Islanders coach Patrick Roy stresses importance of enjoyment to his club

Sunday was fun day as the Islanders practiced at UBS Arena. Actually, coach Patrick Roy wants every trip to the rink to be a joyous occasion, and he stressed that importance to his players on the ice.

It sounds simple, but the NHL season is a grind, so reminders can’t hurt as the regular-season opener in Pittsburgh on Oct. 9 draws closer. The Islanders will play their penultimate preseason game on Monday night against the visiting Rangers after a sloppy 4-2 loss to the Devils on Friday night at UBS.

The bigger picture from Roy is turning that joy into good communication and trust between teammates. It was all interwoven into the first single-group practice since training camp opened on Sept. 18. The focus was defensive work and coming back into their zone with the intent of transitioning the puck up ice quickly.

“We have a great coaching staff, having Ray Bennett coming in with Bob Boughner [as assistants] and Benny [Desrosiers], they’re going to focus a lot on the X’s-and-O’s,” Roy said. “That will allow me to focus more on the players. Talking with them, how they feel, how do we want to play. I’m not saying I’m going to turn into a psychologist, but I want to go through a lot of things.

“Today I was talking about joy. Feel that joy. We need to trust each other. I want the guys to come to the rink and have fun and enjoy and focus more on being our very best instead of focusing on winning all the time. I think if we are our very best, we’ll win games.”

Roy tinkered with his forward lines, moving Emil Heineman to Bo Horvat’s trio with Jonathan Drouin and shifting Max Shabanov from that spot to Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s third line with Simon Holmstrom.

Heineman, acquired in the offseason deal with the Canadiens for Noah Dobson, had 10 goals and eight assists in 62 games as a rookie playing mostly a bottom-six role. He had been working with fourth-line center Casey Cizikas in camp.

“I’m trying to not make any difference who I play with,” Heineman said. “Obviously, [Horvat and Drouin] are great players, so you have to be ready because they see you when you don’t think they see you.”

Notes & quotes: Anders Lee (upper body), wearing a non-contact jersey, rejoined his teammates in practice for the first time since going hard into the boards in the preseason opener against the Flyers on Sept. 21. He said he would like to play in one of two remaining preseason games but did not think he’d be ready for Monday’s match. “I’m feeling good,” Lee said. “It happened in the last game early and it just ended up not going away. Woke up in some discomfort. It’s progressing just fine. Nothing to worry about.” . . . Max Tsyplakov also rejoined practice after missing three days for maintenance . . . Forward Adam Beckman cleared waivers and was reassigned to the Islanders’ AHL affiliate in Bridgeport . . . The Islanders announced the passing of Ron Waske, their athletic trainer during their Stanley Cup championship era.

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

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.