The Matchup: New Jersey Devils (1-0-0) @ New York Islanders (0-1-0)
The Time: 7:30 pm ET
The Broadcast: MSG, MSGSN, Devils Hockey Radio
Last Devils Game
It was the season opener, and it was a good one! On Thursday, New Jersey opened their 2026-27 campaign with a home date against the Philadelphia Flyers. It took overtime, but the Devils skated away with a 3-2 victory in front of a raucous home crowd. Jake Allen got the win, while Dougie Hamilton and Luke Hughes scored in regulation and Jack Hughes scored the winner
in the extra frame.
Last Islanders Game
New York is also coming off their season opener, but unlike New Jersey, they lost their first game. Back on Wednesday, the Isles traveled north to Toronto to battle the Maple Leafs, losing 2-1. Ilya Sorokin was solid in the loss, stopping 24 of 26 shots, while Emil Heineman scored the lone goal for the Islanders.
All Is Well In Devil Land For Now
The final score was not indicative of how much New Jersey dominated Thursday’s game. Pick a stat, any stat, and it will reflect near-total control for the home team. The Devils outshot the Flyers 44-25. According to Natural Stat Trick, New Jersey controlled 69.98% of the Expected Goals at 5-on-5. Another metric, Moneypuck’s fabled Deserve To Win O’Meter, tabbed the Devils at 83% deserving to win. It was a complete beatdown.
The only stats the Devils did not dominate were the power play and goaltending. The powerplay went a disappointing 0/4, though I would argue they looked reasonably good on the man advantage. It didn’t help that Jesper Bratt was absolutely robbed by Joseph Woll on a third period PP. And speaking of Woll, he was most of the reason why this wasn’t a blowout. The Flyers were playing the second half of a back-to-back after getting trounced 7-0 by the Pittsburgh Penguins in their season opener the night before, and it showed. Woll was the only one who could hold his head up high, stopping 41 of 44 shots, and saving 1.05 Goals Above Expected according to NST. It’s not like Jake Allen played poorly, as he saved 23 of 25 himself, but he was clearly outplayed by his counterpart on Thursday.
Thankfully in the end, it didn’t matter. New Jersey’s process was incredible against the Flyers, and it lifted the team to a win. It’s only one game out of 84, and a lot can and will change as the year progresses. But for now, the Devils are back and riding some good vibes into game number two.
Already Bucking The Trend
One of the biggest issues of last season was how dreadful New Jersey played against their own division. In 2025-26, the Devils went an embarrassing 7-17-2 against the Metropolitan Division. All those points they not only left on the table, but gifted to their division rivals, added up and cost them dearly. In fact, the Flyers were one of the biggest Metro thorns in the Devils’ side, sweeping the season series over three total games.
So it was refreshing to see them actually collect two points in a Metropolitan tilt right off the bat. It’s frustrating that they allowed Philadelphia to pick up a point of their own, and if the Devils really want to clean up their Metro issues, they need to start banking not just wins, but regulation wins. Nevertheless, Thursday was a good start.
And now they have a chance to flip the script on yet another Metro team that swept them last season. The Islanders won all four matchups against the Devils in 2025-26. I would argue that this season series also featured the absolute rock bottom of the entire campaign: the 9-0 loss in January on Long Island. If the Devils can exorcise two Metropolitan Division demons from last year right away, that would go a long way toward regaining some trust with a fanbase that has been burned by disappointment so many times since 2022-23.
By The Numbers
The Devils entered this season with some familiarity amongst the forward combinations, but also with a lot of new faces and new roles. How did each of their lines fare against the Flyers? Let’s take a look at some numbers courtesy of Natural Stat Trick. All numbers reflect 5-on-5 play:
It was a pretty excellent night all around. The fourth line struggled, but that’s understandable considering it’s the fourth line, and it was missing a key piece in Connor Brown. Noesen is a legit NHL player so it’s not like the Devils went from Brown to an ECHLer, but it was still tough to lose Brown before the opener.
But otherwise the top nine rolled. The Hischier and Rodrigues lines controlled play well, while the Hughes line absolutely blasted the Flyers. Again, we’re working with a microscopic sample size here, but through one game, the lines look good.
On An Island
In a Metropolitan Division that got a lot better over the summer, the Islanders were a bit of an outlier. They brought in a few pieces like Matias Maccelli and Logan Stanley, but by and large they stood pat from a roster standpoint. Perhaps the biggest change came in the dying days of the 2025-26 season, when they brought in old friend Pete DeBoer for the final four games of their season. He enters his first full slate as Isles head coach, and while he’s had some issues in the playoffs at some of his past stops, I think DeBoer is an excellent coach who will squeeze some extra points out of this Islanders squad.
New York finished sixth in the Metro in 2025-26 with 91 points. It wasn’t an awful year, but it wasn’t a good one, and it was largely kept respectable thanks to Ilya Sorokin’s heroics. This is a roster that has some talent, but is still a bit thin. Bo Horvat and Mat Barzal are nice players, but not franchise-altering players.
They do have one franchise-altering player though, who we’ll discuss in a moment.
I came into this season thinking the Islanders will be the worst team in the Metro, and I still think that’s going to be the case now. The Devils, Rangers, and Capitals all significantly improved in my opinion. Meanwhile the Hurricanes, Blue Jackets, Penguins, and Flyers probably didn’t improve. But the difference between those teams and the Isles is that the Hurricanes won the Cup and didn’t need to improve, the Blue Jackets finished ahead of the Islanders in 2025-26 (granted by one point), and the Penguins and Flyers were playoff teams last year. I don’t think any of those four teams got significantly worse either. The Islanders were mediocre a season ago, and now that their aging team is a year older, I expect a bit of a step back.
However, I also believe this is still a respectable team. They’re certainly capable of beating anyone on any given night and not having it be that much of a surprise. New Jersey is almost certainly more talented than New York, but they still need to take the Islanders seriously if they want to win a game against them for the first time since November of 2024.
Somebody Stop Him
And now we turn our attention to the Islanders’ franchise-altering player.
Matthew Schaefer was the first overall pick in the 2025 draft for a reason. As numero uno, he entered his rookie season with high expectations, and despite that, he still managed to blow those expectations away. As an 18-year-old, Schaefer recorded an absurd 23 goals. He added 36 assists for a total of 59 points, which is a strong number for a defenseman of any age, let alone a teenager. According to Natural Stat Trick, Schaefer put up solid play-driving numbers as well, hovering around the breakeven mark in all the major categories.
Again, we’re talking about an 18-year-old here. The fact that he did all that as a teenage rookie is breathtaking.
It didn’t take long for Schaefer to earn the trust of former Isles coach Patrick Roy either. Roy fed Schaefer some huge minutes last season, giving him 24:41 of ice time per game on average. Would that change with DeBoer now in charge? Well it did change…but not in the way you’d think. Obviously it’s only one game and the card is subject to change, but in the season opener against the Maple Leafs, Schaefer played a ludicrous 27:45.
27:45! And as a reminder, he’s still a teenager!
Schaefer didn’t register a point against Toronto, but he controlled play very well. NST had him at a 60.87 xG%, while out-attempting the Leafs by a whopping 27-8 margin at 5-on-5. Schaefer also registered three shots on goal himself, so despite the loss it was an overall sparkling season opener for the Isles’ phenom. In a post-Leo Carlsson offer sheet world, I shudder to think of how much money Schaefer is going to command as an RFA in a couple seasons.
So the moral of the story is this: get used to seeing a LOT of Schaefer this evening, and get ready to see him do some special things on the ice. The kid is a marvel, and Sheldon Keefe needs to make him the top priority in the game plan.
Your Take
What are you expecting this evening? Who on the Devils do you think will have a big game tonight? Who are you most concerned with? Which Islander will you be keeping an eye on the most? As always, thanks for reading!
