As the New York Islanders closed out a convincing, dominating 6-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night, crowd chants of “Pat-rick-Roy! Pat-rick-Roy!” rang throughout their home rink on Long Island.
The love for the Isles’ new coach is real, fueled by a combination of his perspective on the game (fortunately applied to the team with immediate effects) and his willingness to talk about it openly.
Roy set about changing how the Islanders play right away, and what’s more, he hasn’t acted like his approach is a state secret. His post-games and morning skate pressers are six minutes of fun talk worth more than four hours of sports talk radio (if sports talk radio south of the 49th parallel discussed hockey).