Naturally, the barometer for head coach John Tonelli will always be Al Arbor.
But the original number 27 doesn’t think Patrick Roy is half bad.
“When you bring in a guy like Patrick, who you know, he’s a character that automatically comes into play, he’s passionate. There’s no question about it, he gets the players fired up and ready and ready.” We’re going to do that,” Tonelli said after the Islanders announced Tuesday a financial commitment to support adaptive hockey on Long Island as part of the Stadium Series Legacy Project. “I’m not going to lie, that’s the way I play. Ready to go, lots of energy. If I didn’t play with that energy, I wouldn’t have been able to perform.”
Tuesday’s game against the Kraken was Roy’s eighth game, and the Islanders are 3-3-1 in their first seven games.
With the Flyers playing two more games, the Islanders entered the night eight points out of third place in the Metropolitan Division and four points behind the Red Wings and Maple Leafs for second place in the wild card spot.
But the difference between Roy’s Islanders and Lane Lambert’s Islanders is already obvious to anyone watching, with the Islanders playing a more possession-oriented, offensive game.
But when it comes to wins and losses, the Islanders still seem to be finding their footing.
“He had a chance to see the little things that were missing,” Tonelli said of Roy. “It’s not big, it’s small. And when you focus on those little things and put them all together, it becomes something big. He did a great job of finding the little things that we’re not doing well. I think he did.
“In some cases, those spots are obvious, like allowing a goal on the power play. [penalty kill] It used to be pretty good. So those are things we have to work on. ”
Roy is trying to work on a penalty kill that ranks last in the league, but the fundamentals and habits he said Monday have also contributed to the Islanders’ .500 hockey record.
“If you go, for example; [analytics service] SportsLogiq, all the numbers are improving in all areas,” Roy said on Monday. “Defensively and offensively, we’re still playing .500 hockey in a sense. And right now, that’s our fundamentals: how do we compete, how do we put our sticks on the ice?
“And the competition is probably wanting to get better along the wall, wanting to be better one-on-one, especially on the offensive end. There are ways to get the puck in front of the net and things like that.
“Structurally, it doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s the competition and the way you use the stick that needs to be as perfect as possible. I thought that was the difference. [in Saturday’s loss] It’s against Calgary. ”
A playoff appearance is the immediate goal this season, and it will take a strong final two months for the Islanders to accomplish that.
Roy’s ability to help make that happen will depend as much on those factors as on the structural changes he has already implemented.
“What I always think back to is how do I make all 24 or 25 people happy and all moving toward the same goal? That’s a difficult job,” Tonelli said. “Some coaches can understand that. Some coaches can’t. I’m sure Lane did his best. He tried 120, 130 percent to get our team to play more. I did.
“It’s not that it doesn’t exist. It’s there. I love these guys. We’ve got a great team. And if we play on all cylinders, we can do a lot of good things.”
