Islanders fans surprised by Patrick Roy's firing, hopeful for Pete DeBoer era

From all accounts, general manager Mathieu Darche’s seismic decisions to fire coach Patrick Roy and replace the Hall of Famer with Pete DeBoer with four games remaining in the Islanders’ 2025-26 season caught the NHL by surprise.

But perhaps no region felt the shock more acutely than Long Island. And certainly no one, outside of the immediate team, was more stunned by the change than Islanders fans.

“To be honest, it came out of leftfield,” James Griffo, of Albertson, told Newsday in a phone conversation. “I thought it would have been something that would happen after the end of the season.”

The Islanders announced the change shortly after 12:30 Sunday afternoon, and the timing of the move was curious, given that they began the day still in playoff position in the Metropolitan Division.

The Islanders’ 42-31-5 record and 89 points put them third in the division entering Sunday’s play, but the Flyers and Senators won to move one point ahead of them. Both teams also have a game in hand on the Islanders, as do the Red Wings and Blue Jackets, both of whom are one point behind the Isles.

The Islanders have lost four straight games and have dropped seven of their last 10, including a 4-3 loss to the Hurricanes on Saturday night in which they were outshot 40-16 and out-attempted 82-32.

That has been a season-long concern. The Islanders have scored 226 goals in 78 games (2.89 goals per game) versus 229 goals against (2.93 goals per game). According to analytics website NaturalStatTrick.com, the Islanders rank 22nd in the league in Corsi For percentage (48.61%), 27th in Shots For percentage (49.13%), 27th in Scoring Chances For percentage (47.45%), and 30th in High-Danger Chances For percentage (44.72%).

Essentially, the data points reveal that the Islanders have not generated enough offense.

“The way the team has played over the past 10 games — and it’s not just the results of those games; it’s the way they’ve looked in those games — I think [the coaching change is] kind of warranted,” said Russell Coffey of Dix Hills. “It’s not the fact that they are losing. It’s really more the fact how outplayed they’ve gotten.”

DeBoer will have three practice days to implement his system before the Islanders begin their season-ending four-game homestand Thursday against John Tavares and the Maple Leafs.

And that is where Rich Kern, of Roslyn Heights, hopes DeBoer can be more effective than Roy, who compiled a 97-78-22 record in 197 games in slightly less than 2 1⁄2 seasons with the Islanders.

“The team really needs to make some changes to get to the next level,” Kern said of DeBoer, who has a career record of 662-447-152 in 17 NHL seasons with Florida, New Jersey, San Jose, Vegas, and Dallas and coached the Devils (2012) and Sharks (2016) to the Stanley Cup Final. “Maybe DeBoer can get them to the next level.”