John Kreiser
The New York Islanders stunned the hockey world Sunday, firing coach Patrick Roy with four games left in the regular season and replacing him with Peter DeBoer. But to watch the Islanders recently, especially in the past week, more than answers the question as to why first-year general manager Mathieu Darche pulled the plug.
The Islanders enter the final full week of the regular season outside of a playoff position in the Eastern Conference after holding one for all but a handful of days in the past four months. A superb season by goaltender Ilya Sorokin and the brilliance of 18-year-old rookie defenseman Matthew Schaefer, the No. 1 pick in last June’s NHL Draft, helped cover the holes in the lineup, atrocious coverage in the defensive zone on too many nights, and a power play that for the second straight season ranks among the League’s worst.
A source told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan that the Islanders made the move because they felt they were leaving Sorokin too exposed and needed to shore up their defensive structure.
Sorokin faced a League-high 491 high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick. He stopped 430 of them and has a League-best .876 save percentage on those chances. Overall, Sorokin has a 2.65 goals-against average and .909 save percentage.
Roy was 97-78-22 with the Islanders after taking over midway through the 2023-24 season. He rallied the Isles to the playoffs that season, losing in five games to the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round. But they missed the postseason in 2024-25, and the players appeared to tune him out in recent weeks. He has two seasons remaining on his contract.
DeBoer signed a multiyear deal weeks after serving as an assistant on Canada’s staff at the Milan-Cortina Olympics.
Islanders hope coaching change will salvage playoff bid
The Islanders (42-31-5; 89 points) lost a season-high four in a row and seven of their past 10 games since March 18, while being outscored 37-26. They are one point behind the Philadelphia Flyers for third place in the Metropolitan Division and one behind the Ottawa Senators for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
Each has a game in hand on the Islanders, who are off until they host the Toronto Maple Leafs at UBS Arena on Thursday.
The past week was Roy’s Islanders at their worst. They allowed seven straight goals in an 8-3 home loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday, surrendered the go-ahead goal with 3:01 remaining in a 4-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres the next night, didn’t show up for the first half of what became a 4-1 home loss to the Flyers on Friday and were non-competitive (40-16 shots on goal, 83-30 shot attempts) except for Sorokin in a 4-3 road loss to the Hurricanes on Saturday.
The loss at Carolina was the straw that broke first-year general manager Mathieu Darche’s back. Roy’s Islanders allowed high-danger chances by the boatload, often running around their own zone like chickens with their heads cut off. He lost confidence in backup goaltender David Rittich, who played a key role in their midseason surge, wearing down Sorokin.
In recent weeks, they’ve often not been ready to go from the opening face-off, putting Sorokin under attack from the get-go. In 18 games since March 1, the Islanders are 8-10-0 with a .444 points percentage that’s 27th in the NHL
Firing Roy and hiring DeBoer is one of the most important moves Darche will make as general manager.
The 57-year-old has a track record of success. DeBoer led the Dallas Stars to the Western Conference Final in each of the past three seasons before being fired, took the New Jersey Devils (2012) and San Jose Sharks (2016) to the Stanley Cup Final, and owns a 9-0 career record in Game 7s. The only thing he lacks is a Stanley Cup championship.
“All I can say is, I’m ready,” DeBoer told NHL.com in a phone interview on March 29. “There are only 32 jobs in the NHL and it’s a privilege to have one of them. I’m humble enough to know that.
“Having said that, I have a lot of confidence in my track record of coming in and having success in different places. And I’m especially proud of my ability in the playoffs to have teams move forward.”
Overall, DeBoer is 662-447-152 with the Florida Panthers, Devils, Sharks, Vegas Golden Knights and Stars. His 97 career postseason wins are fifth all-time in NHL coaching history.
His teams play a much more structured game than Roy’s — much more akin to the style used by Barry Trotz that helped the Islanders reach the Semifinals in 2020 and 2021 than the more free-wheeling game the Hall of Fame goalie favors.
It will be interesting to see what effect a new voice behind the bench will have — and whether it’s too late to salvage this season. Making a coaching move at this point in the season also sends a clear signal that Darche won’t hesitate to make roster moves this summer, especially with two more 2025 first-round picks — forward Victor Eklund and defenseman Kashawn Aitcheson — and 2024 first-rounder, forward Cole Eiserman, all recently signed.
Whether a coaching change will be enough to get the Islanders into the playoffs this season remains to be seen.
