ELMONT, N.Y. — New York Islanders legend John Tonelli sees the parallels between Patrick Roy and the philosophy that made him a centerpiece of one of the NHL’s greatest dynasties.
“When you bring in a guy like Patrick who’s an automatic character, he’s fiery,” Tonelli said. “There’s no doubt about it and he’s going to get the guys juiced up and ready to go. That’s the way I played the game: Ready to go with a lot of energy. If I didn’t play with that energy, I was not effective.”
Roy has had the reins of the Islanders for just three weeks after the team decided to fire Lane Lambert amidst a downturn of form in late January. Lambert lasted just one-plus seasons and struggles this winter had the Islanders firmly on the outside of the playoff picture looking in.
“It has to be pretty hard to be a coach, right?” Tonelli began. “I think of one guy who was the best coach I ever had and that was [Islanders coach and Hall of Famer] Al Arbour. I always think back like, how do you get 24-25 guys all driving toward the same goal? That’s a tough task and yet, some coaches can get it, some coaches can’t.
“I know for sure that Lane tried his best. He tried 120, 130% to get our team team to play with more. It’s not that it’s not there. It’s there. I love these guys. We have a great team and when we’re playing on all cylinders, we’re going to do a lot of good things.”
Tuesday night’s matchup against the Seattle Kraken meant New York is inside 30 games remaining in the regular season and after a 3-3-1 start with Roy, there’s still an uphill climb toward playoff contention.
While he’s instituting a new, aggressive system, he’s also trying to rectify issues that include the worst penalty kill in the NHL.
“He’s had an opportunity to see what the little things that were missing,” Tonelli continued. “It’s not big, it’s little, and if you focus on those little things, you put them all together, then it becomes big. I think he’s done a great job at picking little spots that we’re not doing that well in, like allowing power-play goals — our PK used to be pretty good. Pretty damn good. So those are things we’ve got to work on.”
Roy’s pedigree is sterling enough to get the Islanders to buy in quickly. They’ve shown an ability to take to his teachings quickly to improve their play and amp up their intensity. Now it comes down to consistency.
“He is a tremendous force in the National Hockey League,” Islanders co-owner Jon Ledecky said. “I think his contributions and his achievements speak for themselves and I’m looking forward for him to have a successful tenure.”
Tonelli and Ledecky were on hand at UBS Arena on Tuesday night to take part in a ceremony celebrating the team and the NHL supporting various forms of adaptive hockey on Long Island. The Special Olympics New York, the Long Island Rough Riders sled hockey team, and the Long Island Blues special hockey team will receive funding and ice time at The Park at UBS Arena for practices and games.
