NY Islanders head coach Patrick Roy compares JG Pageau to HOF Canadiens teammate

New York Islanders versatile center JG Pageau, who missed each of the last two games with a lower-body injury, was back at practice on Monday morning, a good sign that he’ll be ready to go against Montreal on Tuesday night at Belle Centre.

The presence of Pageau and the upcoming game against the Canadiens led head coach Patrick Roy to compare him to one of his favorite Habs teammates, a captain, Hall of Famer, and three-time Stanley Cup champion. “Outstanding on face-offs, plays solid in his own zone, capable of scoring goals, capable of creating offense,” Roy said of Pageau. I said that in the playoffs, he reminds me a lot of Guy Carbonneau when I played in Montreal.”

“They’re smart players,” Roy said following practice via Newsday. “They’re guys that could play very well on the [penalty kill] and could help on the power play and play a regular shift very well. And they could match up with the best line on the other side. As a coach, you feel very comfortable.”

Carbonneau won Stanley Cups with Roy in 1986 and captained the team that defeated the Islanders in the Wales Conference Finals on the way to hoisting the Cup in 1993. Carbonneau scored a somewhat controversial OT goal (too many men!) in Game 3 at the Nassau Coliseum that all but sealed the series for the Habs. He later won a third Cup with Dallas in 1999 before becoming an assistant coach in Montreal, where he later served as their head coach for three seasons. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2019.

The Hall of Fame or even the Islanders Hall of Fame is unlikely to be in Pageau's future, but one of the benefits of having him back is that he can be easily moved up and down the lineup. After the last two games, Roy wants to keep the line to Lee, Bo Horvat, and Simon Holmstrom together, meaning that Pageau was centering Kyle MacLean and Oliver Wahlstrom while Matt Martin, Casey Cizikas, and Hudson Fasching made up the fourth line.

“It’s a great boost,” captain Anders Lee said of Pageau, who will be a game-time decision. “J.G. is a key piece of our puzzle here. What he brings to the game every night is extremely important to our success. So getting him healthy and feeling good is a big thing for us and we love when he’s around and getting the boys going and playing the hockey that he can play.”