The real reason Patrick Roy was fired with only 4 games remaining.

On Sunday, the New York Islanders stunned the National Hockey League when they made the shocking decision to fire head coach Patrick Roy. The announcement from the Islanders not only revealed that Roy had been relieved of his coaching duties, but also added that the team had hired highly respected head coach Peter DeBoer to immediately take over as Roy's replacement.

The question of course is why did the Islanders choose to fire Roy and perhaps more importantly why now? There are a few things that we can already point to that begin to paint a picture of what transpired over the last few days.

Patrick Roy publicly challenges his team.

The Islanders are in a very tight playoff race in the Eastern Conference and, after a tough loss to the Carolina Hurricanes last week where the Islanders failed to secure even a single point, Roy would call out his players publicly. Not only did Roy question his team's mental preparedness, but suggested that they needed to play harder for their coach as well.

Roy's decision to publicly lambast his players in such a fashion may have been the straw that broke the camel's back.

Poor defensive structure.

According to a report from ESPN's Emily Kaplan, there was reportedly a belief within the Islanders organization that goaltender Ilya Sorokin was being overexposed, with the team lacking when it comes to their defensive structure.

Mathieu Darche hires his first head coach.

Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche did not hire Patrick Roy but inherited him from former Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello. This is Darche's first chance to put his own coach in place since taking over as general manager and coaches like Peter DeBoer aren't always available.

Peter DeBoer.

Kaplan reports that this may have simply been a matter of the Islanders looking to get ahead of the open market this summer where several other teams around the league could have also competed for DeBoer's services.

Unlike John Tortorella who recently took over behind the bench of the Vegas Golden Knights, DeBoer has earned a contract with some term attached to it. That means that, barring any catastrophes, he is the Islanders coach moving forward beyond just this current season.