The New York Islanders have finished the season without making the playoffs. The team unceremoniously fired coach Patrick Roy after losing four games in a row on Apr. 6th, 2026. General manager Matthieu Darche would hire Peter DeBoer as coach, as he looks to reshape the team in his image. Now, as the playoffs begin to ramp up, there remain questions about the players on the roster. The team has seven free agents, and -$3.8 million in cap space . Difficult decisions wil...
The Toronto Maple Leafs missed out on one of their top candidates for their new front office when analytics guru Sunny Mehta was snapped up by the New Jersey Devils. But there is no shortage of other candidates, as reported by insider Elliotte Friedman. He tells us there is a list of seven—that he knows of—that have already spoken with MLSE CEO Keith Pelley and the Leafs organization: Ryan Bowness, 42, Islanders Assistant General Manager and Director of Player Personnel...
Whenever the Islanders miss the postseason (which is a lot), on one level I’m able to enjoy the spectacle and intensity of the Stanley Cup playoffs in a different way, free of the exhausting emotional investment and baggage that comes with talking yourself into how they might go far while watching them ultimately get eliminated. […]
Joined by Rocco from Isles House, we remember enforcer Trevor Gillies, who was a much more complex individual than his monstrous reputation would suggest. Trevor Gillies had spent a decade in the minors fighting across North America before he finally got regular NHL playing time for a young Islanders team that needed a lot of […]
The New York Islanders are done for 2025-26, but the Bridgeport Islanders live on for a while before they’re done forever. With a playoff spot already clinched, Bridgeport was the scene of Semyon Varlamov’s comeback attempt last night, his first pro action since 2024: Meanwhile, back at the NHL level, the Islanders picked up the […]
Back-to-back hat tricks, a goalie fight, and the Islanders doing Islanders things. The Ombudsman has the receipts on everything Joe and Chip got right—and wrong—this week.
The Wolf Pack came up on the wrong side of the final game of the 25 year rivalry between the AHL's Connecticut clubs.
The Islanders offseason has begun with the signing of Quinn Finley to his two-year entry level contract. Finley made the NCAA championship final with the University of Wisconsin as arguably the Badgers’ best forward in his junior year. They ultimately lost the title to Denver University, 2-1. Listed at 6’, 190 lbs., the left-shooting winger […]
Come on, man. The greedy, points-munching, perennially-falling-just-short Carolina Hurricanes couldn’t even concede us a little fun in a meaningless season finale. And the April walking ghost New York Islanders couldn’t even give us something frivolous to celebrate in the same. Sound Beach native (and feel-good story, to be honest) Brandon Bussi was stingy in making […]
The Carolina Hurricanes closed out their season with a 2-1 win over the New York Islanders on Tuesday night at USB Arena. After clinching the Eastern Conference title by earning a point in Philadelphia last night for the first time in franchise history, they finished with 113 points which is good enough for second place […]
So the Islanders come to game #82. Hey just think: next season, there will be two more games after this. Though the playoffs are now set, and without them involved, we do have some things to watch for: Matthew Schaefer’s pursuit of yet more 18-year-old-defenseman-rookie awesomeness, and the NHL debut of Victor Eklund (wearing #73), […]
The Carolina Hurricanes visit the New York Islanders tonight to play in the “Mother of all Meaningless Games” at UBS Arena. The Canes have already clinched the Eastern Conference while the Islanders have officially been eliminated from playoff contention. Of course, the game does hold meaning for the players trying to impress their respective coaches, […]
The Islanders finish their season-killing homestand by hosting a longtime nemesis, the Carolina Hurricanes, who have nothing to play for and every reason to rest with first place in the East locked up. That didn’t stop them from forcing the Flyers to a shootout last night before Philadelphia clinched the final playoff spot and set […]
Mike and Dan react immediately to the Islanders getting eliminated from playoff contention after a lost weekend against Ottawa and Montreal. We’ve seen the Islanders lose in many different ways over the years. But we’ve never seen them choke away a season like this. They played almost every game since the Olympic Break as if […]
Well, this sucks.
The margins in this league are tight. I wrote a post over the weekend fantasizing over the idea that the Islanders could ride their late-season New Coach Bump to a win over Ottawa. Had that happened, and had the Red Wings held on to one of their many one-goal leads over the Devils, we’d be in business right now. Ottawa lost to New Jersey last night, so had the hockey gods felt differently, we could be looking at a two-point gap, with a game in a hand, and some control ov...
The 2025-26 New York Islanders have run into their ceiling, falling short of a goal that didn’t seem realistic before Matthew Schaefer put up a historic rookie season and Ilya Sorokin bounced back with a Vezina year in the face of a steady stream of high-danger chances. (And we shouldn’t forget the secondary assist from […]
Just over a month ago, the New York Islanders were comfortably in a playoff spot. Even after a rough road trip out to California, a concerning stretch for sure, it still didn’t seem like the season was in any real peril. And then… Everyone else in the Metro started surging while the Islanders floundered, going […]
First period
There’s a loud “Go Habs Go!” chant to begin the game and the Canadiens are responding to the energy of their travelling fans.
It looks like they’re going to treat Matthew Schaefer the same way they handled Darren Raddysh when they faced the Tampa Bay Lightning, giving him no space to work with at the blue line.
Josh Anderson gets his stick into the face of Carson Soucy and goes to the box. We’ll see what the penalty-killing defence duos are.
Mike Matheson and...
On April 11th in 1989, netminder Ron Hextall of the Philadelphia Flyers scored an unassisted empty net goal against the Washington Capitals becoming the first goaltender to score in a NHL playoff game.
It was the second time a goalie scored in a NHL game, the first being when Hextall fired the puck into the opposing net on December 8th in 1987. Though New York Islanders backstop Billy Smith was
As the 2025-26 NHL regular season and the Eastern Conference playoff push winds down, there are teams that have seized the moment and strung wins together like the Penguins, Flyers and Senators, and there are teams that have spiraled out of previously promising positions to leave an empty feeling like the Red Wings and Islanders. […]
Game 81: Montreal Canadiens @ New York Islanders
Start time: **6:00 PM EDT / 3:00 PM PDT** In the Canadiens region: TSN2 (English), RDS (French) In the Islanders region: MSGSN Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, TSN+
The Islanders completed the majority of their road schedule early, leaving them with 10 of the final 12 games to be played on home ice, a chance to use that advantage to pull away from some division rivals and secure a playoff spot. They haven’t capitalized on that schedule however,...
The Islanders’ seasonlong power play failings came back to bit them in a big way as they suffered a near-fatal 3-0 loss to the Ottawa Senators at home Saturday afternoon. It was a terrible time to suffer just their second shutout of the season, but it was well deserved with a fumbling power play (0-for-5, […]
We politely request postseason hockey clap, clap, clap-clap-clap
I can’t stop thinking about how much I like the New York Islanders.
Such a cool team. The coolest in the New York market, that’s for sure. By a mile. And the fans? Lovely people. Every single one: smart, good-looking, funny. If you haven’t met an Islanders fan, you simply must venture out and find one. They’ll change your life. Need a ride to the airport? Islanders fan. Short some change for your bus fare? Don’t you worry: an Islanders fan is nearby. Just the other day I was tuning up my ...
The Islanders drop the puck for a dangerous 1 p.m. Saturday clash with the Ottawa Senators and we can only hope they don’t drop the ball. If they don’t win, their slim playoff chances become even starker and tomorrow’s meeting with the Habs could be bleak. If they do win, then they give themselves one […]