Pete DeBoer isn’t wasting time with lofty slogans in his first full Islanders training camp. No talk of joy.
No talk of compassion. The message is much more direct: clean up the defensive mess.
A year ago, Patrick Roy was at camp talking about the Islanders playing with more joy and compassion. DeBoer has taken the opposite lane, centering his early work on structure, box-outs and protecting the middle of the ice.
“We prioritize trying to get our structure in defensively,” DeBoer said. “That's where most of the bleeding with this group, in my mind, happened last year.”
That assessment fits the way the Islanders played for much of last season. Too often, they were chasing in their own end, giving up dangerous chances and leaning on Ilya Sorokin to erase breakdowns. DeBoer made some adjustments after taking over from Roy with four games left, but there was only so much to change that late.
Now he gets a full camp to install things his way.
Brayden Schenn said DeBoer keeps it simple.
“Detail with how everyone goes. It's pretty black and white,” Schenn said.
“He doesn't have a million ideas. He has the right ideas.”
Those ideas start with the area in front of the net and the seams through the middle of the ice.
“We're latching onto box-outs, just taking care of the middle of the ice,” Schenn said. “When you collapse in the middle and take away the dangerous parts of the ice, you give yourselves and your goalies the chance to stop pucks.”
There are other tweaks coming as well, including to the breakouts, neutral-zone play and power play. But the bigger picture is unmistakable: DeBoer wants less clutter and more clarity.
“It’s making everybody's life a lot easier,” captain Bo Horvat said. “You're not thinking about 1,000 things or what you have to do out there.”
That approach feels especially important for a roster that doesn’t look built to win track meets. With Mathew Barzal already sidelined, the Islanders can’t expect to survive by trading goals every night.
They need structure. They need discipline. And, above all, they need everyone on the same page about where they’re supposed to be.
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