New York Islanders head coach Patrick Roy laid into veteran forward Anthony Duclair following their 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night at UBS Arena.
“He was god-awful,” Roy said. “He had a bad game. That’s why I didn’t play him a lot. He is lucky to be in the lineup. Sorry if I lose it on him right now, but that’s just how I feel.”
Mistakes made, chances not taken: Inside the Islanders’ playoff-killing loss to Lightning
Duclair was limited to just 12 minutes of ice time in the loss — the Islanders’ sixth-straight defeat and the latest damning blow to their razor-thin playoff hopes. New York woke up on Wednesday morning five points out of the second and final Eastern Conference wild-card berth with eight games to play.
Brought in on a four-year deal over the summer as a scoring winger to help cement the Islanders’ postseason hopes, Duclair has had a nightmare first season in New York. The 29-year-old, who scored 31 and 24 goals in each of his last two full seasons, has just seven in 44 games this year.
The one thing he can control, his effort, is considerably lacking, according to his head coach.
“He’s not skating, he’s not competing, he’s not moving his feet,” Roy said. “He’s not playing up to what we expect from him. I think it’s an effort thing.”
This is not the first time that Duclair has been called out by Roy, who expressed his dissatisfaction with his play in early March following a 7-4 loss to the Nashville Predators.
“I’m not happy with his play,” Roy said. “I expect more from him.”
At that time, though, he chalked some of it up to Duclair working his way back from a lower-body injury that sidelined him for 28 games.
There was no such reasoning, this time around.
