Russian defenseman for the New York Islanders Alexander Romanov explained the changes the head coach made to the team Patrick Roy appointed during the season.
“Islanders” took seventh place in the NHL Eastern Conference standings. In the playoff quarterfinals, the Islanders lost to Carolina in five games.
— I think the season turned out to be twofold. The first half wasn’t the best, there were a lot of injuries that prevented us from staying at the top. But even in this situation, the team played well. We have never been underdogs, we have always understood that it is difficult to play with us, we can beat anyone. They lost more often to teams from the bottom of the table than to stronger opponents. We play power hockey and it doesn’t matter where: on offense or defense. Hockey with a good game structure. There was a system we followed, the team looked great.
Yes, our coach changed, there were failures, but then the team recovered and began to get used to the new system of play. It changed in the attack zone, in defense, in the middle zone – Rua completely changed everything. I even changed my workouts, my lifestyle became different. It turned out that everything was fine. Yes, it took us a while to get used to it, some had misunderstandings, everyone needs their own approach, but in the end everyone understood and accepted Patrick’s requests. At first we didn’t even reach the playoffs, there were few chances, but then we had a good end to the regular season. Moreover, the opponents were serious, a mistake could be decisive,” Romanov quotes in the “Championship”.
Championship
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Source : MatchTV
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