New York Islanders | The end of the inferiority complex?

(Elmont, New York) Kevin Wall and Antonio Grillo are in their 20s. Like Canadiens fans of their generation, they have not seen the Stanley Cup in their lifetime. For them, the glory of their team is experienced through pieces of fabric hung from the ceiling of the arena, memories told – rambled – by their parents and former glories of the team which show up here and there.

Except that unlike the Canadian, the Islanders have seen their direct, geographic rivals pile up success in different ways.

Since the Islanders’ four consecutive victories from 1980 to 1983, and the five finals in a row adding the defeat in 1984, the New York Rangers won in 1994 and reached the final in 2014. The New Jersey Devils have played five finals and won three times (1995, 2000 and 2003).

Today, the Rangers count on one of the most explosive attacks in the NHL and have revived their franchise thanks in particular to three players (Adam Fox, Artemi Panarin and Jacob Trouba) who specifically wanted to play in Manhattan. The Devils are counting on Jack Hughes, who is becoming the great star of American hockey with Auston Matthews. The two clubs have also obtained the very first pick in the draft three times in the last seven years.

So let’s return to our friends Kevin Wall and Antonio Grillo, met in the bar at the UBS Arena before the duel between the Dallas Stars and the Islanders on Sunday evening. Grillo is the talker of the duo, but it is Wall who, like Shea Weber in another era, speaks little, but speaks for the sake of it.

“We’re in our twenties, we haven’t seen anything yet,” he laments. We saw the Rangers have success, we saw the Devils have success. We’re tired of being the ugly redhead of New York. »

The buzz ”

The Press conducted a poll of seven Islanders fans. We therefore spare you the usual considerations about the margin of error; the exercise is anything but scientific.

But for what it’s worth, seven out of seven fans expressed their enthusiasm for the arrival of Patrick Roy behind the team’s bench.

“He was one of the last people I expected to see hired. But I’m really excited. It will bring new energy, will give the spark that we are missing,” says Antonio Grillo.

“I liked his interviews, I like hearing a coach say that he wants the fans to be proud of their team,” adds Jay Podolski, a fan who cites the first of four Stanley Cups as his first childhood memory of the Islanders.

Roy’s hiring clearly did not go unnoticed by the media. At Sunday morning practice, The Press listed nearly 20 local journalists, in addition to half a dozen Quebecers. Five cameras, including two from Quebec, captured his first in-person press briefing.

“No one covers this team normally,” regrets veteran colleague Andrew Gross, who follows the Islanders on a daily basis. Newsday. When there are six of us here one morning, it’s a good day! »

Podolski told us that he bought his tickets on Saturday, when he found out that Roy was named head coach. “I wanted to attend his first match,” he explains.

That said, this surge of enthusiasm was not felt in the somewhat bare stands of the UBS Arena. We can certainly wonder if the highly anticipated Chiefs-Bills duel, which began an hour before the Islanders game, partly explains the rows of empty benches observed during the game.

But there are undoubtedly also realistic supporters who do not expect Patrick Roy to change water into merlot.

“It’s not a bad decision at all, don’t get me wrong,” assures Dave, another supporter met at the UBS Arena bar. They are trying something completely different than what this organization has seen before.

“But the team has other problems than the head coach,” he adds. They are old, slow and undisciplined. They have difficulty creating games. I don’t know if a new head coach can change that. »