Roy's Message To Islanders Ahead Of Game 5, Barzal's Thoughts
EAST MEADOW, NY — How badly do the New York Islanders want this?
That’s the question that head coach Patrick Roy posed to his players as they prepare for Game 5, trailing the series to the Carolina Hurricanes three games to one after a double-overtime victory on Saturday.
“What do you guys want?” Roy asked his team. We could tell you all the stories in the world about all the comebacks that happened, but now it’s time for them to make their own story. It’s up to them to decide what they want.”
The Islanders may have deserved a better fate through the opening three games of the series, but the reality was that they entered Saturday night on the verge of being swept out of the playoffs.
But, with each shift in that game, despite trailing early, they battled and battled, breaking each imaginary broom one stride at a time.
They played for each other to live to fight another day.
“I think they enjoy each other. They love to play for this logo. They love to play in front of these fans. And no, they don’t want to see it end, and they want to push it,” Roy said. “I mean, think about it. I could be wrong here, but in my statistics, we’re 11-2-1 in our last 14 games. We had our backs against the wall for a long time, when you think about it because we made the playoffs by three points. So, it’s not something new for this group.
“But that’s why I’m saying a lot, that I was extremely proud of them because of how resilient they were, how hard they’ve been working, and how they want to keep going, and that’s what I appreciate the most about this group.”
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Mathew Barzal, the hero in Game 4 with a two-goal performance, including the game-winner off a Robert Bortuzzo point shot, understands the situation at hand but knows that they’ll fight to the bitter end.
“There’s obviously a hill to climb. We dug ourselves a pretty deep hole,” Barzal said. “But the hole got a little smaller after the last game, and as long as you have belief and passion anything can anything, anything is possible. So we definitely believe in this locker room.
“A little bit of it, too, is everyone loves each other. And we don’t want things to end.”