What's left for the Islanders to play for this season? Ruining Rangers' first-place chase is a good start.
Jacob Trouba of the New York Rangers battles behind the net against Zach Parise of the New York Islanders at Madison Square Garden on Friday, April 1, 2022. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Rangers are vying to finish first in the Metropolitan Division, but the Islanders went into Madison Square Garden twice in a little over the past month and came away with thrilling victories.
That was when the Islanders were still mathematically alive in the playoff race.
Now, the Islanders will be playing their second game since being eliminated from contention when they face the Rangers on Thursday night at UBS Arena for the final time this season. But as is so often the case in this heated New York rivalry, the standings won’t matter to either team.
“I mean, it’s a turf war,” Islanders center Jean-Gabriel Pageau said. “That’s what we call it. We want to beat them. It’s always fun to play them. They have a good team. It’s a good challenge for us to measure ourselves. We’ve played some good games in Madison Square Garden and that will be our plan for Thursday for sure.”
The Islanders, who did not practice on Wednesday, competed hard against the Eastern Conference-leading Panthers before dropping a 3-2 overtime decision on Tuesday night for their second straight loss. Meanwhile, the Rangers beat the visiting Jets, 3-0, for their third straight shutout, and are tied with Carolina at 106 points for first place in the division.
“It’s kind of fun,” Islanders center Mathew Barzal said. “They’re competing for a division banner. For us, we’d love to play spoiler in that a little bit. It’s not where we want to be, obviously. But we’ve got to get up for something and any time it’s Rangers-Islanders I think both sides are excited. We’ll be excited.”
The Rangers won the season’s first meeting, 4-1, on Nov. 24 in the third game at the just-opened UBS Arena. The Islanders still had seven players in COVID-19 protocol for that loss, including captain Anders Lee, Josh Bailey and defensemen Adam Pelech, Zdeno Chara and Andy Greene.
The Islanders won, 2-1, at the Garden on March 17 in perhaps the Islanders’ most exciting game of the season. Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin stopped 29 shots — including splaying backward to rob Artemi Panarin with his paddle in the first period — to outduel his friend and former Russian national squad teammate Igor Shesterkin, who made 26 saves.
Semyon Varlamov made 27 saves in a 3-0 win on April 1 for his fourth straight shutout at the Garden.
Sorokin has started five straight games but Varlamov was able to back him up on Tuesday after missing the previous two games with a stomach illness.
So coach Barry Trotz will have an interesting decision to make on a starting goalie.
Either way, both likely have more games in the future against the Rangers.
But Thursday could mark Greene’s final chance to face the Rangers. The 39-year-old Greene has not discussed his hockey future but this could very well be the last season for the impending unrestricted free agent, who also spent 14-plus seasons with the Devils. They, too, have a heated rivalry with their close neighbors.
“That stuff is after-the-season stuff,” Greene said. “That’s down the road.”
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
