The Skinny on the Coaching Change and The Playoff Chase

 It wasn't Epic in the sense of Pat LaFontaine's goal early Easter Morning in 1987, or Wade Dubielewicz' poke check to get the Isles into the playoffs in 2007, but it was consequential nevertheless, as the Isles replaced Patrick Roy as Head Coach with veteran coach Pete DeBoer.

DeBoer looks to turn around an Islander team that had lost four straight games for the first time in over a year and found themselves on the precipice of falling out of a playoff spot. 

Within the first eight hours of DeBoer's tenure, and on the first of four consecutive Islander days off, they did just that, as Philadelphia knocked the Isles out of third in the Metro and Ottawa then knocked them out of the second Wild Card spot.  The news was not all bad though as Detroit suffered a late loss to Minnesota and Washington got blown out at Madison Square Garden.

The Standings:

1.      x(1^st Metro)  Carolina 104 points (36 RW) in 77 games

2.      x (1^st Atlantic) Tampa Bay 102 (39 RW) in 76

3.      x (2^nd Atlantic) Buffalo 100 (38 RW) in 77

4.      x(3^rd Atlantic) Montreal 100 (32 RW) in 77

5.      (2nd Metro) Pittsburgh 96 (33 RW) in 78

6.      (1^st WC) Boston 95 (31 RW) in 78

7.      (2^nd WC) Ottawa 90 (34 RW) in 77

8.      (3^rd Metro) Philadelphia 90 (24 RW) in 77

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9.      (3^th WC/4^th Metro) ISLES 89 (28 RW, 38 ROW) in 78

10.   (4^th WC) Detroit 88 (29 RW, 38 ROW) in 77

11.   (5^th WC) Columbus 88 (27 RW, 32 ROW) in 77

12.   (6^th WC) Washington 87 (33 RW, 37 ROW) in 78

 

Sunday’s Results

MIN 5 @DET 4

FLA 2 @PIT 5

           BOS 1 @PHI 2 (OT)

           CAR 3 @OTT 6

           NJ 3 @MTL 0

           WAS1 @NYR 8

Upcoming Games

Mon 4/6: TB@BUF

Tue 4/7:  TB@OTT, FLA@MTL, BOS@CAR,CBJ@DET, PHI@NJ

Wed 4/8: BUF@NYR, WAS@TOR

Thu 4/9: TOR@NYI, CBJ@BUF, TB@MTL, CAR@CHI, PIT@NJ, FLA@OTT, PHI@DET

Fri 4/10: No Games in Chase

Tomorrow's game will not impact the Isles but the Isles will fall behind Detroit, Columbus, or possibly both when those two teams play on Tuesday.

The Coaching Change

The Isles are 5-1-0 in the first game after a mid-season coaching change since Bill Stewart replaced Mike Milbury in 1999. The Isles are 8-9-2 in the first game for their new coach and are 9-11-2 in first games when you include multiple stints for Al Arbour, Lorne Henning, and Milbury.

DeBoer will be the first Islander coach to debut against the Leafs since Earl Ingarfield, Sr. became the second coach in Islander history, débuting January 31, 1973.

The New Coach

Pete De Boer is 662-447-152 in 1261 regular season, and 97-82 in the playoffs.  He has won a playoff series in each of his last seven trips to the Stanley Cup playoffs, and has made the Western Conference Final six times in the last eight seasons.  He will now coach in the NHL for the 18th consecutive season.

DeBoer will tie Jacques Lemaire for 21st place in games coached on Thursday and is 18th in career wins (two behind Todd McLellan).

DeBoer is 7th in playoff games coached, three behind Darryl Sutter and four behind Pat Quinn. Joel Quenneville (225) is the only active coach with more games.  His 97 wins are fifth all-time, and three behind Dick Irvin.

The Old Coach

Patrick Roy leaves the Isles with a record of 97-78-22 in 197 games.  He has coached 443 career games.

Class of 97

The Isles replaced a coach who won 97 games for them with a coach who has 97 playoff wins.