We knew Patrick Roy would coach for his job this season. Roy didn’t get a chance to finish the job. The Islanders fired him on Sunday afternoon with four games remaining in the season. What now for the Islanders?
In New York, Roy out, DeBoer in (photo NHL)
Roy was replaced by Pete DeBoer, who was hired on Sunday afternoon. Roy knew what he signed up for, and DeBoer knows that, having been fired five times previously.
But DeBoer won’t get fired if the Islanders miss the playoffs. The reason is that he signed a three-year contract as the Islanders’ head coach. That means he gets a full training camp going into next season.
Whether he’s the right guy to coach this team is another story. First, though, DeBoer’s task is to get to the Islanders in the playoffs. It won’t be easy. The free-falling Islanders lost a season-high four straight and seven of their last 10. It may be a lost cause when they play on Thursday to face the already-eliminated Toronto Maple Leafs.
How so? The Islanders would miss the playoffs if the season ended today. They are a point behind the Ottawa Senators for the last wild-card spot and a point behind the Philadelphia Flyers for the top three spot in the Metropolitan Division, where the top three teams qualify for the playoffs.
There’s a good chance they may not recover after going 0-for-4 last week, when they lost to the Pittsburgh, Sabres, Flyers, and Hurricanes. Last week could be the Islanders’ Waterloo. They needed to survive a pair of those back-to-back games with the Penguins and Sabres, followed by the Flyers and Hurricanes over the weekend, to be in the playoff picture.
It’s the Islanders’ own fault that they are in this predicament. They needed to win at least two games last week, especially Monday night’s game against the Penguins. Instead, they imploded by letting the Penguins score five goals in the second period on their way to an 8-3 loss. That loss could define their season. It sealed Roy’s fate as head coach.
The Islanders received so much help from their competitors losing lately, especially the Columbus Blue Jackets. They couldn’t take advantage of that, and it’s why Roy lost his job.
The Islanders had no choice. Roy couldn’t get his team out of its malaise. The players clearly stopped listening to him last week, as they broke down defensively in all four of their losses. Even with plenty of practice time this week, based on the Islanders getting three days off, Roy likely wasn’t going to get through with his players.
It’s unrealistic to believe DeBoer will change much in a short time, but again, the Islanders had to do something. To expect a coaching change to shake things up late in the season is too much to ask. For a head coach to learn his players and cram it all quickly will be hard. This roster is not good enough to fix all of the defense problems fast.
Mathieu Darche (photo courtesy HockeyFeed)
Much can be said about GM Mathieu Darche making the decision, but it seems the ownership made it. Darche sounds like a guy who won’t make decisions based on emotion. He even knows that changing head coaches with four games to go is pointless. It was clear Islanders owners Scott Malkin and Jon Ledecky had no interest in letting it play itself out anymore.
It’s a mistake to conclude that the current circumstance is Roy’s fault. It’s primarily on the players. Anders Lee, Bo Horvat, and Mat Barzal underachieved the last two months, which is why there’s a coaching change and why you have to like the Islanders’ odds of missing the playoffs.
To think these players will start playing well with DeBoer on the bench is crazy. No one can change the stink of these guys. Not even Scotty Bowman. Those guys have to be traded this offseason. Their stink can’t rub off on Matthew Schaefer, Cole Eiserman, Victor Eklund, Cal Ritchie and Max Shabanov moving forward.
Firing Roy was an admission that this team wasn’t going to figure it out with him. To expect DeBoer to change everything now is way too much to ask.
