{"id":71812,"date":"2025-12-16T01:36:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T01:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/71812\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T01:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T01:36:09","slug":"pat-lafontaine-is-loving-these-patrick-roy-islanders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/71812\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat LaFontaine is loving these Patrick Roy Islanders"},"content":{"rendered":"

DETROIT \u2014 Pat LaFontaine didn\u2019t get a chance to talk about the current Islanders during his on-ice speech Saturday, when he was inducted into the team\u2019s Hall of Fame<\/a>. But he said to a group of reporters during the first intermission of the Isles\u2019 3-2 win over Tampa that he wanted to get his thoughts out there because, like everyone else, LaFontaine likes what he sees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe talent and the enthusiasm, watching [Matthew] Schaefer, watching these young players, Cal Ritchie, [Max] Shabanov, what I like is I\u2019m seeing speed again,\u201d LaFontaine said. \u201cI loved the fast pace, in-your-face [style], hustle and team speed. And I\u2019m seeing it and the games are exciting to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Music to Patrick Roy\u2019s ears.<\/p>\n

Pat LaFontaine waves to fans during an honorary ceremony at UBS Arena. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

And not at all inaccurate as to the steps these Islanders, winners in six of their past seven headed into Tuesday\u2019s game at Detroit, have taken over the seven months since Mathieu Darche has been installed as general manager.<\/p>\n

At every level of the organization, the change has been palpable. Roy, after hiring his own assistant coaches and getting to install his own systems, has cast a happier, more relaxed figure than a year ago. That has carried into the dressing room as well.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a chicken-or-egg proposition there, especially once you factor in Schaefer, the happy-go-lucky 18-year-old who has taken the league by storm<\/a>. What matters to the Islanders, though, is that a team that excelled for the past few seasons at finding ways to lose now is in the thick of the Metropolitan Division race because it has found ways to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess it\u2019s day and night,\u201d Roy said Saturday of his team\u2019s confidence when games get to overtime, where they\u2019ve struggled in recent years. \u201cThat\u2019s why we came with joy and compassion and boldness. Have some swagger, have some clarity in what we want to do.<\/p>\n

Islanders head coach Patrick Roy on the bench, watching his team play the Lightning. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

\u201cI think these words are coming back a lot, and going in that third period with that presence and staying in the present moment, I feel like it makes a difference. And I think our guys, they deserve a lot of credit for the way they handled those situations. Even if we give a goal, it doesn\u2019t change anything in our game. We played the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n

That message \u2014 playing with joy and swagger, compassion and boldness \u2014 is one Roy has repeated ad nauseam this year. After the miserable way the Islanders trudged through the 2024-25 season, struggling to put together wins or do more than stay on the fringe of the playoff race, culminating in a GM change, it appears to be just the right idea for this group at this moment.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOn the ice from Long Island\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

It also reflects a change in attitude from Roy<\/a>. A year ago, his emotions often overrode him in the wake of losses. He would call players out publicly, most famously Anthony Duclair, but there were plenty of less incendiary examples before that which were still beyond where most coaches are willing to go.<\/p>\n

Again, it helps that the Islanders are winning games. Who knows what it would look or sound like if they weren\u2019t? But it\u2019s hard not to notice Roy is much more reluctant to go there in public settings this year. It\u2019s hard, too, not to think that isn\u2019t helping the vibe around the Islanders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just know it\u2019s a lot of fun to watch,\u201d LaFontaine said. \u201cWhat you want to do is, you want to put an exciting team [on the ice]. They are an exciting team to watch.<\/p>\n

Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer (48) moves the puck between Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Darren Raddysh (43) and right wing Nikita Kucherov. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Patrick \u2019cause he\u2019s been coaching a long time. What I loved [is] when I saw he started putting a couple players together and finding the chemistry. He\u2019s just finding which players, and then you throw that third player in and you find the right defensive pairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you start seeing chemistry and you start seeing guys having fun and working hard, exciting things are happening.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT \u2014 Pat LaFontaine didn\u2019t get a chance to talk about the current Islanders during his on-ice speech…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,6821,10,539,15316,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-71812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-islanders","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-patrick-roy","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}