"When you say 'culture change,' it's just a way of doing things," Trotz said. "We talk about accountability in some areas and the way we present ourselves, the way we act, the way we respond to adversity, all those things. That's part of changing the culture. Changing the culture might be instead of when things get a little bit rough in terms of maybe not going a certain way, if you don't have a great culture you fracture and you all go individually in your own direction, when actually you should come together and go in the same direction.
"That's a mindset. That's something day in and day out you force accountability on the guy next to you and he trusts you're going to get your job done."
The players quickly bought into what Trotz was preaching, and why wouldn't they? After all, he went 205-89-34 and qualified for the playoffs in each of his four seasons with the Washington Capitals, not to mention he is the reigning Stanley Cup-winning coach and arrived in New York as the fifth-winningest coach in League history with 762 victories.
You can add another 48 to that list after the Islanders finished fifth in the League standings with 103 points.
"They drilled it into our heads pretty early that we're going to be a defense-first team," said center Casey Cizikas, who scored an NHL career high 20 goals during the regular season. "That was the first thing that we had to clean up, especially coming off of last year.