One of the first things Patrick Roy tried to change when he took over behind the Islanders’ bench was the club’s abysmal defense.
He espoused the theory that without the puck, the opponent could not score, and introduced a system that focused on puck possession.
He understood that two defensemen and three forwards could not be functionally separate pieces on a chessboard, and placed an emphasis on breakouts and working as groups of five.
He overhauled the structure of the defensive zone with a philosophy rooted in man-to-man principles and emphasized neutral zone forechecking to make it difficult for other teams to penetrate the zone.
Once the Islanders started actively working on this change, the numbers showed an immediate turnaround, but they quickly fell back on track with a four-game losing streak that reached an all-time low with a 5-2 loss to the Rangers on Sunday. I went back to my method. .
Last week, the Islanders ranked 24th league-wide in shot attempt percentage, and he is often used as a substitute in possession.
Their breakout passes weren’t consistently good and there was a clear disconnect between the defense and forwards. Constant breakdowns in the zone led to the Rangers scoring multiple goals Sunday.
“We’ve got to hang in here,” Noah Dobson said after Sunday’s loss. “Find a way. Even if they’re forechecking hard, everyone has to come together as a group of five. When we’re breaking up the puck well, we always have five guys. The players are in the picture. We all have to get better and get back to that form.”
As some defensemen’s individual productivity declines, their struggles as a group become even worse.
Dobson was on pace to set the club record for points by a defenseman for most of the season, but has scored just five points in the last 10 games and one point in the last five games.
According to Natural Stat Trick, Adam Pelech has an expected goal share of 48.05 percent this season after returning from injury in January, which would be his worst since his rookie season in 2016-17.
Alexander Romanov scored four goals on the ice in Sunday’s game.
Romanoff and Dobson had a fruitful partnership for much of the season, but their relationship ended in late February after Pelech and Ryan Pulock struggled even after being reunited. The Islanders started Sunday by going back to those pairs, but quickly abandoned them and repeated variations throughout the game.
But nothing solved the underlying problem in the zone or on breakouts.
“I think as a forward, if we have options, we can support them and communicate a little better,” Kyle Palmieri said. “We play easy and we play fast. We showed we can do it. So we just have to find a way to get back.”
Roy seemed perplexed by his team’s lack of intensity Sunday, even though he had some big-time players during his career.
“I saw a team that played better than us today,” he said. “Rangers, they managed the puck much better than we did. They’re very quick in transition. I thought they had more energy than us for some reason.
“So, to answer your question, I thought we had a certain amount of desperation. We went 2-on-2, and then all of a sudden the tracking went bad and they scored and we went 3-on-2. became.
“After that, it felt like they stopped the game.”
The Islanders, who face a scheduling challenge this week with Carolina, Detroit and Winnipeg as their next three opponents, have little, if any, rope left to sort things out.
With 15 games left in the regular season and no room for error in the playoff race, the game is now.
