The Islanders got it right with Patrick Roy

The Islanders will need to spend the offseason doing a lot of reflecting and changing things around — on the roster, certainly, and there is at least some question surrounding the front office, too. But for the first time since 2021, there is no question whatsoever about the head coaching position.

After 42 games in charge, Patrick Roy looks like the guy. Lou Lamoriello’s mid-January play to bring Roy to Long Island from a golf course in Florida likely saved the Islanders from missing the playoffs entirely, and his presence behind the bench is a reason to cling to hope in 2024-25 no matter what the franchise does this offseason.

Look no further than Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour, who was asked prior to Game 1 of the series between Carolina and the Islanders whether his team’s opponent looked different under Roy than Lane Lambert.

“Yeah, in my opinion,” he said. Then he stifled a laugh, which said a whole lot more than his words. “I’ll leave it at that.”

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Under Roy, the Islanders had a .608 points percentage that, over a full 82 games, would have made them the fourth-best team in the East and locked down a playoff spot much sooner than they ultimately did. At five-on-five, they went from a bottom-of-the-barrel defensive team to the top third of the league thanks to a systemic overhaul brought in by the new coach.

When Roy walked in the door, the Islanders were scoring 48.9 percent of goals at five-on-five. In 37 regular-season games with him there, they scored 54.23 percent — a better number than Colorado, Carolina and Vegas put up over the full season.

Instead of sitting back and absorbing pressure in the defensive zone as they had under Lambert, Roy implemented a man-hybrid system that emphasized attacking the puck and getting two defenders matched up against a single offensive player to win possession back. The Islanders played more aggressive hockey in the neutral zone, too, with forwards pressing up and defending the blue line.

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Though the Islanders never quite took to the puck-possession style Roy wanted them to play offensively, the effects were immediate and lasting. The Islanders allowed fewer than 10 high-danger chances per game under Roy — a pace that would have been top five in the league — after being 30th in the league in the category when he took over.

They got much better at keeping teams out of the middle and held on to more leads as a result, but Roy’s impact was much more than statistical.

The Islanders’ dressing room had gotten too laid back under Lambert . Roy addressed that with a mid-February training camp 2.0 that functioned as a come-to-Jesus moment for the team and helped up the intensity for the stretch run.

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His lineup experimentation — after Lambert had barely touched the forward lines all year — also proved helpful, with the Islanders finally landing on the right combinations at the start of April, just in time to make the playoffs with a tear down the stretch. Roy’s trust in Kyle MacLean to play every night and in Semyon Varlamov to carry the team in net also proved well placed.

It wasn’t a completely perfect run for Roy. Brind’Amour had the better of the coaching matchup in the first round and the biggest decision Roy made in the series — going to Sorokin in Game 3 — backfired. The Islanders’ special teams didn’t improve much, if at all, when he took over, and the penalty kill, in particular, is in need of a dramatic overhaul. Offensively, the split between the Islanders under Roy versus Lambert amounted to a wash despite a slightly higher five-on-five shooting percentage with Roy.

The Islanders will hope that a full training camp — with an offseason to help shape the roster to be more suited to Roy’s system — can ameliorate some of those issues.

For the time being, though, if they are looking for a reason to be optimistic after a disappointing end to the season, that reason is behind the bench.

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