Mental toughness is at the forefront of the Islanders' struggles with closing out games.

EAST MEADOW, NY -- The New York Islanders need to be mentally tougher. 

Through eight games, they've had 10 leads, but have only been able to hold onto one of them. 

But what is mental toughness and how can that be fixed? 

"Mental toughness is about playing 60 minutes," Islanders head coach Patrick Roy said on Tuesday morning before the team hosts the Anaheim Ducks.  "It doesn't matter what the score is. It's funny because we're talking about this and I watched last night. There was a lot of games. Panthers were up 2-0 and it became a 3-2 game in the second period. Maybe things have changed over the years in the way. Before, you had a one-goal lead, it was tough to get back. Now, maybe it's a two or three-goal lead that you got to think the same way. So the approach needs to be the same.

"So the mental toughness that we need to have is, is when we're up by a goal, or if we're up by two goals, or if we up by three goals, if we're down by one or down by two or three, we gotta finish our game. We gotta play the right way from the start to the end and have the same focus, regardless of what the score is."

Through most of these games, the Islanders have played their game, but as Roy said, not for a full 60.

It hasn't been bad hockey for large stretches of time, but when there are failures, they come in bunches. 

"I feel like when we have a breakdown, for some reason, it turns into one, two, and three chances, and that's what you want to eliminate," Roy said. "Like against the Panthers, I think we gave up 13 chances total, and maybe three or four were towards the end of the game. 

"But when we made one, it was not just one. It was one and two and three. So, eight or nine chances, five of them came probably on the same play. We just have to find a way to calm down the play."

When Roy first came aboard last year, he was asked about holding leads, citing he wanted to be like a football team, running out the clock by staying on the attack, running the football, not sit back. 

"For football, they blow the whistle and you could reset. Hockey, you can't do that," Roy said. "So, I mean, it's different in that aspect. But in the way that, 'Okay, we gave up something, maybe we need to slow down the puck in the corner and just make sure that the next play, it's a good first touch."

Blowing leads is a trend, a problem...choose your wording. 

The team lost 23 games in 2023-24 when they had a lead, seven of which came after Roy was hired. This season, they've either failed to hold onto a lead or ended up losing via a shutout, outside of their 6-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche. 

Islanders captain Anders Lee addressed what the team can do to improve their mental toughness. 

"I think there's a level of thought process that you need to have in certain moments, whether it's protecting a lead, key power play at the end of the game, key penalty kills, whatever it is, and being able to stay present," Lee said. "I think it's about staying in the game, not letting worrisome thoughts creep in. I wouldn't say that's a habit we have, but we are having a trend of having some moments where we're not just playing the game. 

"You gotta go out and play. You got to be in the moment, know exactly what your job is, and go and play. It's a simple thing, but that mental process is a habit that you have to practice. You have to work on that. And I'm glad we're addressing it. I think it's something that we can be better with, for sure."

But how can you practice an intangeable thing like mental toughness? 

"You have to use the tools you have in your bag, whether it's with sports performance or how you prepare yourself," Lee said. "And it's a habit that you practice. You have to bring yourself back to center, you have to find yourself in a moment, after a bad shift or a goal against, bring yourself back and get going on the next thing, whether you miss an open net or something like that...those things are going to happen. 

"You can't control everything, but only you're going to do moving forward. Working on that, over and over, it becomes natural, and you find yourself in a great place within the game, and you're not worrying about what's gonna happen. You're out there playing and moving forward. And yeah, those are things that I think, as a group, we can work on, but then individually, guys can have some great mindsets as a result of that."

The Islanders need to right this wrong if they want to be playing spring hockey. 

But, it's going to be a process and it can't be part of the team or most of the team. Everyone needs to find it within themselves how to shake things off at a much higher rate for the team to have consistent success.