Was Islanders Coaching Shift to Patrick Roy the Right Call?

(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 during the first period against the Dallas Stars at UBS Arena on January 21, 2024 in Elmont, New York.

The New York Islanders shook up the NHL last week when they fired Lane Lambert and hired Patrick Roy as their new head coach.

The firing of Lambert was not necessarily a surprise. The Islanders had stagnated in the years since Barry Trotz left the bench, not seeing the regular season or postseason success that Trotz had delivered at times during his tenure.

What was a surprise was who the team brought in, as Roy has not coached in the NHL since 2016, when he resigned from the Colorado Avalanche as his only stint as a head coach in the league ended in turmoil and disaster.

While it may come as somewhat of a surprise that he was hired, Roy did voice this past summer that he wished to return to an NHL bench in the near future.

"I know I made some bad choices," Roy told 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 past year, a tenure that culminated in a Memorial Cup win.

He stepped away from that role, waited for the call, and got one from the Islanders.

How Have the Islanders Performed Under Roy So Far?

The Islanders took home a victory in their debut under Roy when they took on the Dallas Stars and beat the Western Conference contenders 3-2 in overtime.

The team has lost three straight games since then to Vegas, at Montreal, and to Florida in overtime, but that's a fairly tough stretch of three games for a playoff bubble team.

They would like to have beaten Montreal, and the bigger picture is ugly. Between Lambert and Roy, the Islanders went 3-7-3 in the month of January, sending them plunging down the Metropolitan Division standings and making their path to the playoffs all the more difficult.

One of the hallmarks of Roy's tenure in Colorado was established in his first season in 2013-2014, when the Avalanche delivered great results in terms of wins and losses, but did so while getting frequently outplayed, outshot, and outchanced.

Most knew they were a paper tiger heading into that postseason, and a first-round "upset" proved them correct, establishing a reputation for Roy's strategies as ill-suited for puck control.

It's just four games, but the Islanders have actually seen their underlying numbers improve drastically under Roy, according to Natural Stat Trick. A defense that was abysmal under Lambert has allowed just 1.92 expected goals against per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 play under Roy, which is good for second in the NHL during that time span.

While the wins have not followed yet, that performance by the Islanders defense is extremely encouraging, especially as it came against good teams.

If the Islanders can get back to the defense-first, stingy identity that defined the Trotz years under Roy, that could create the perfect environment for star goalie Ilya Sorokin to re-capture his form and let the team get on a roll.