Lou Lamoriello is putting his faith in Saint Patrick.
The Islanders general manager made a change behind the bench Saturday, firing head coach Lane Lambert and replacing him with Hockey Hall-of-Fame goaltender Patrick Roy.
The 58-year-old Roy’s legacy includes complete dominance on the ice.
Between the pipes, no one did it better.
NHL fans who remember what the league was like 30 years ago know what that means.
Roy played 20 seasons in the NHL, splitting his career between the Canadiens and Avalanche.
During that time, Roy assembled an unrivaled resume.
Among his more notable accomplishments:
- Four Stanley Cup titles
- Three Conn Smythe Trophies (postseason MVP)
- Three Vezina Awards (best goaltender)
- Five Jennings Trophies (fewest goals allowed in regular season)
- 11-time All-Star
- First goaltender to win 500 games
- First goaltender to play in 1,000 games
Roy won his first Cup as a 20-year-old rookie with the Canadiens in 1986.
He won his last title in 2002 with the Avalanche at the age of 36.
His 551 wins are third all-time, behind Devils legend Martin Brodeur (691) and current Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who just passed Roy on Monday with his 552nd win.
Following his playing career, Roy moved into the front office, starting with the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL.
He later became Remparts head coach in 2005.
It was there Roy had a pair of off-ice issues, including a 2007 incident for reportedly fighting the owner of another team, but the complaint was later dropped.
Sharks during the second period of Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Western
Conference semifinals at the Compaq Center in San Jose, California, on
May 8, 2002. REUTERS
The Avalanche first approached Roy about coaching Colorado in 2009.
He declined at the time but changed his mind four years later.
Roy led the Avs to a franchise-tying 52 regular-season wins in his first year (2013-14), earning the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s top head coach.
But Colorado was upset in the first round of the playoffs by Minnesota.
The Avalanche regressed the next two seasons, and Roy stepped down as coach in 2016.
He returned to the Remparts in 2018 and coached them for five more seasons, leading Quebec to a championship to cap the 2022-23 season.
That brings us to present day, with Lamoriello turning over the Islanders to someone who’s never won a playoff series in three seasons as an NHL head coach.
Roy inherits a club sitting in sixth place in the Metropolitan Division, thanks in part to a four-game losing streak that ultimately cost Lambert his job.
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