How Patrick Roy and NY Islanders strategized to beat the nearly unbeatable Avalanche

The New York Islanders did more than beat the NHL’s top team on Thursday night - they surprised the Colorado Avalanche by executing a tactical, disciplined game plan that Patrick Roy and his staff had been drilling into the team for days. According to Roy, who won his 200th NHL game as a head coach, the key to upsetting Colorado was simple in theory, difficult in practice: own the neutral zone, deny their speed, and break the puck out with confidence.

Roy said the plan was emphasized in meetings both in the morning and again pregame. “We talked with the defense this morning about it… and the guys were really good,” he said after the 6-3 win. “We have been playing really well in the neutral zone, forcing teams to dump the puck in.”

But forcing a dump-in was only half the battle. The difference came in what happened after the puck went deep. Roy highlighted the Islanders’ breakouts as the real backbone of their strategy. “What brings a lot of confidence to the group is how we break out,” Roy said. “We come back in our zone as a unit of five and get that puck out.”

The defensemen played aggressively, stepping up early and cutting off Colorado’s preferred routes to generate speed. “Our D squeeze and force them to put the puck deep, not giving them the chance to pick up their speed,” Roy said. It was clear from the outset that the Avalanche were frustrated — and that was exactly the point.

Even when surprises hit the lineup, Jonathan Drouin was a last-second scratch, Roy trusted his group to stay committed to the structure. The result was a complete, confident effort that Roy believed his team had earned. “I said before the game, if there’s a team that could surprise them, it’s us,” he said. And on Thursday night, the Islanders proved him right.