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Sharks Assistant Coach Doug Houda Gets Honest About What Went Wrong With 2023-2024 Penalty Killing Of Islanders

When the New York Islanders relieved Barry Trotz of his duties as head coach following the 2021-2022 NHL season, his assistant coach, Lane Lambert, was hired in his place.

Lambert opted 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 bench in Boston before leaving for Detroit after the 2015-16 season.

In his 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 2022-2023, the penalty kill was ninth best at 82.2%.

In 2023-2024, the penalty kill rate was the worst in the NHL at 71.5%.

After being appointed following the signing of Patrick Roy on January 20, 2024, Houda was relieved of his duties after the season.

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We were notified during the 2024 NHL Draft in Las Vegas, but according to Houda, he had conversations with the San Sharks before the draft as he was let go in mid-June.

Related: Islanders move 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 battled the Islanders.

When he was hired by the Sharks, he had a press conference where he talked about his time with the Islanders (H/t Yahoo! Sports)

The first question he was asked about his time with the Islanders was what went wrong with the penalty kill in year two.

“I think you have to get a good start with the penalty,” Houda said. “We got off to a bad start. The first few weeks were good, and then we got to a point where we couldn’t keep the puck out of the net, and it kind of snowballed.

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“I’m not throwing anyone under the bus, but we all didn’t do our jobs well enough. Myself and the players just didn’t get the job done. Sometimes penalty killing comes from breaks. I remember the year before we got , and it seemed crazy, but our goaltenders made saves.”

As Islanders fans have come to understand, the goaltender plays a huge role in penalty kicks, but he can’t be the only one in their game.

“Sometimes you get the save, and sometimes you don’t,” Houda said. “It’s not just the goalkeeper. It’s myself and our players. It’s the instructions I give during the meetings. It was one of those years where everything we did more or less ended up in our net.

“I can’t make excuses. The job just wasn’t done.”

While it probably wasn’t a shock that he was fired, Houda wanted to make a point.

‘I think you’re always disappointed. And to be clear, I was not hired to carry out the punitive killing,” Houda said. “When I first got the job at Lane Lambert, Lane was executing the penalty. My job was to run the defense. The motto in New York was ‘stay in your lane,’ and my job was to look after the defenders So at any time If you are fired, you are disappointed.”

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The Islanders opted to hire former New Jersey Devils player and assistant coach Tommy Albelin, who had coached in Sweden since leaving the NHL bench after the 2013-14 season.

The islanders’ penalty kill under Albelin has been historically poor, currently at 67.0 percent.

He has the Sharks penalty kill of 78.9%, which ranks 18th.


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