Patrick Roy defends aggressive decisions in Islanders’ loss: ‘Put your balls on the table’

Give Patrick Roy some credit.

He doesn’t leave much open to interpretation. 

Talking about his aggressive decisions in the latter half of Saturday’s 4-2 Islanders loss to the Lightning — which included benching Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck, juggling his forward lines and pulling the goalie with seven minutes left — the Islanders’ head coach did not mince words. 

“Sometimes you have to, sorry for the expression, but you have to put your balls on the table and do it,” Roy said. “And that’s what we did.” 

The flurry of moves pulled the Islanders within a goal after being down 3-2, but Luke Glendening’s empty-netter with 30 seconds left cut short their hopes of a comeback. 

In the final period, Roy played the Isles’ three top scoring forwards — Brock Nelson, Bo Horvat and Mathew Barzal — together on a line.

He also played Anders Lee and Kyle Palmieri with Jean-Gabriel Pageau while Pierre Engvall and Simon Holmstrom went with Casey Cizikas. 

“There was some urgency,” he said. “It was a big game, let’s not kid ourselves. We had one or two games on them. It was an important game. I wanted to win that game.

“So as a coach, sometimes you need to make decisions. I made that decision.” 

Casey Cizikas, who missed Thursday’s game against St. Louis with a presumed hand injury, was back in after a better-than-expected prognosis upon the team’s return to New York. 

Roy said that Samuel Bolduc’s conditioning stint in AHL Bridgeport was about improving the defenseman’s confidence after he had been out of the lineup since the All-Star break. 

“He’s down there for a short period of time,” Roy said. “We just want him to pick up his confidence. When he comes [back up] he’ll feel good. That’s all we want.”