over.

“This has built up over the last 2-3 weeks,” Maloney said. “I didn’t think we were the type of team we showed in the last 10 games.”

Henning played for the Islanders from their inception in 1972 and scored 73 goals in 544 games, becoming a player assistant in 1980-81 after assisting on the goal that won the Islanders’ first of four Stanley Cups in 1980.

He was an assistant to Arbour, who coached for 19 of the team’s first 22 years, for eight years after that, taking a two-year break from 1985 through 1987 to coach the Minnesota North Stars, going 70-73-20 in two seasons.

Prior to that, he was coach of the Springfield Indians of the American Hockey League from 1984-85.

Jetting away

The Winnipeg Jets are gone, but where and when remains unclear.

A last attempt to sell the financially ailing team to a local group failed, meaning Canada will lose one of its eight NHL teams.

Jets president Barry Shenkarow said he would like to sell the team as soon as possible. There are several cities in the running, with Minneapolis the front-runner.

“I quite frankly don’t care where it goes,” said a tearful Shenkarow, who sought to keep the team in the Manitoba capital.