Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello is no stranger to making big in-season changes and he has done so again. The team announced that they have fired head coach Lane Lambert. Taking his place will be Patrick Roy who has been named the full-time bench boss. No assistant coaches have been dismissed.
Lambert was in his second season behind the bench of the Isles after taking over for Barry Trotz who was let go following the 2021-22 campaign. While Lambert had coached alongside Trotz for a significant portion of his career (including four seasons as the associate coach to Trotz with the Islanders), the hope was that he could get the team to be more of a threat offensively while not necessarily losing its defensive structure.
New York got a dozen more goals last season but only moved up from 24th to 23rd in that regard while they were ousted in the first round of the playoffs by Carolina. This year, the Islanders sit 22nd in the NHL in goals scored so the offensive improvement as a team hasn’t been there, even with a resurgent season from Mathew Barzal, a full year with Bo Horvat, and Noah Dobson contributing a point per game from the back end.
While the Islanders sit fifth in the Metropolitan Division and are only two points out of a Wild Card spot, they’ve won just 19 of 45 games so far with 11 overtime or shootout losses helping to keep them within striking distance of a postseason position. Clearly, Lamoriello determined that maintaining the status quo behind the bench wasn’t going to help them gain ground in the second half of the season. Lambert departs with a 61-46-20 record as head coach, good for a .559 points percentage. He’s the fifth bench to lose his job this season, joining Jay Woodcroft (Edmonton), Dean Evason (Minnesota), Craig Berube (St. Louis), and D.J. Smith (Ottawa).
Roy, meanwhile, hasn’t been behind an NHL bench for the better part of a decade. He coached in Colorado from 2013-14 through 2015-16, finishing with a combined record of 130-92-24. He also won the Jack Adams Award in 2013-14 as NHL Coach of the Year. However, he abruptly departed the organization near the start of the 2016-17 season, stating that he didn’t have enough of a “say in the decisions that impact the team’s performance” and that he was no longer on the same page as the organization. It was the second shocking exit of his career going back to his playing days when he informed Montreal’s management in 1995 after being pulled from a game that he had played his last game for the team.
The 58-year-old has spent a lot of his time coaching at the major junior level with two stints behind the bench of the QMJHL’s Quebec Remparts from 2005-06 through 2012-13 and 2018-19 through 2022-23; he served as the team’s GM for most of that time. He stepped down following last season with Eric Veilleux taking over as coach and long-time NHL winger Simon Gagne filling the GM title. Over his junior coaching career, Roy’s teams played to a 524-255-66 record while also picking up a Memorial Cup title.
Roy will now be tasked with getting more out of a veteran group that has a lot of money tied up in defensive or physical players while also dealing with several injuries at the moment including key blueliner Ryan Pulock. In his time with Colorado, Roy had one season where the Avs finished in the top five in goals scored but the team slipped into the bottom ten in that regard in his final two campaigns. He’ll also try to get more out of starting netminder Ilya Sorokin who was stellar over his first three seasons in the NHL but has struggled so far this season, posting a save percentage of .908; while that’s above the NHL average, it’s a far cry below the .924 mark he put up over those first three campaigns.
The Islanders are currently using LTIR for Pulock’s injury and will have limited cap space when he returns. Making the change now will give Lamoriello ample time to assess how the team responds to their new head coach before determining what he might try to do before the March 8th trade deadline. His first game behind the bench will come Sunday against Dallas.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Didn’t see that one coming
I have to assume that you’re being sarcastic. I expected this days ago. I was just thinking this morning that I was surprised he wasn’t fired yet
No, did not Patrick Roy as the replacement
Lou Lou Lou not a bad replacement..
our offense sucks so let’s bring in Patrick Roy. lol
As an nhl fan I’m glad he’s back in the league. We’ll see how it turns out.
Stanley Cup or bust
Its about time now get rid of some of those contracts and lets put a winning team together
lol
Such a Lou move
Lou put the team together but never feels the heat; should never of canned Trotz IMO and Roy is a good bet to flame out fast. At least it may be entertaining… Draft better!
Actually, the final straw for Patrick Roy was not being pulled from net. It was because he was left high and dry. He got shelled for many goals and the coach (whom he had problems with as a player) refused to take him out of net. He told his coach “he had played his last game for the Canadiens”.
Yes and no…..he did say it when he was finally pulled from the game. But the article doesn’t make mention of the context at all
Also he said that to the owner ronald corey who was sitting behind the bench not to the coach who was Tremblay I believe
The owner/coach part has some gray area because he’s literally walking off as he says it and we don’t have a good Jomboy video doing lip sync; but yea the context of the article was misleading. I just thought people would appreciate the extra tidbit of information/appropriate context to the situation. I remember watching the game as a kid and wondered for years why his coach would leave him in net like that.
link to youtu.be
For any non old timers who don’t remember. Roy was a great goalie in his Era but an absolute malcontent. This will either go really well or really bad ….will be fun to watch
Old man past his time hires bad coach. Another sad day on the Island.
A lot of work needs to be done with this team. Unfortunately there’s too many bad contracts with term on them. They need to finish near last place and get some high draft picks. It’s going to be a rough few years up ahead.
This would be one of last jobs I would want. Guess Roy really wanted back in. This the team going forward with all the long term contracts. Unless they improve just from having different coach. They are what they are . Best case just make Playoffs lose in round one. Unless goalie steals a series.
Lose to the Rockford Hawks and your fate is sealed.
Roy will be pulling the goalie with 5 minutes to go alot with this team that just can’t score.
Could someone show Kevin Adams this article & explain to him that it’s ok to fire a coach who is under achieving.
-Every Sabres Fan
Are they, though?
Thompson having a down year and hurt a lot and they can’t get a save.
Is that his fault?
Really thought he would go to Ottawa though….
Does he still beat his wife?
No. Now he beats Broduer’s wife. Who just so happens to be the sister of Broduer’s ex-wife.
I offered $5 on Twitter to anyone who would ask Brodeur’s kid after he got drafted by the Devils “what was it like when your aunt became your mom?”
Amazing what people will pretend to not know or ever mention when you are “media friendly”.
Amazing how awful some people are. Trying to hurt a kid on one of the most special days of his life, for a bit of a laugh.
Oh, just curious…
Which was worse?
Me making a joke 13 people (him certainly not being one of them) might have seen OR having your father dump your mother to marry your uncle’s wife?
What I did…or what Martin Brodeur did?
It is amazing how awful some people are…but also amazing how some people refuse to focus on the actual awful people and focus instead on those who notice them.
Also, FWIW…who exactly in a position to actually ask that question was realistically going to take me up on my $5 offer and “hurt a kid on one of the most special days of his life”?
McKenzie? Dreger? Friedman? Marek? Which one do you think was going to say “ooh, $5”?
What risk do you think my joke posed of actually “hurt”ing him?
As opposed to, say, hurting him by putting him in the position of saying something like “sorry, Mom, we’re going to have Christmas with Dad and Auntie Mom this year.”
Is that how you see yourself? Well I’m not as bad as him, so I’m good?
Brodeur didn’t do it to hurt his kids. Yours was purely meant to hurt.
And the fact you’re still bringing this lame attempt at humour 10 years later speaks volumes.
“Hey, Mr. Brodeur, big fan, could I have your autograph, please? You’re great, I love you.”
“You monster, making a joke no one would ever see, how dare you????”
K.
“Brodeur didn’t violate every single obligation he had as a man, a father, a husband, heck, a brother in law even and destroy many lives for his own selfish wants for the SOLE and intentional purpose of hurting his kids, so get off his back already.”
“How dare you bring up that thing his father actually did to him, do you want to hurt him by reminding him of what actually happened, you monster.”
“Could I get one for my friend, too, Mr. Brodeur? You were the best ever.”
Who are you quoting? The voices in your head? This explains a lot.
For sake of argument, let’s say I’m the absolute worst person ever in human history for making that joke no one was ever going to see.
So be it.
What are your thoughts on Martin Brodeur upending the lives of his entire family to steal his wife’s brother’s wife and turn his children’s aunt into their step mother?
My thoughts are since you’re now playing the victim. I’d say your dad stepped out on your mom at some point, or someone personally attacked you as a child for something your father did because they were too cowardly to go after him.
So, as predicted, you will kiss the ass of the man who did the bad thing, while you attack the person who mentioned it.
I’ll leave it to you to figure out if you are a star ****er or a boot licker or what exactly it is that compels you to grovel in this way, but…
It was obvious that you would.
That you would so easily climb off your (faux) high horse to toss that level of (bizarre projection) mud, exposing utter hypocrisy, was icing on the cake.
Appreciate it.
But you aren’t attacking Martin Brodeur, you are attacking his son. Which is what cowards do.
So, just to recap…
Me – made joke no one, let alone Anthony Brodeur, was ever going to see = AWFUL
You – saying “I’d say your dad stepped out on your mom at some point, or someone personally attacked you as a child for something your father did…” directly to me = A OK
Brodeur – destroying his family to **** his children’s aunt and ruin their mother’s (and uncle’s) life = A OK (because Brodeur didn’t ruin his son’s life IN ORDER to ruin his son’s life, it was just collateral damage, so that makes it fine and dandy…or something.)
That moral compass is so far up your… it’s comical, but I appreciate the attempted sermon, Reverend Bozo.
To mention to PHR article that he have won two Memorial cups
It’ll light a fire under these guys for a little while