Roy's Message To Islanders After Tense Start To Monday's Practice

EAST MEADOW, NY -- When the New York Islanders hit the ice for practice on Monday, they seemed a bit tense.

It wasn't a shock, as they had just lost 5-2 to the cross-town rival New York Rangers, their third regulation loss in four games.

Shortly after a few lines did their rushes, Roy called the group together.

He had a simple message.

"We're playing good hockey. The only thing we don't have for us right now is results," Roy said. "We played a great game. We did a lot of good things. And, like I said before, I mean, there are always things you think you could get better at, win or lose. It doesn't matter. We gave up a little too many chances on our tracking, so in our defensive zone, we need to be a little bit better at it."

Crashing the net is something Roy wants to see the offense do more of.

"Offensively, I like us to be going a little bit like basketball, going to the basket, going to the net in hockey, and stuff like this. But win or lose, that doesn't change anything. And I love the way we possess the puck," Roy said. "I love the way we controlled the game yesterday, and that's something that we want to continue to work at, controlling the game. The teams that I played with, and we won, we were controlling the game. I want our guys to, when we have the puck, we control the game.

"When we're ready to attack, we attack, you know? You don't have to do something if there's no pressure. We got to take our time, and when we're ready, we attack."

It's easy for frustration to build up when results aren't coming, but Roy doesn't get that sense from his players.

"That was not my feeling. I'm a huge believer that eventually the game will be fair," Roy said. "It would be more frustrating for me if they didn't believe in [our style]. "They know they're playing well. Are there things we could do better? Yes. I mean, we played well enough to win. If you're looking at analytics, they're saying we should have won the last four games. Unfortunately, these numbers don't mean anything because you don't have the result to go with.

"The night that we possess the puck the least, offensively, was against Buffalo, and we won the game. So there are parts that are right, and there are parts that sometimes are not playing in your favor. I would feel bad coming here and panicking. I would rather be relaxed and feel that we're going to win our games, be positive, and think that we're going to win those games eventually. And I thought that the guys did a really good job."

We asked Simon Holmstrom about the importance of taking a breath and just going out on the ice and having fun.

"It's tough, but I think it's important as well to just relax a bit, and not lose track of why we're actually out there," Holmstrom told The Hockey News.  "We're having fun, competing in battles and getting better, and think it's a good point."

Winning is more fun, and the Islanders look to get back in the win column on Tuesday night when they host the Pittsburgh Penguins at 7:30 PM ET.