Good Morning, Islanders Country.
Apologies for the delayed newsletter this morning.
I had my annual holiday dinner with friends in the city last night, and you know how those go. With the Christmas holiday coming up, we’ll have our version of a holiday freeze and return with our next newsletter on Wednesday, Dec. 27th.
Yesterday on ‘X’, I shared a graphic from a J Fresh Hockey survey that got fans talking. Each year, he holds a survey asking hockey fans which is the most annoying fanbase. The Isles ranked 11th with 2%. Well done, everyone who helped make that happen, but that wasn’t the interesting part.
He then shared the three most common fanbases picked as most annoying for each fanbase. 110 Islanders fans and 227 Rangers fans took the survey, and what it showed was that we’re not getting under each other’s skin nearly as much as we used to. Isles fans ranked Leafs fans ahead of fans of the Blueshirts, while Rangers fans didn’t even list Isles fans in their top three, choosing the Devils, Leafs, and Penguins all over Isles Nation.
A sign of maturity? No, of course not, but it is a sign that the Isles-Rangers rivalry needs a major jolt. This survey wasn’t about what team you hate the most (that should always be the Rangers); it’s what fanbase you find most annoying, and the reality is that for a generation of fans, the intense rivalry moments that create the friendly and not-so-friendly banter between fanbases have been lacking.
The teams haven’t met in the postseason in nearly three decades, and if you’re being honest, the games versus Toronto since John Tavares left have been more exciting and fun. He plays the villain role, and the Isles fans are judged from afar by the pompous Leafs fanbase and national hockey media. It’s great.
Do the Isles-Rangers games still have more juice than other games in the regular season? I think so, but it’s not nearly where it used to be. The two elite Russian-born goaltenders each team boasts aren’t even rivals; they’re best friends who train during the off-season and spend the Holidays together.
Let’s hope the Stadium Series game in February and the tailgating atmosphere preceding it bring back some of the intensity the rivalry has been missing. Hockey is better with rivalries, and Islanders-Rangers is one of the best. It’s just a little dormant right now; let’s hope that starts to change.
Let’s dive in.
📰 NEWS: The Islanders are in Raleigh today for practice before tomorrow night’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes. A lot of focus during the off-day was the glass half-full / half-empty feeling of the team getting points nearly every night but failing to earn the second point in nine of 13 chances.
You can look at the loser points favorably, unfavorably, or maybe both. The Islanders have points in 16 of their last 18 games, which is pretty remarkable. Still, it's also hard to shake the sense of mediocrity with the number of games they have been unable to close out, along with their inability to pick up the coveted second point in overtime and the shootout.
◾️ In the New York Post, Ethan Sears writes that Hudson Fasching’s strong play could delay a reunion of the Identity Line once Matt Martin is ready to return. For the second straight year, Fasching is making an impact on the bottom six, but this time, it’s on a line with Casey Cizikas and Cal Clutterbuck.
On Wednesday, Fasching’s wraparound goal (the team’s first such goal this season) tied the game at 1-1 early in the second period. The goal came after Clutterbuck won a battle behind the net.
“[He] made a great play there. Just kind of picked it up as I turned the corner, the defenseman took the other guy, and I just went to the net,” Fasching said. “I was thinking five-hole as I turned the corner, just kind of shoveled it through there.”
Fasching has two goals and four assists through 22 games this season.
BIZ VERSUS BUTCH
Sticking with the rivalry theme, I could not agree more with former Isles play-by-play announcer Howie Rose’s assessment of the Biz versus Butch “feud” that has manifested since last year. Rose pointed out that rivalries have been greatly diminished because of the lack of divisional games teams play against each other.
You recall that last year the Islanders and Rangers played just three times, which was inexcusable. Yes, some of this from Goring and Bissonnette feels forced at this point, but it’s entertaining and better than nothing at all.
⏭ NEXT UP: The Islanders are in Carolina tomorrow night to take on the Hurricanes at PNC Arena in Raleigh. Face-off is 7:30 PM EST.
📊 STANDINGS:
🇺🇸 🏒 Team USA rallied for a 5-3 win over Team Sweden in a World Junions tune-up. Isles prospects Quinn Finley and Danny Nelson both were in the lineup. You can see the line combinations, along with the NHL team affiliations for each prospect, in the graphic below. Wisconsin’s Finely was playing LW on the top line, while Notre Dame’s Nelson was centering the fourth line.
📚 SOUND SMART: Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, goaltender Ilya Sorokin has faced 725 shots in his 20 games (an average of 36.3 per game). Only Jordan Binnington has faced more shots (739). No goalie has ever played the full season for the Islanders and led the NHL in this category; Kelly Hrudey did so in the season he was traded at the deadline to Los Angeles (1988-89).
🎥 ISLES REWIND: On December 22, 2007, Richard Park scored his only career (regular season) overtime goal at the 3:43 mark as the Isles defeated the Washington Capitals 3-2 at the Nassau Coliseum.
"This gives us a great feeling going into the holiday. It will make the food and everything taste better," said Park, who scored his sixth goal of the season. "I think Richard Park's been our most underrated player the past couple of years," said head coach Ted Nolan. "He does everything." Also of note, Miroslav Satan opened the scoring with his 666th career point 😈
🎧 Weird Islanders: The Podcast! - Episode 39 - Cliff Ronning “Joined by longtime Lighthouse Hockey contributor Travis Flynn, a.k.a. North Dakota Red Eagle, Mike and Dan remember Cliff Ronning, a star player who, against all odds, ended up an Islander for half a season.”
🔗 Islanders' blown leads have led to an abundance of overtime losses by Andrew Gross, Newsday “The Islanders could be leading the Eastern Conference in points right now. They could have up to nine more than they do. But consistent success in games that go past regulation still eludes them. “There’s definitely been games we would have definitely liked to have two [points],” defenseman Noah Dobson said. “We definitely can be better in overtime, for sure.”
🔗 Who would the Islanders bump from the lineup — and the roster — to make room for Zach Parise? by Ethan Sears, New York Post “The growing expectation, as we reported last Friday, is that Zach Parise is leaning in the direction of an NHL return, with the likelihood it will be with the Islanders. So then, two questions:Where does Parise fit in a lineup for an Islanders team that sits at 15-8-9 after Wednesday night’s overtime loss in Washington?”
And we leave you with this…a TikTok user instructed AI to generate outdoor game concepts for every team in the NHL. The Isles’ one is located in Montauk in the shadows of the lighthouse. You can see the entire Eastern Conference concepts HERE.
Thanks for reading! Follow us on Twitter for regular updates until the next newsletter.
And please check out our newsletters about the Knicks and Mets, too.