Stuck in their first four-game losing streak of the season at a critical point in an unexpected playoff chase, the New York Islanders fired Patrick Roy as head coach and replaced him with Pete DeBoer.
It was shocking in that it came on Easter Sunday, and amid their first sustained struggle in a season where external (if not internal) expectations were limited, and DeBoer now has just six games in this regular season to make some sort of impact.
But with the way the Islanders had played lately, and the degree
to which they’ve relied on superlative performances by rookie Calder favorite Matthew Schaefer and Vezina contender Ilya Sorokin, it was common to wonder how long into this summer or next season Mathieu Darche would stick with Roy. The Islanders just began a rare four-day break in their game schedule, so if Darche was thinking of a late-season change for a while, this was the window.
DeBoer, of course, has a long track record of regular season success and long post-season runs, including an odds-defying 9-0 in Games 7. But he’s also had a short, burn-hot-and-fast shelf life in several of his previous stops. His last firing, by the Dallas Stars, came after mounting tension between him and players, including the goalie he threw under the bus after a playoff elimination.
The NHL sums up his record:
DeBoer is 662-447-152 in 1,261 regular-season games for the Florida Panthers, Devils, San Jose Sharks, Golden Knights and Stars, and 97-82 in 179 Stanley Cup Playoff games while also guiding San Jose to the 2016 Final, a six-game loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. His teams have advanced to at least the third round of the playoffs each of his past six seasons qualifying for the postseason, and in eight of his 10 overall.
Roy finishes his Islanders tenure with a record of 97-78-22 in 197 games. His lone playoff appearance was when he. replaced Lane Lambert on their way to a traditional five-game loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. His press conferences and media scrums, if not his on-ice structure, will be missed.
