{"id":687975,"date":"2026-10-16T05:21:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T05:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/687975\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T05:21:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T05:21:15","slug":"islanders-coach-benches-two-forwards-late-in-game-as-he-rips-teams-poor-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/687975\/","title":{"rendered":"Islanders coach benches two forwards late in game as he rips team’s poor play"},"content":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2014 Pete DeBoer has largely described his approach to making lineup changes on the fly in positive terms \u2014 that is, players earning their promotions up the lineup \u2014 and did so again Thursday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After the 2-1 shootout loss<\/a> to the Senators that saw Calum Ritchie and Anthony Duclair both dropped to the fourth line, though, he came as close as he has so far this season to direct criticism of players.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, he wasn\u2019t the only one,\u201d DeBoer said when asked about Ritchie. \u201cThere was a group of guys there that fell out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Islanders head coach Pete DeBoer looks on during the first period of the Islanders\u2019 preseason loss to the Rangers on Sept. 25, 2026. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

\u201cThe players make those decisions for me. I don\u2019t make those decisions on how they play during the game. You know what, we had some puck management issues at different points. We took some penalties, which you can\u2019t do on the road. Guys make those decisions when we get into those situations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ritchie took just two shifts in the third period, sitting for the game\u2019s final 11:30. Duclair took four and sat for the last 9:25. Both had taken penalties in the second period.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Defenseman Matt Kessel also sat the last 12:30.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Emil Heineman and Simon Holmstrom, who started the game as Casey Cizikas\u2019 wingers on the fourth line, played up on the second and third lines, respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In-game lineup changes have become an early-season trademark of DeBoer\u2019s, which, he explained pregame, comes in part from his relative lack of familiarity with the Islanders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NewAnthony Duclair skates with the puck as Victor Hedman defends during the third period of the Islanders\u2019 loss to the Lightning on Oct. 10, 2026 at UBS Arena. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n

So, although he stuck with largely the same forward lines throughout training camp, he\u2019s been fairly aggressive in changing things up in the season\u2019s early goings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still getting to know this group,\u201d DeBoer said. \u201cI haven\u2019t been with these guys for two or three years where, a coach that has that experience with a group \u2026 that\u2019s had success with certain line combinations over a long period of time, maybe gives a little more runway. That\u2019s not the case here. I\u2019m still getting to know this group, everybody\u2019s trying to show me where they fit and what they\u2019re capable of doing.\u201d\u00a0<\/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

The Islanders won all 10 of their games that ended in overtime last season, but were far less efficient in shootouts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The latter trend continued Thursday. Brayden Schenn, Bo Horvat and Simon Holmstrom all failed to convert their shootout chances.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mat Barzal (left kneecap inflammation) didn\u2019t travel with the Islanders north of the border.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA \u2014 Pete DeBoer has largely described his approach to making lineup changes on the fly in positive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[5976,5,122,3328,159,5190,5189,4,2087,43],"class_list":["post-687975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-islanders","tag-anthony-duclair","tag-hockey","tag-islanders","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-islanders","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkislanders","tag-nhl","tag-pete-deboer","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117448912702992207","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687975","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=687975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}