Is Patrick Roy The Right Coach For The New York Islanders?

When the New York Islanders fired Head Coach Lane Lambert in late Jan 2024, it was the product of several key factors. The team's penalty kill was abysmal, they couldn't hold leads and they struggled in three-on-three overtime. Most of all, General Manager Lou Lamoriello fired Lambert because his team wasn't consistent enough

"Watching our team play, I felt that the inconsistency that has been going on for some period of time was not going to end"

Lou Lamoriello

He replaced Lambert with current Head Coach Patrick Roy, one of the greatest goalies of all time and known for being a fiery, no-nonsense type of coach from his time with the Colorado Avalanche in the mid-2010s. At the time, the hiring made sense. The Islanders looked like a team that needed a kick in the behind, and few can give a behind-kicking like Roy.

It's been 100 games since Patrick Roy took over as head coach, and unfortunately, the issues have yet been fixed.

For one, they have yet to find consistency. The Islanders still struggle to find their game night after night, and even period after period. It's perhaps the most frustrating aspect of this team. They'll rattle off strong road victories against the Toronto Maple Leafs late in December, only to get floored 7-1 at home by a Buffalo Sabres team that had lost 13 consecutive games.

The team has gotten worse on special teams. Per statmuse, the Islanders possessed a PK% of 73% and a PP% of 22.8% when Lambert got fired. While the powerplay was improved from 2022-23, the PK had tremendously regressed. They fell from 82.19% the year prior. Lambert, a PK specialist, took a lot of heat from fans and media for this regression. They were one of the worst teams in the league whilst shorthanded, and Lambert rightfully lost his job because of it.

The problem is that Roy's penalty kill system has been just as bad, if not worse. Despite getting new assistant coaches like Tommy Albelin this offseason, the Islanders PK% still ranks among the league's worst in 2024-25 (70%). Over Roy's entire tenure, the Isles post a PK% of 69.8%. That's a full four percentage points lower than Lambert

The PP has not continued its positive momentum from 2023-24, either. This season, it scores about 12% of the time: one of the worst rates in the NHL. Roy's tenure overall has seen a PP% of 14.7%. Again, that's significantly worse than Lambert's final season with the Islanders.

Lambert also got fired because of the team's sudden penchant for blowing leads. This was on full display in several embarrassments like their 4-1 collapse at home versus the SJ Sharks in early Dec of that season. The team posted 11 overtime losses through Lambert's final 45 games as Head Coach.

When Roy took over, the embarrassments continued. They choked a big lead against the New York Rangers in the 2024 Stadium Series. They blew a 3-0 lead in the playoffs versus the Carolina Hurricanes. Those chokes have continued into 2024-25. In the first game of the season, the Islanders blew two third-period leads and lost to the Utah HC in overtime. While these chokes have occurred with less frequency as of late, it's not enough of an improvement to justify keeping Roy on its own.

His coaching decisions have baffled many, including the author. Take, for example, their most recent game against the Anaheim Ducks on Mar. 9. Roy elected to start defenseman Adam Boqvist at center when forward Kyle MacLean was out with illness. Boqvist had never played forward at the NHL level. He sat down top players like Bo Horvat and Kyle Palmieri for large stretches of the second and third periods. He pulled his goalie with 12 minutes to go in the game, which only resulted in a quick empty-net goal.

These moves, specfically the Boqvist decision, angered many fans. It's pretty common sense: forwards play forward, and defensemen play defense. But Roy felt that lining up Boqvist at center was in the team's best interest. Naturally, they lost 4-1.

To be fair to Roy, it's difficult to say how much power he has over organizational staffing. The assistant head coaches are filled halfway with longtime employees of GM Lou Lamoriello. John MacLean and Tommy Albelin, longtime associates of Lamoriello, are perhaps the two most-meligned assistant coaches on the staff. Albelin was brought in to fix the special teams play, and it certainly hasn't gotten better. The one assistant we can confidently say is a Roy disciple, Benoit Desrosiers, has done a tremendous job of helping the Islanders improve on their faceoffs.

Under the sakoku-like regime of Lamoriello, it's unlikely we gain any clarity on who chooses what assistant staffer between him and Roy. Instead, we have to guess based on the backgrounds of the assistant coaches. But the reality stays the same...

The Islanders replaced Lambert with Roy in order to lengthen this team's championship window. In order to do that, they needed to stop blowing leads, improve on special teams, and find some consistency. Roy hardly managed to do one of those three things. As a result, this team is virtually in the exact same place it was last year, maybe even a little worse.

If things aren't improving, what is the point of keeping Roy around in the first place? Sure, things might get better if Roy were allowed to make some more personnel decisions, but that seems extremely unlikely under a known control freak like Lamoriello. He's not set up to succeed, and he hasn't succeeded

So what's the point of keeping around? It's a question the Islanders need to answer as this season winds down.