What Islanders need for late push under Hall of Famer Patrick Roy

Eleven games into his tenure as New York Islanders coach, Patrick Roy finds the team in the same position as when he took over for fired coach Lane Lambert: outside of the last playoff spot.

The Islanders are 4-4-3 under Roy, including a 4-0 loss Thursday to the St. Louis Blues. New York has blown a third-period lead 18 times this season, including 11 multi-goal leads. Three of those losses came under Roy, a Hall of Fame goaltender.

Two recent games showcased this frustrating tendency. With a two-goal lead and under 10 minutes left against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday, the Islanders gave up two goals. New York won the game in overtime, but it wasn't as fortunate two days earlier.

Against the New York Rangers, the Islanders held leads of 4-1 and 5-3. With five minutes remaining, they allowed two power-play goals, and the Rangers won 10 seconds into overtime when Noah Dobson gave away the puck to Artemi Panarin, who scored the winner. The loss was one of the Islanders' worst this season.

"When you have a two- to three-goal lead like we did, you have to find a way to get the two points and get the job done," Dobson said following the loss, per NHL.com. "We just got to be a whole lot better."

One major reason the Islanders are floundering is their poor penalty-killing. At 71.5 percent, New York's PK is last in the NHL, 2.1 percent behind Montreal. Per NHL.com, the PK is worse under Roy (65.7) than Lambert (73).

"I hope that we could build from one PK to two PKs to three and then get some confidence," Roy said following a Feb. 10 loss to Calgary, per NHL.com. "We're below 70 percent and we know that won't do it for us to be a playoff team and in the playoffs. We need to find ways to do the job."

The last team to make the playoffs while being bottom three in the league in PK percentage was the Nashville Predators, who finished with 75.6 percent in the Covid-19-shortened 2020-2021 season.

It has not all been negative for Roy and the Islanders, who have made some improvements on defense.

Under Lambert, the Isles allowed 35 shots per game, second most in the league. Roy's changes have brought that down to 31.5 shots per game, which is just outside the bottom 10 teams but a significant improvement.

The numbers show Roy has helped Islanders star goalie Ilya Sorokin, whose save percentage has risen from 90.8 to 91.9 percent and goals-against average has fallen from 3.21 to 2.83. Roy's switch from a zone to man-to-man defense has resulted in fewer high-danger goal-scoring chances against Sorokin. 

For the Islanders to make the playoffs, though, New York must buckle down even more on defense, especially on the penalty kill. And it's up to Roy to find a way.