Lighthouse Hockey: Try to fixate on something else.
Happy Shawn Bates Penalty Shot Day. After last night’s AHL results, there is officially nothing Islanders playoff-related to discuss anymore except the past and perhaps hopes for the future. The end of Bridgeport’s 25-year run as the Islanders’ AHL affiliate came with a frustratingly familiar, quick playoff exit. The Bridgeport Islanders (nee Sound Tigers) were […]
Wednesday night was another fun one in the first round of the NHL playoffs. Thursday Night Meanwhile, Thursday night the Bridgeport Islanders are in Hershey hoping to extend their mini-series after dropping Game 1 at home, 2-0. And in the NHL, there are three games Thursday with the Bruins and Sabres knotted at 1-1, while […]
The first few days of the NHL playoffs have been outstanding, which will only provide Gary Bettman another bullet for his “best first round in sports” talking point he uses when people complain about the current division-focused playoff structure. Thus far, we’ve had a double overtime, several one-goal games that went down to the wire, […]
In a very stream of consciousness episode, Mike and Dan sort through the many thoughts they’ve had since the Islanders season ended a week ago. After their final game (a 2-1 loss to Carolina, of course) and all of the exit meetings, there’s still a lot to process about the 2025-26 Islanders. Matthew Schaefer’s incredible […]
The playoffs kicked off with some good ones over the weekend. The only series yet to begin is Ducks-Oilers, which is the late game among four tonight. No playoff news for the big Islanders, of course, but Bridgeport begins their final playoff on Tuesday. Islanders News The lottery will be held May 5. What are […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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, […]
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 […]
With their playoff lives on the line, a new coach to impress in his debut and a lame-duck opponent coming in on a traveling back-to-back, it would’ve been inexcusable for the New York Islanders to waste their chance at two points on Thursday night vs. the Maple Leafs. They delivered the performance they needed, getting […]
A week to go, all the main teams in action and the Islanders with perhaps their most beatable opponent of the remaining four games. Here’s the expected lineup and combos, with Max Shabanov staying in, Mat Barzal playing center, Tony DeAngelo returning from injury, and Kyle MacLean sitting out: Anders Lee – Bo Horvat – Simon Holmstrom Brayden […]
The final four-game homestretch begins tonight for the chief combatants in the Eastern Conference lower-seeds playoff race. With 78 games down, the Islanders (89 pts.) host the Leafs, the Blue Jackets (90 pts.) visit the Sabres, the Senators (92 pts.) host the Panthers, and the Flyers (92 pts.) are in Detroit (89 pts.). Technically, the […]
Tuesday night’s Eastern Conference results were not great for the Islanders as the Ottawa Senators beat the Atlantic-leading Tampa Bay Lightning (with a five-goal third period!) in regulation and the Red Wings and Blue Jackets had a three-point game, with Detroit falling via shootout. But at least we know where everyone stands with four games […]
Monday was the first day of Islanders practice under new head coach Peter DeBoer, and the first chance for media and fans to hear from both DeBoer and the man who made the big move, general manager Mathieu Darche. For the most part, nothing Darche said would surprise you: It’s a move mostly for the […]
Mike and Dan have many words about the firing of Patrick Roy and the hiring of Peter DeBoer as head coach, as well as for the disastrous week that knocked the Islanders out of the playoffs. Not in a million years did we expect the Islanders to lose all four games in the important week […]
On the game schedule, the Islanders are idle for several days, but the events around them are anything but. On Sunday, the long-looming games in hand came to roost as the Senators beat the Hurricanes and the Flyers beat the Bruins, both climbing above the Isles to push them out of a playoff spot — […]