Andrew Gross: Islanders' Patrick Roy rightly benches Mathew Barzal line in shutout by Sabres
Islanders center Mathew Barzal skates with the puck behind the net against the Buffalo Sabres in the first period of an NHL hockey game at UBS Arena on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Restricting ice time is the coach’s hammer, and Patrick Roy swung it on Saturday.
So if the Islanders’ coach could be questioned on his goalie choice (not Ilya Sorokin?) and power-play alignments (separating Cal Ritchie and Anthony Duclair?), his decision to hold Mathew Barzal’s line with Anders Lee and Duclair accountable for faulty backchecking and bench it for the third period of a 5-0 loss to the Sabres at sold-out UBS Arena deserved credit.
He was visibly upset after Duclair and Barzal were late getting back on the play as Tage Thompson’s goal with 12.9 seconds left in the second period proved a dagger the Islanders could not overcome.
“It was pretty straightforward,” Barzal said of the communication from Roy. “Our line in Seattle [Wednesday’s 4-1 loss] gave up a few odd-man rushes. The last minute of the period, we gave one up and [the Sabres] scored. Patrick’s just doing what he thinks needs to be done to make us a winning team.”
Which, of late, they are not. It’s two straight regulation losses for the first time since Dec. 16-19 and a 1-3-0 skid. Which is why it was curious that Roy turned to David Rittich (16 saves) rather than use his No. 1 netminder, even if Sorokin allowed four goals on 25 shots against the Kraken.
This loss, coming off a 3-3-1 road trip, spoiled the return of leading scorer Bo Horvat after a nine-game absence for a lower-body injury and left the Islanders (27-19-5) tenuously holding on to a playoff spot.
Horvat’s return is cause for optimism. He looked comfortable taking four shots and winning 14 of 18 faceoffs in 19:20.
But the biggest takeaway was benching Barzal, the best skater among the forwards; Lee, the team captain, and Duclair, who entered the game with eight goals in his last eight games.
“No matter who we are, we’re going to be held accountable,” Horvat said. “It could have been any one of us today. It definitely wasn’t all their fault.”
Roy essentially absolved Lee of all blame.
“Unfortunately for Anders, he was on that line, and sometimes you’ve got to take it for the team,” Roy said. “I have nothing negative to say about him.
“Backchecking is an important part of our game and our concept. We talked about it on the road. It’s my job to make guys accountable. I even said to Barzy when he made that turnover in the first period and he backchecked hard, ‘That’s exactly what I’m looking for.’ Mistakes are part of the game, but backchecking doesn’t require talent. It requires will.”
Jason Zucker opened the scoring 33 seconds into the second period on a juicy rebound. Thompson’s goal was followed by Zucker’s second tally 25 seconds into the third period. Defenseman Rasmus Dahlin added an empty-netter at 14:02 of the third period and Alex Tuch’s deflection made it 5-0 at 14:38 with Rittich back in the net.
Thompson got free to the left post for Zach Benson’s back pass as Rittich anticipated the puck coming to the other side.
“I don’t like to do this,” Roy said of the benching. “But the standard here is to win. I do believe if we want to give ourselves a chance to make the playoffs, we’re going to have to do those details really well.”
As for the power play, Ritchie set up Duclair for man-advantage goals in each of the previous two games, but Roy said he wanted to keep Duclair and Barzal together to make both units more dangerous and keep Ritchie as the net-front presence on the first unit.
The Islanders were 0-for-3 on the power play without a shot, so agree to disagree there.
But, no doubt, Roy using the hammer of ice time was the right move.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
