Within the eight video games since Patrick Roy has taken over as head coach, the Islanders have appeared like a greater staff.
They’ve managed the puck extra.
They’ve accounted for a better share of anticipated objectives, high-danger probabilities and precise objectives at five-on-five than beneath Lane Lambert.
They appear like a staff attempting to take the sport to the opposition versus one hoping the goalie can steal some factors.
They’re additionally 3-3-2 in these eight video games beneath Roy.
Good because it’s appeared more often than not, it hasn’t fairly translated to outcomes.
It additionally hasn’t translated to scoring, with 2.75 objectives per sport beneath Roy in comparison with 2.95 beneath Lambert.
Adjusting to a brand new system is a course of that takes time.
However time isn’t precisely a luxurious the Islanders have proper now, with 29 video games to go within the common season and the playoffs removed from a certainty.
The scoring wants to start out matching the advance that the attention take a look at and the statistics are exhibiting, beginning on Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium in opposition to the Rangers, in any other case the Isles might be relegated to lacking the playoffs for a second time in three seasons at UBS Enviornment.
“Groups do a very good job of protecting the home and never letting groups get inside,” Mat Barzal advised The Put up after a brief apply Saturday marked the sixth straight day the Isles have been on the ice. “I believe we have to get extra photographs. I believe we have to get extra pucks to the web, create a bit of extra that manner. However plenty of it simply comes right down to scoring.”
Barzal, who is nice to go for Sunday’s match after lacking apply with upkeep twice this week, has avidly purchased into Roy’s strategies.
He believes extra possession lends itself to controlling the sport, and rattled off the previous 4 Stanley Cup winners as groups which have used that formulation to success.
“Tampa, Colorado, Vegas — possession, lot of photographs, however they only have management of the sport,” Barzal mentioned. “You have a look at Carolina, they at all times have management of the sport. I watched them [Friday] night time in opposition to Arizona. They managed the sport your complete night time.
“It’s about our management of the sport. I really feel like up to now a bit of bit, we’ve let the opposite groups management the sport. We haven’t essentially been essentially the most possessive staff within the league. However I do assume that’s the mannequin and the recipe to successful is we have to management the ice. We didn’t do it in opposition to Seattle [on Tuesday]. However once we do do it, you possibly can see there’s a formulation proper there that basically helps us win.”
The Islanders embracing this pondering beneath Roy is a tectonic shift in the way in which they’re attempting to win.
Clearly, that was wanted. However whether or not it’s coming too late to avoid wasting the season continues to be an open query.
Earlier this week, Roy cited inner statistics saying that over his first seven video games, the Isles led the league in probabilities near the web whereas rating center of the pack within the slot space.
These are encouraging indicators, however on a yearlong foundation, the Islanders additionally rank beneath the fiftieth percentile in capturing proportion from near the web, per NHL Edge monitoring.
“You possibly can play properly offensively and have methods, it might look good at instances. However when you’re missing that depth, that starvation, that assault mindset to be aggressive and assault the web, it’s arduous to get in entrance of the web, arduous to get inside on groups,” Noah Dobson advised The Put up. “Today, everybody defends so arduous. After we do get these zone time, these offensive zone shifts, we gotta discover a strategy to nonetheless assault the web. Get to the inside and generate offense that manner.”
Depth and aggression has largely been the focus of this week, which Roy has used as a de facto coaching camp.
Sunday’s renewal of the Battle of New York is the primary in a stretch that can see the Islanders play each different day for 9 straight days.
If they will’t construct some momentum out of the mini-break, trying ahead to 2024-25 will begin to really feel prudent.
“I actually imagine apply usually is the way in which you play,” Barzal mentioned. “I like arduous practices, I like high-intensity practices. That’s the way in which it’s been. So hopefully it interprets.”