Islanders Patrick Roy Makes Critical Late-Game Decision In Comeback Win

In his first game behind the Islanders bench, Patrick Roy made a critical late

Patrick Roy had less than 24 hours to learn what his New York Islanders team was all about before their Sunday night affair against the Dallas Stars. 

After just one morning skate -- where Roy preached effort and moving as a five-man unit -- the Islanders found themselves chasing the game after two periods, with the scoreboard reading 2-1 Dallas. 

As the players sat in the locker room before the final frame, Roy had just one message for his team. 

"He just came in and said we've done it before. He's seen us do this kind of thing before, whether it was against Los Angeles or Toronto or teams like that,' Islanders Bo Horvat said. "And he said we were a resilient group. It was time to prove ourselves, and guys just went out there and did that. Everybody stepped up."

And that they did, tying the game at 5:20 of the third period, courtesy of a Noah Dobson pinball shot off Hudson Fasching. 

With a ton of time left in the third, the question was how Roy would handle the bench in a game the Islanders really had to have after losing four straight and making a colossal change. 

Roy decided to limit the minutes of the Islanders fourth line, a line that had been struggling in the game -- a complete reversal of what Lane Lambert had been doing his entire tenure with the club. 

After Matt Martin, Kyle MacLean, and Cal Clutterbuck left the ice with around 11:10 to play in the third, they didn't get back on the ice until their final shift, which ended with 4:50 remaining in the game, with the score knotted up at 2-2. 

Roy said he's a big analytics guy, and in 6:07 minutes as a line, the Islanders were outshot 5-1 and owned a Corsi For of just 18.18 when that line was on the ice, per NaturalStatrick.com. 

Corsi For measures shot-attempt differential at even-strength play. 

Shortening his bench allowed Roy to play his top six every two minutes, sneaking in a few third-line shifts. 

The Islanders ultimately could not find the back of the net to win in regulation, as the game needed overtime.

While it may seem like an obvious decision to start overtime with Mathew Barzal, Horvat, and Noah Dobson -- the Islanders' three best players -- Lambert elected to start Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Simon Holmstrom at times to kick off overtime.

Before the game, Horvat spoke on the mindset that Roy wanted to instill, which clearly impacted his decision when choosing his overtime threesome.

"For us to be successful going forward, we've got to all pull on the same rope," Horvat said. "There can't just be one guy going. Everybody has to contribute, and I think that was his main message today."

Horvat, Barzal, and Dobson were pulling hard on that rope Sunday night, earning the opportunity to win the game. 

They only needed 41 seconds to send UBS Arena into a frenzy as after Barzal banked a pass off the boards to Horvat, the second-year Islanders got in behind Dallas before beating Stars goalie Scott Wedgewood on the backhand to win the game 3-2. 

"We know that we put ourselves in a bit of a hole, and we needed to win games. It's playoff hockey for us."e, and we needed to win games," Roy said postgame. It's playoff hockey for us."

As we know, the guys going are the guys that should play in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and that's how Roy is looking at the remainder of the 2023-24 regular season, given the Islanders currently being on the outside looking in -- just two points back of a wild-card spot.  

All the players spoke about the way Roy commanded the bench, calmed the group, and ultimately gave them the belief they could win the game. 

Everyone in the room after the win was hyped, even when we spoke with Martin, who essentially watched from the bench as his teammates mounted the comeback and got the needed two points. 

"We had some ups and downs in the game, which I think you can expect with the amount of changes that we made this morning and even coming to the game tonight," Martin said. "I thought he was very vocal and very positive throughout the whole game. He came in between the second and third and talked about being a resilient group, and we showed that. 

"So certainly a lot of areas that we are gonna clean up and get more familiar with the way he wants to do things, but overall, we battled hard, [Ilya] Sorokin made some good saves when he needed to and found a way to win.

Martin continued: "From the first second we talk to Roy, he talked about togetherness and being resilient and [that] good teams come together. And that's the culture he wants to build. And overall, I thought we did a pretty good job."

Martin has never been a player that puts himself above the team -- ever -- so no one was expecting him to complain about ice time or anything like that. 

But it was clear that Martin and the rest of his teammates were back playing as a family. You could see everyone on the bench riling one another up before they hit the ice; the effort was there, and regardless of ice time, the emotion in the room was as if this group had just gotten a new lease on life.

"I'll use the word culture shocking, and I don't want you guys to run away with that," Martin said on the coaching change. "It's a change in a lot of ways. Things got turned upside down, and he's got a different style, different energy, and is very passionate. And he's won a lot in this league and is one of, if not the greatest player at the [goalie] position one of them, so he carries a lot of weight.

"You can tell he's enthusiastic and cares a lot about what he's doing. He wants us to have success as a group, and his voice is a partnership from the beginning. And we're all in this together."

It wasn't the fourth line's night. That doesn't mean that going forward, Roy will be taking that line out of the rotation in each of the final 36 games of the season.

But what Roy showed was that his team will work as a team going forward, and the players pulling the rope the hardest would be given the chance to make more of an impact. 

It's not personal. It's what it takes to win in the National Hockey League, and regardless of ice time, the Islanders want to win.

Roy's decision paved the way for just their second comeback win of the season after trailing the following two periods (now 2-11-2).

It's clear that after just 24 hours, the Islanders have bought into this mindset, a mindset they once had that had been lost for too long. 

You can watch Rosner talk Islanders hockey on Hockey Night in New York with co-host Sean Cuthbert live on Sunday nights at 8 PM ET during the season on Twitch, YouTube, Twitter & Facebook.