MONTREAL — Patrick Roy wanted the focus Thursday to be on his team instead of himself.
By the end of the night, some of the focus was indeed on the Islanders — but if that was a victory for Roy, it was certainly pyrrhic.
The Islanders spoiled Roy’s Montreal homecoming as they came out flat and paid the price, losing 4-3 to the Canadiens after a comeback that fell short and throwing Roy into his first bout of adversity as the team’s head coach.
Roy’s team did erase a 3-0 deficit thanks to a five-minute major in the third period, but it came at the cost of losing Adam Pelech to injury.
Pelech was on the receiving end of a third-period open-ice hit from Brendan Gallagher in which the Canadiens forward left his feet.
Gallagher received a five-minute major and an ejection for an illegal check to the head.
The Islanders got the game to three-all out of that, with Mat Barzal cutting the lead to 3-2 on a wrist shot at the 14:51 mark.
Kyle Palmieri then cleaned up Noah Dobson’s rebound to tie the game at 16:28.
But almost immediately afterwards, they lapsed, with Sean Monahan scoring the eventual game-winner with 2:12 to go — leaving the Islanders without so much as a point to show for their effort, with Kyle Palmieri’s late chance drawing iron.
Prior to that, the highest point of the night for the visitors came before the game, when Roy was given a rapturous welcome from the Montreal crowd as the Canadiens played a photo montage of his playing days during “O Canada.”
Once the puck was dropped, the problems began.
In the first period alone, the Islanders took three penalties, all of which resulted in Montreal goals.
After Hudson Fasching put the puck over the glass, Nick Suzuki put the Canadiens on the board with a net-front tap-in from Juraj Slafkovsky.
Then after the Islanders negated their own power play, with Palmieri being called for slashing following two straight odd-man rushes allowed, Pierre Engvall’s pass in the defensive zone rebounded off the wall, Sebastian Aho failed to handle the puck and it went straight to Cole Caufield, who scored.
After the four-on-four expired, Monahan scored on the power play for good measure, skating unimpeded into the slot to finish Mike Matheson’s feed.
On the road, against an inferior team, with their situation in the standings getting more urgent by the day, the Islanders came out with no juice. Again.
The Islanders looked more like the team they want to become over the last two periods, forcing some good saves out of Sam Montembeault and seeing Bo Horvat get robbed by the stick of David Savard.
Horvat’s five-on-three goal early in the second cut the lead to 3-1 and the Islanders nearly came back from there.
But converting possession into scoring chances at five-on-five largely eluded them, with the two tying goals coming at five-on-four.
Whatever good the Isles can take from the last 40 minutes, it is overshadowed by a first period which ruined their chances of getting two points, putting them further behind the eight-ball on a night that wild-card rivals Tampa and Detroit took care of business.
Lane Lambert, undoubtedly, would have called the start unacceptable.
And he would have been correct.
Roy’s system has yet to take hold, with breakouts and turnovers still looking like problems.
But no amount of system changes are going to fix their problems if the Islanders can’t muster the energy to play in the first period.
The NHL is not going to invite the Islanders into the playoffs just for the hell of it.
Roy can do a lot of things, but he can’t get on the ice and play the game himself, at least not anymore.
It’s only been three games under Roy, far too early to make a judgment, and bad periods happen.
But GM Lou Lamoriello already played his best card in the form of a coaching change.
If the Islanders keep struggling to put together 60 minutes there will be nowhere to point the finger other than at the players on the ice.