Patrick Roy denies early goal pull was due to…
CALGARY, Alberta — The irony in Patrick Roy’s feedback following the Islanders’ 4-2 loss to the Flames on Saturday is that Roy would possibly cite analytics publicly more than any other coach in the league.
On this day, though, after being requested whether or not his early goalie pull had something to do with what the stats have been telling him — (narrator: it does) — Roy didn’t need to hear about the numbers.
“I believe that we’re gonna win the game,” Roy said of his causes for going to an empty web with eight minutes left in regulation with his crew trailing 4-1. “I’m not doing this for analytics. I’ll offer you an instance: Tonight you’re trying at anticipated targets against. The first one, there’s a tip, they provide .20-something. That never hit the online. The wraparound they gave .17, that never hit the online.
Patrick Roy shouts out instructions during the Islanders’ loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Jan. 13, 2026. AP
“So I don’t give a s—t about analytics, to be honest with you.”
Roy hasn’t carried out the unconventionally early goalie pull this 12 months often, in large half because his crew hasn’t often been trailing by enough targets to warrant it.
The transfer has long been half of his calculus, though, and drew consideration as far back as his first NHL teaching stint with the Avalanche a decade in the past.
The pondering behind it’s, funnily enough, steeped in analytics, which Roy has explained himself before.
On Saturday, he appeared to assume the query was asking whether or not he was attempting to pump up the Islanders’ anticipated targets numbers slightly than whether or not the analytics show that the early goalie pull would increase their probabilities of profitable.
The Islanders finally made it 4-2 with the online empty, but failed to do a lot more than that, even after getting a late energy play.
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