The NHL season is underway! Let us now enjoy all the ups, the downs and endless absurdities that are sure to follow with the “transition” 2026-27 New York Islanders, including an extra two games of angst in the expanded 84-game schedule.
They have an incredible Calder-winning defenseman who’s sure to be a Norris candidate through much of his career and delight us on even the darkest nights, a Vezina-caliber goalie whose peak may nonetheless behind him, a 38-year-old backup trying to come back with
two (partial) new knees, and a bunch of aging players who will be “transitioned” out in the next few years as this season’s (hopefully) emerging youngsters take the reins.
There is a lot to scratch your head about and wonder, “How’s this gonna work?” about their opening roster, but there’s also Matthew Schaefer and Victor Eklund, two youngsters who provide hope today and should be part of the next generation if the roster one day gets out of this middling state.
PROGRAMMING/GAME THREAD NOTE: I’ll do my darndest to make sure we have a separate game thread/chat for each game. With the new SB Nation app, there is a “game chat” functionality that is supposed to work pretty well. I am not an app person and sure as Avery am not a salesperson, so I’m comfortable telling you the app is pretty useful for accessing this site and jumping around comments on mobile.
COMMENTING NOTE: And that brings up another note…the lifeblood of this site is fun, informed(???), fan-driven commentary. I know you (or at least many of you) don’t come here for my unsourced prose; you come here for the laugh or the reality-check or the well-meaning banter in comments. So please don’t abuse it, don’t abuse each other, don’t hammer the same point (whether its genius or tinfoil) 20 times per day. To help prevent trolls and bots, there is network-wide comment moderation, which means certain words or antagonistic comments toward each other may get filtered or blocked, and I won’t know about the injustice until long after the moment has passed.
Sometimes the filters or moderators overreact (don’t mention that you graduated summa cum laude!), but by and large it shouldn’t be hard to have basic, human discourse here. (Remember: The enemy isn’t each other, it’s…Isles management, or something.) There are options to mute your least favorite commenters or simply skim on by the stuff you find dumb, so consider doing that and channel your blood pressure spikes to what happens on the ice.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Islanders News
First things first! The Islanders open the season in Toronto tonight. First Islanders Goal picks for tonight go here, with instructions in the first comment.
- Victor Eklund has switched to number 38, which I really don’t like but I guess it’s okay, as it’s what he wore in Sweden. Still, ick. [Isles]
- The Islanders will have four alternate captains — different guys for home and road — in addition to new captain Bo Horvat. I’m not going to pretend to think this means anything significant, but I’m glad Schaefer gets an A since he’ll one day lead this next generation. [Isles]
- ONLY in Newsday! What can Schaefer accomplish in his second season? [Newsday]
- It’s going to be a work-in-progress as the Isles acclimate to what Pete DeBoer wants. [Post]
- Exhausted by click bait headlines, I made 32 BOLD predictions about this season. [LHH]
Elsewhere
Last night’s NHL scores included the defending champs raising their banner but falling to the previous champs, the Leafs falling at home to the Canadiens, and the vaunted Babcockian Oilers and Islanders playoff hero Tristan Jarry giving up five goals on the first 20 shots in an OT loss to the Canucks. They got a very friendly call to help them tie it up late and force overtime, making Evan Bouchard’s hat trick worth something.
- During the game broadcast, ESPN paid modest tribute to Barry Melrose. [NHL]
- The Blue Jackets are happy to be done with the Kirill Marchenko drama. [NHL]
- Speaking of whom, thank GOD Carson Soucy has found work. [TSN]
- Who else here is thrilled that the Leafs “look like a new team in emotional loss”? [Sportsnet]
- Who needs AI? Jakub Dobes proved he can get a robot to express emotion. [Sportsnet]
- Elliotte Friedman returns with some 32 Actual Written Thoughts. [Sportsnet]
