ELMONT, NY — Every NHL coach has a system. Some build their systems around the teams they coach, like Barry Trotz did when he joined the New York Islanders in the summer of 2018.
You’ve probably heard this story by now, but I asked him why he went with his rigorous defensive system:
“I didn’t know if we could make that big of a dramatic switch. Honestly, when I left [Washington], I watched games, and it was really hard to assess the group because of the buy-in from some of the forwards, as the mindset was not always in the same place as a group.
“And so, there was some indecision and all that, but what I found was that the defense wasn’t as bad as they were made out to be, and the forwards weren’t as good as they were made out to be.”
Then you have coaches like Rod Brind’Amour, who need certain types of players to run their systems, and that approach finally paid off with a Stanley Cup in 2026.
It can take months, even years, for a team to master a system, even with a similar group of players throughout.
New York Islanders head coach Pete DeBoer was very honest with us at the start of the season about his aggressive, puck-support system and how long it could take his players to fully understand it.
“When I’ve come into teams, it doesn’t happen immediately, and it takes a while. I can remember going into San Jose and us taking one step forward, two steps back probably till around Christmas time, till we started playing seamlessly. I think that was probably similar a little bit in Dallas too.”
But through 10 games (5-3-2), the Islanders are already showing signs that they’re further along than DeBoer perhaps expected.