The honeymoon period with a new coach lasts for approximately as long as it takes for the team to lose.
So the honeymoon period for Patrick Roy ended, at least in that sense, on Tuesday night as the Islanders lost 3-2 to the Golden Knights, though the anticipated reception for Roy in Montreal on Thursday might indicate a revival.
Through two games coaching the Islanders, Roy has seen enough to get a microcosm of the season.
The Islanders on Sunday won an ugly game in which they didn’t look quite right for the first 40 minutes and on Tuesday, lost a game in which they played well for long stretches but struggled to put the puck in the net and saw key mistakes at key times cost them.
The common thread there is the same as it’s been all season: inconsistency over 60 minutes that has a tendency to overshadow any of the good the Islanders do on any given night.
This is the crux of Roy’s challenge. It is not just about getting the Islanders to buy into his way of playing.
It is about getting them to play that way for 60 minutes, which Lane Lambert tried and failed to do for 45 games.
Down 3-1 in the third, the Islanders did put together an effort at a second straight comeback win under Roy.
They failed to convert consecutive power-play chances early in the third, but after the Islanders took a penalty of their own, they cut the lead to 3-2, with Jean-Gabriel Pageau scoring off Simon Holmstrom’s shorthanded feed at the 9:26 mark.
Given a third power-play opportunity and chance to tie the game at the 13:21 mark, though, the Islanders not only failed to convert but negated the last 32 seconds of the power play when Mat Barzal was sent off for tripping.
That ended up being their last, best chance at tying the game, with a late six-on-five push failing to tie the game as well.
What makes the loss tough is that for a lot of the night, the Islanders looked pretty good.
They held Vegas to under 30 shots and finished with over 40 of their own, held the puck for long periods of time and made Adin Hill work.
But after Roy stressed cutting down on turnovers, the Islanders failed to do just that, and it formed the crux of this loss.
After Brock Nelson tied the game at one following one of those periods of sustained possession early in the second period, things looked like they were going on all cylinders.
But that was when the mistakes started coming, with Sheldon Rempal taking advantage of Scott Mayfield’s interference penalty to score his first NHL goal on the power play and put Vegas back in front at the 7:18 mark of the period.
Then came perhaps the worst mistake from an Islanders blueliner in a game packed with them, as Noah Dobson went up the middle through the neutral zone and ended up giving the puck right to Ivan Barbashev.
That resulted in another Vegas goal as Nic Roy cleaned up Jonathan Marchessault’s rebound.
The self-defeating elements of this one were present right from a first period in which the Islanders put together a relatively strong 20 minutes of hockey, then found themselves down 1-0 at the break, when Adam Pelech sent an attempted clearing pass up the middle.
That led straight to Ivan Barbashev’s opening goal, as he tipped in Alex Pietrangelo’s shot from the point.
There are two games left between now and the All-Star break, starting with Thursday’s homecoming for Roy at the Bell Centre.
That will undoubtedly feature one of the best atmospheres the Islanders see all year and be an emotional occasion for the new coach, who won two Stanley Cups with the Canadiens and has his No. 33 up in the building’s rafters.
Which version of his team will show up?
We’ll find out then.
