{"id":544561,"date":"2026-04-06T23:46:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T23:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/544561\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T23:46:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T23:46:15","slug":"islanders-aware-of-whats-next-after-jarring-patrick-roy-firing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/544561\/","title":{"rendered":"Islanders aware of what’s next after jarring Patrick Roy firing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mathew Barzal is familiar with the business.<\/p>\n

Nearly a decade removed from making his NHL debut with the Islanders, the 28-year-old forward has played games under five head coaches.<\/p>\n

Jack Capuano was fired midseason, months after leading the franchise to their first playoff series victory in 23 years. Doug Weight was gone after less than two full seasons. Barry Trotz was fired one year after the Islanders made their second consecutive run to the conference finals. And Lane Lambert was let go before finishing his second season with the team.<\/p>\n

What could surprise Barzal now?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen [John Tortorella] got hired in [Las] Vegas the other week, I kind of laughed, [coming] with eight games left,\u201d Barzal said Monday. \u201cAnd then this happens. There was no sense of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shock of Patrick Roy\u2019s firing<\/a> was still evident after Monday\u2019s practice on Long Island, less than 24 hours after the head coach was dismissed with four games remaining in the regular season.<\/p>\n

Islanders players staunchly defended Roy, denying he had lost the locker room near the tail end of his third season in charge, shouldering the blame for the season-worst four-game losing streak that has put the team\u2019s playoff hopes<\/a> in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all love Patty and wish that we could have done better over the last 10 days,\u201d Barzal said. \u201cYou look in the mirror and there\u2019s chances that I missed \u2026 As competitors, you feel disappointment, just thinking you could have done more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing I\u2019ll take away from Patrick is just the accountability and the honesty within the room \u2026 He was so honest in discussion, and the way he looked you in the eye and was completely honest with you. Never told a lie. And that\u2019s something you really appreciate out of a coach.<\/p>\n

\"NewIslanders head coach Patrick Roy and players on the bench react during the third period against the Pittsburgh Penguins. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think at this time of the year you can\u2019t let anything linger too long. You move on as a player. You ride with what you\u2019re given. You wake up this morning and you\u2019re excited to give everything you\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was time to move on because there is so little time left in the season, so little time to become acquainted with new coach Pete DeBoer and the basics of a structure that has allowed him to lead four different teams to the conference finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was being honest with us about what we can do better,\u201d Jean-Gabriel Pageau said following Monday\u2019s practice. \u201cHe\u2019s had a lot of success everywhere he\u2019s been and we\u2019ll listen to everything he has to say. It\u2019s not gonna be a problem to buy into his system. It\u2019s exciting to have that little reset and fresh start.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NewNew Islanders coach Peter DeBoer hits the ice. New York Islanders\/Kathryn Howell<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOn the ice from Long Island\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Star rookie Matthew Schaefer shared similar enthusiasm, speaking of the opportunity to learn from the accomplished coach.<\/p>\n

And despite the sudden change, the team\u2019s mindset remains the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve put ourselves in a position to expect to make the playoffs,\u201d captain Anders Lee said. \u201cWe can go out there and get this thing done.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

A coach can only do so much, center Brayden Schenn said:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s on the players to execute.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mathew Barzal is familiar with the business. Nearly a decade removed from making his NHL debut with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[5,122,1951,3328,159,5190,5189,4,2905,2087,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-544561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-islanders","10":"tag-mathew-barzal","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-islanders","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkislanders","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-patrick-roy","17":"tag-pete-deboer","18":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116360434049694257","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}