Islanders legend John Tonelli on board with Patrick Roy’s approach

John Tonelli’s barometer for a head coach will always be Al Arbour, understandably.

But the original No. 27 doesn’t think Patrick Roy is half bad.

“You bring in a guy like Patrick who you know, he’s an automatic character, he’s fiery. There’s no doubt about it, he’s gonna get the guys juiced up and ready to go,” Tonelli said after the Islanders announced a financial commitment to support adaptive hockey on Long Island as part of the Stadium Series legacy project on Tuesday. “I’m not gonna lie to you, that’s the way I played the game. Ready to go, a lot of energy. If I didn’t play with that energy, I was not effective.”

Tuesday’s 2-1 shootout loss to the Kraken marked Roy’s eighth game in charge, with the Islanders dropping to 3-3-2 under his tutelage. They are seven points back of the Flyers for third place in the Metropolitan Division, and now a point behind the Devils as well — with New Jersey holding a game in hand.

The difference between the Islanders under Roy and under Lane Lambert, though, is already clear for those watching, with the Isles playing a much more possession-oriented and offensive game.

As for wins and losses, though, the Islanders still seem to be finding their footing.

“He’s had an opportunity to see the little things that were missing,” Tonelli said of Roy. “It’s not big, it’s little. And if you focus on those little things, you put them all together, then it becomes big. I think he’s done a great job at picking little spots that we’re not doing that well in.

“Those spots in some cases are obvious, like allowing power-play goals. Our [penalty kill] used to be pretty damn good. So those are things we gotta work on.”

The Islanders confirmed that European businessman Oliver Haarmann has invested in the team as a minority owner.

Sportico first reported Haarmann, who founded Searchlight Capital in London, was in negotiations for roughly 10 percent of the team in December.

Along with John Collins, Haarmann is the second person to invest in the Islanders in recent months.

Alexander Romanov returned to the lineup after missing Saturday’s game with a lower-body injury, with Sebastian Aho coming back out.

Hudson Fasching (lower body) has started to skate on his own, Roy said Monday. Roy also confirmed that defenseman Robert Bortuzzo is dealing with a high ankle sprain suffered on Jan. 2 in Colorado.