Good Morning, Islanders Country.
The pre-season schedule started last night at Madison Square Garden, but it took the Islanders 3 minutes and 10 seconds to realize it. That’s how long it to the Rangers to score three goals with Semyon Varlamov in net. Not ideal.
Around this time, Isles play-by-play voice Brendan Burke, watching from somewhere, posted a reminder courtesy of the Drew Carey-hosted show “Who’s Line is it Anyway?” that the pre-season is where everything is made up and the points don’t matter. Great show, by the way.
Nevertheless, there was excitement surrounding the pre-season debuts of Matthew Maggio and Isaiah George. The wide-eyed prospects have been the focus of much interest among the fanbase since the start of rookie and training camp, and there was an eagerness to see them in live action against NHL-caliber competition. Needless to say, they were greeted rudely by the Blueshirts and had some teachable moments.
In the first period, Maggio was hit hard by Vincent Trochek, which sent the 20-year-old flying hard down the ice. Trochek was called for kneeing as Maggio was slow to return to the bench, though he would return and logged 13:46 TOI. After the game, Maggio was sporting a gash, blood around his mouth, and a possible broken nose from a first-period elbow.
"I don't think really anything was gonna take me out of that game,” said Maggio after his memorable first pre-season game. “He works and he competes,” Lambert said of Maggio. “He wants to go to the net. And clearly can withstand some physicality.”
Like Maggio, George had a tough start to the game, as his turnover helped lead to the Rangers’ first goal. Later in the first, George stayed down after this awkward hit behind the net. He luckily avoided the worst and was back on the bench for the second period. “His first game is great learning experience for him,” head coach Lane Lambert said. “[He needs to] learn to get back to pucks a little quicker and move the puck a little quicker. Every young player goes through that. I liked the fact that he gutted it out and played through what he had.”
If you’re like me, pre-season games are a way to rationalize and explain away the negative and concentrate on the positives that came out of the game - and there were some. After Lambert timeout after the third Rangers goal, the team settled in, and while you can argue that the Rangers coasted the rest of the way, it was an about-even game.
“We did some good things, but certainly there were moments in the rest of the game that we have to improve on,” Lambert said the game. “Rome wasn't built in a day. We have work to do, and we will.”
Coming up, William Dufour shows how he scored 50+ goals in juniors, and Durandeau continues to make plays. Plus, both ESPN and The Athletic have the Islanders finishing just outside the playoffs, Cory Schneider calls it a career, and a new design from Athlete Logos drops before the face-off.
Let’s dive in.
🏒 IN SHORT: Kaapo Kakko, Tyler Pitlick, and Chris Kreider all scored in the opening 3:10 of the first period as the New York Rangers defeated the New York Islanders 4-2 at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night. William Dufour scored on the power play for the Islanders, and Arnaud Durandeau added a goal in the third period. Free-agent signing Blake Wheeler also scored for the Rangers. Semyon Varlamov settled in to make 20 saves on 24 shorts, and Igor Shesterkin stopped 11 of 12 shots, playing half the game.
KEY MOMENT(s):
🔷 William Dufour scored the Islander’s first goal of the pre-season on the power play, showing off his quick release as he took a deflection off the boards and beat Igor Shesterkin from a tough angle. Dufour’s much-criticized skating looked improved, and as long as he can shoot like this, he has a chance.
“I had a bad angle but if you don’t take your shots you can’t score,” Dufour said. “So, I shot it and I was happy with the result.”
🔶 Trailing 4-1 in the 3rd, Araund Durandeau, who had been getting reps with Bo Horvat and Mathew Barzal in recent days, scored off a nice backhand feed from Hudson Fasching to pull the Islanders to within two.
3 REACTIONS
❶ BITTER FEELING: “Obviously, there's a bitter feeling right now,” said Matthew Maggio. “I know it's an exhibition, but I'm still pretty upset that we lost, and at the end of the day, I need to do more. I think it was a good start.”
❷ GOT CAUGHT: “I think we were just slow to start. Got caught on a couple of plays, and there in the back of our net start the game,” said Anders Lee. “So that's something obviously we can learn from.”
❸ RIVALRY: “We don’t like those guys” - William Dufour
GameScore Impact Card
⏭ NEXT UP: The Islanders are back on the ice tonight, with a game in Philadelphia against the Flyers. Face-off is set at 7:00 p.m.
📰 NEWS: Former Islanders goaltender Cory Schneider retired on Tuesday after 16 professional seasons. The 37-year-old had been with the organization since the 2020-21 season, serving primarily as Bridgeport’s No. 1 goaltender and being summoned to backup Semyon Varlamov or Ilya Sorokin as required.
Schneider played in 410 total games with the New Jersey Devils, Vancouver Canucks, and the Islanders and posted a 171-159-58 record with a 2.43 goals against average and .918 save percentage in 410 games.
📊 For ESPN, Arda Öcal and Greg Wyshynski broke down the Atlantic and Metropolitan Divisions and released their standings predictions on Tuesday, with both picking the Islanders to finish 5th in the standings, a notch below the Penguins and Rangers. Wysh is excited and intrigued about a full season of Bo Horvat, acknowledging where the team finishes will likely be based on whether his output mirrors what he did before he came to Long Island last season.
📊 Sticking with predictions, The Athletic’s model has the Islanders finishing with 92.1 points, 19th best in the NHL, and a 43% chance to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The sentiment is that the Islanders need to prove their best days aren’t behind them and that they still have another deep playoff run in the tank.
“If at first you don’t succeed, dust it off and try again” is one way to look at it. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” is another.
That’s where we’re at on Long Island, as the team runs it back with a roster that isn’t too different from where it left off. - The Athletic
📚 SOUND SMART: As Devils GM, Lou Lamoriello traded the team’s 2013 1st-round pick to Vancouver for goaltender Cory Schneider. With that selection (9th overall), the Canucks selected future captain Bo Horvat. In his seven seasons with New Jersey, Schneider posted a 2.50 GAA and a .915% save percentage
🗓 ISLES REWIND: On April 3, 2022, Corey Schneider made 27 saves in a 4-3 win over the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center in Newark. Schneider was playing in his first NHL game since March 6, 2020, when he was with the Devils.
“It’s easy to take the league for granted when you’re young and you’re playing a lot and things can change quickly, as we all know,” said Schneider, who has been in the American Hockey League this season. “Life in general, not just in hockey. So always be grateful for the chances you get and I thought my teammates worked really hard tonight to make my first game back.”
🔗 Islanders' Matthew Maggio 'just wants to play my game' against Rangers by Andrew Gross, Newsday “Matthew Maggio had a wide-eyed moment at Madison Square Garden a year ago during the preseason, before he went on to be the OHL’s most outstanding player and a prospect of extreme interest to Islanders’ fans during this training camp.”
🔗 Cory Schneider announces retirement after 13-season NHL career by Scott Maxwell, Daily Faceoff “Schneider, 37, announced his retirement on Tuesday via a story with The Salem News. The lack of a market for him in the NHL and a lack of interest to play in the AHL or Europe were the main reasons why he called it quits.”
And we leave you with this ….our friend Athlete Logs will be putting out new Islanders designs this season, and this beauty was the first he released. You can check out all of his Islanders designs and purchase merchandise HERE.
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.....an observation: 'The Drew Carey Show' itself was FREQUENTLY among THE all-time GREAT comedies, and LIKE its primary inspiration 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' (revisiting THAT myself right now; 3rd season is where things come together WELL) did ANOTHER Midwestern city, put Cleveland BACK on tourists' maps at a VITALLY-important time FOR it.....
.....second, I firmly believe if we can AVOID the Trochecks & Lempes of this league (who should've BOTH had 10-minute misconducts for their hits; latter's on George was CLEARLY boarding) enough, a REAL possibility of them finishing with 102 points instead; power play looks MUCH better and the game's last three-quarters, they were completely competitive with the Rags....finally, just DON'T get Athlete Logs' LOGO - is he TRYING to evoke LOS ANGELES' imagery?