Mathieu Darche’s Tampa Bay homecoming an Islanders reminder

TAMPA — Mathieu Darche was clear in pointing out that his return to Tampa was not the same as a player or coach facing a former team.

Darche couldn’t influence Saturday’s game between the Islanders and Lightning after the puck dropped, and he can walk around town without being recognized. 

Still, there was an element Saturday of the prodigal son returning.

Darche was an assistant general manager to Julien BriseBois for six seasons, helping the Lightning as they won the Stanley Cup in 2020 and 2021, before getting a chance to sit in the big chair this summer with the Islanders. 

“I had six great years here,” Darche said. “The staff, the coaches, the management — it’s a Saturday morning, so not many people are here, but I got to see them in New York last week. It’s fun. 

“We left New York, it was 22 degrees. We get here, it was 80, so you remember those. It’s fun to be here. But at the end of the day, it’s not about me being back. It’s the players playing the games.” 

The Islanders entered Saturday following wins over Tampa Bay and Colorado, which allowed them to end a 3-3-1 homestand on a positive note.

Darche referred to their schedule over the next week, which includes this trip to Florida and home games against Vegas, Anaheim and the Lightning again, as “a gauntlet.” 

Beating the Lightning 2-1 last Tuesday on Long Island, though, gave Darche bragging rights over BriseBois, though they were on the line again Saturday. 

“I think it means something, for sure,” Darche’s brother, J.P., who’s with the Islanders for the team’s dads and mentors trip this weekend, said. “He’s got so much appreciation for the people here, Julien BriseBois and all these [guys]. And I’ve met these guys on the trips we do, like this, for the last few years. And they’re great people, great to him. He’s super appreciative, he had a lot of success. I’m pretty sure he wants to bring back the ‘W.’ ” 

J.P. Darche, a former long snapper for the Seahawks and Chiefs, now works for Kansas City as one of their team doctors. Like his brother, he went to school at McGill, and the two were on the football team together for a year before Mathieu — who grew up a two-sport athlete — finally had to pick hockey. 

To state the obvious, that was the right decision. Darche grinded his way through a playing career of over a decade and, after a short stint in the corporate world, has found more success as an executive. 

“Hockey was his dream all the time and he was doing media work [with French-language channel RDS] in Montreal, doing all that stuff. That kept him in hockey for a while,” J.P. Darche said. “I think the opportunity [with Tampa Bay] just came out of nowhere, kind of. I remember when he had to make the decision, ‘I’m in a good gig here, I’m in my hometown, everything’s going great. Do I uproot my family and come down to Tampa?’ 

“So he kind of bet on himself and said let’s do it, and it worked out great. So I was happy for him. I remember we talked about it. I’m like, ‘This is your dream. You gotta take it.’ It’s worked out just wonderful.” 

Each brother has championship rings; J.P. won three with the Chiefs. They’re hoping the family’s next one will be with the Islanders. 

“We’re gonna get a couple Cups,” J.P. said. “Back in the early ’80s, my earliest memory of hockey is the Islanders winning Stanley Cups. I know that.”