Mathieu Darche explains why he fired Patrick Roy

Marc-Olivier Cook
Mathieu Darche explains why he fired Patrick Roy
Credit: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

The news came as a bombshell, but the dust has settled following Patrick Roy's dismissal from the Islanders.

On Long Island, at least, people have clearly moved on.

Peter DeBoer, who will replace Roy behind the team's bench, led his first practice with his new team earlier this morning. And he really looked like a guy who was happy to be there.

Everyone has been wondering what led Mathieu Darche to make this decision.

And we have more details on that.

In fact, Darche came to Roy's defense, saying he hadn't lost his standing. The Isles' GM stated that the former Habs goaltender had the respect of his players in the locker room and was well-liked by the guys.

That said, Darche also mentioned that the team wanted to turn the page due to the team's recent poor results. As a reminder: the Islanders have 89 points and are fighting for a playoff spot… but they've just lost four games in a row and have only three wins in their last ten games.

The team was really going through a rough patch, to put it another way.

Sometimes it takes a wake-up call to bring everyone back in line. Mathieu Darche made this decision with the goal of shaking up his team as the playoffs approach… even if it comes with certain risks.

But in the end, Darche hired his first coach as GM of the Islanders, and maybe that's what he wanted too. Patrick Roy had been hired by Lou Lamoriello back then, and Darche decided not to change his coach when he took over the job (roughly) a year ago…

It's a bold move, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Because let's face it: there's a lot of pressure on Long Island right now. And the team absolutely must finish the season strong (they have four games left to play) if they hope to make the playoffs…


In a nutshell

– Heads up.

– It's always the same story in Detroit.

– Stay tuned.

– Yep.

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