(Photo : (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)) ELMONT, NEW YORK – JANUARY 21: Head coach Patrick Roy of the New York Islanders talks with Anders Lee #27 throughout the first interval towards the Dallas Stars at UBS Arena on January 21, 2024 in Elmont, New York.
The New York Islanders shook up the NHL final week once they fired Lane Lambert and employed Patrick Roy as their new head coach.
The firing of Lambert was not essentially a shock. The Islanders had stagnated within the years since Barry Trotz left the bench, not seeing the common season or postseason success that Trotz had delivered at instances throughout his tenure.
What was a shock was who the workforce introduced in, as Roy has not coached within the NHL since 2016, when he resigned from the Colorado Avalanche as his solely stint as a head coach within the league resulted in turmoil and catastrophe.
While it could come as considerably of a shock that he was employed, Roy did voice this previous summer time that he wished to return to an NHL bench within the close to future.
“I do know I made some unhealthy selections,” Roy informed NHL.com in June. “I know the way I left, everything I did, could have an effect on today’s perspective on myself. I have to live with that. I know that I’ve learned from my mistakes. The past is the past but sometimes, you have to live with your past. I understand the situation.”
Roy coached the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League from 2018-2019 to this previous 12 months, a tenure that culminated in a Memorial Cup win.
He stepped away from that position, waited for the decision, and bought one from the Islanders.
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How Have the Islanders Performed Under Roy So Far?
The Islanders took house a victory of their debut below Roy once they took on the Dallas Stars and beat the Western Conference contenders 3-2 in extra time.
The workforce has misplaced three straight video games since then to Vegas, at Montreal, and to Florida in extra time, however that is a reasonably robust stretch of three video games for a playoff bubble workforce.
They wish to have crushed Montreal, and the larger image is ugly. Between Lambert and Roy, the Islanders went 3-7-3 within the month of January, sending them plunging down the Metropolitan Division standings and making their path to the playoffs all of the tougher.
One of the hallmarks of Roy’s tenure in Colorado was established in his first season in 2013-2014, when the Avalanche delivered nice outcomes by way of wins and losses, however did so whereas getting incessantly outplayed, outshot, and outchanced.
Most knew they have been a paper tiger heading into that postseason, and a first-round “upset” proved them right, establishing a popularity for Roy’s methods as ill-suited for puck management.
It’s simply 4 video games, however the Islanders have really seen their underlying numbers enhance drastically below Roy, in response to Natural Stat Trick. A protection that was abysmal below Lambert has allowed simply 1.92 anticipated objectives towards per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 play below Roy, which is sweet for second within the NHL throughout that point span.
While the wins haven’t adopted but, that efficiency by the Islanders protection is extraordinarily encouraging, particularly because it got here towards good groups.
If the Islanders can get again to the defense-first, stingy identification that outlined the Trotz years below Roy, that would create the right setting for star goalie Ilya Sorokin to re-capture his kind and let the workforce get on a roll.
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