How Patrick Roy can improve the New York Islanders

With Patrick Roy joining the New York Islanders as head coach and earning his first victory as the bench boss over the Dallas Stars on Sunday, former QMJHL coach and now an analyst for TSN 690 Jon Goyens, joined the show to discuss Roy taking over the Islanders and how he can help improve the club. 

Tyler Yaremchuk: Some big coaching news over the weekend so let’s dig into this New York Islanders team a bit more. For a team with a .544 winning percentage prior to this coaching change, what were the areas of their game that were broken?  

Jon Goyens: One area that is pretty blatant right off the bat is I don’t think we’ve seen their penalty kill dip this low in probably five years. But it’s the goals against, it’s just the last 10 games near the bottom of the league for goals for and goals against. That was one big thing when they made the change from Barry Trotz to Lane Lambert it was about potentially bringing more offensive-minded play to a team that defensively was so well structured. Yet this year their offense has struggled because they’re spending too much time in their D-Zone.

Jon Goyens: If I could gloss over every category that makes a successful defense core, they’re near the bottom when it comes to defending the slot, shot attempts against from the slot, defense zone possession time, it goes over and over. Even clean breakouts that tech either the new neutral zone or lead to offensive zone possessions regroups that lead to offensive possessions, everything is near the bottom of the league. It’s outstanding. You’ve got players like Mat Barzal who are on pace for a good season but yet at 5on5, it’s a fractured situation for the entire team.

You can watch the full show here…