Patrick Roy got a glimpse at the New York Islanders’ familiar resiliency in his first game as the team’s head coach.
He also saw, even in victory, the problems that led to the firing of his predecessor, Lane Lambert.
The Islanders will look to string together consecutive wins for the first time in over one month Tuesday night when they close out a two-game homestand by facing the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Islanders won Roy’s debut Sunday night, when Bo Horvat scored 41 seconds into overtime to cap a come-from-behind, 3-2 win over the visiting Dallas Stars. The Golden Knights will be completing a back-to-back road set after falling to the New Jersey Devils 6-5 in overtime on Monday.
Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello fired Lambert on Saturday with the team 19-15-11 overall and coming off an 0-3-1 road trip. Roy, the Hall of Fame goalie who coached the Colorado Avalanche from 2013-14 through 2015-16, took over.
Following the win against Dallas, Roy focused on the elements that helped New York earn just its third victory in 10 games this month (3-5-2) and its sixth in 18 games (6-8-4) since a season-best, four-game winning streak from Dec. 7-13.
The Stars took a 2-1 lead on goals by Jason Robertson and Nils Lundkvist in the second period. Hudson Fasching scored 5:23 into the third for the Islanders, who have more than a dozen players remaining from the teams that made consecutive NHL semifinals in 2020 and 2021.
“I was very happy with the resilience of our group,” Roy said. “That’s what I said after the second period. We were down by one goal and I said the culture of this team is to be resilient, and that’s exactly what they did.”
The Islanders also relied on yeoman work from goalie Ilya Sorokin. New York was outshot 42-28 on Sunday and has been outshot 343-272 in the past 10 games.
“The thing that I would really love to see us cutting down is the shots on net,” Roy said. “I feel like we rely a little too much on our goaltender.”
Golden Knights goalie Logan Anderson got plenty of work in a wild, back-and-forth game on Monday. Vegas fell behind 3-1 less than two minutes into the second period before scoring four unanswered goals.
However, the Devils scored the game’s final three goals to snap the Golden Knights’ three-game winning streak and hand the defending Stanley Cup champions an unusual defeat. Vegas, which was tied for the seventh-fewest goals in the NHL entering Monday, fell despite scoring at least five goals for the first time since a 6-5 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Dec. 1, 2021.
“We basically played a beer league game,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We thought it was preseason, I guess. We didn’t defend to our structure, our principles, at all.”
The six goals allowed tied a season high for the Golden Knights while the Devils’ 38 shots were the most by a Vegas opponent since the Florida Panthers had 42 shots on Dec. 23.
“Tonight was not something that should be acceptable,” Cassidy said. “And quite frankly, it won’t be.”
–Field Level Media