When the New York Islanders relieved Barry Trotz of his duties as head coach following the 2021-22 NHL season, his assistant coach, Lane Lambert, was hired in his place.
Lambert elected to hire Doug Houda, his former Detroit Red Wings teammate who had been an assistant with Detroit since 2016 and an NHL assistant since 2006.
Houda had spent 10 years on the Boston bench before heading to Detroit following the 2015-16 season.
In the two years on the Islanders bench, Houda was primarily in charge of the defense and penalty kill. The team allowed 31.9 shots per game (9th most), 2.90 goals per game (23rd) with the shorthanded unit operating at 76.8% (24th).
In 2022-23, the penalty kill was ninth best, at 82.2%.
In 2023-24, the penalty kill was the worst in the NHL, at 71.5%.
After being kept on once Patrick Roy was brought in on Jan. 20, 2024, Houda was relieved of his duties following the season.
We were notified at the 2024 NHL Draft in Las Vegas, but, per Houda, he had conversations with the San Sharks before the draft, as he was let go in the middle of June.
Related: Islanders Moving On From Assistant Coach Doug Houda, Retain John MacLean
Houda is back on Long Island on Saturday night for the first time since being let go when San Jose battles the Islanders.
When he was hired by the Sharks, he did have a press conference where he spoke about his time with the Islanders (H/t Yahoo! sports)
The first question posed to him about his time with the Islanders was what went wrong with the penalty kill in year two.
“I think with the penalty kill, you have to get off to a good start,” Houda said. “We got off to a poor start. The first couple of weeks were good, and then, after that, we hit a stretch where we couldn’t keep the puck out of the net, and it sort of snowballed.
“I’m not throwing anyone under the bus, but we all just didn’t do our job good enough. Myself and the players, we just didn’t get the job done. Sometimes, penalty killing comes from breaks. I can remember the year before, we were getting, and it seemed crazy, but our goaltenders were making saves.”
As Islanders fans have come to understand, the goaltender plays a huge part in the penalty kill but can’t be the only one on their game.
“Sometimes you get the save, and sometimes you don’t,” Houda said. “It’s not all on the goaltender. It’s on myself and it’s on our players. It’s the directions I’m giving in the meetings. It was one of those years where everything we did sort of went into our net.
“I can’t make excuses. The job just didn’t get done.”
While it likely wasn’t a shock that he was fired, Houda wanted to make something clear.
“I think you’re always disappointed. And just to clarify, I wasn’t hired to do the penalty kill,” Houda said. “When I first got the job with Lane Lambert, Lane ran the penalty kill. My job was to run the defense. The motto in New York was ‘stay in your lane,’ and my lane was to look after the defensemen. So anytime you get fired, you’re disappointed.”
The Islanders elected to hire former New Jersey Devils player and assistant coach Tommy Albelin, who had been coaching over in Sweden since leaving the NHL bench following the 2013-14 season.
The Islanders’ penalty kill under Albelin has been historically bad, currently at 67.0 percent.
He has the Sharks penalty kill at 78.9%, which ranks 18th.
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