Rangers-Islanders rivalry will be heightened this week with stakes raised

Rangers-Islanders.

That’s all that needs to be said, really. It’s a heated rivalry, one of the best in professional sports. And it means the world to the fans of both teams. Preseason, midseason, indoors, outdoors – it doesn’t matter when or where they play – Rangers-Islanders is always going to be special.

But now, the heat is turned all the way up, as the two teams are playing each other twice in a seven-day period, once in each side’s arena, with, oh, only a playoff spot possibly on the line. Is it possible that raising the stakes like that actually heightens the rivalry? Or does it force the two sides to focus on the task at hand and try to put the rivalry stuff on the back burner?

Yeah, Rangers-Islanders isn’t a back burner thing.

“I could tell, when I came in this morning, there’s not much to be said,’’ Islanders coach Patrick Roy said before Tuesday's game at UBS Arena. “The guys understand what they have to do and they know who we’re playing. If you ask them who we play tonight, don’t worry, they know who they play tonight. Plus, it’s exciting because we’re both battling for a playoff spot.’’

“Of course [the rivalry] matters,’’ said Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad. “Both teams are going to be fighting for their [playoff] lives … We don't want to drop points, obviously. Every point matters right now, so it's going to be important. It's a tough team to play against and we’ve just got to be ready.’’

“For both of us, it’s our playoff push,’’ Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “These games need to start feeling and be played like playoff games.’’

The teams haven’t faced each other in a playoff series since the Rangers steamrolled the Islanders in the first round in 1994. That was pretty much the worst case scenario for the Isles, as the Rangers swept them in four games (by a score of 22-3) and then went on to win their first Stanley Cup since 1940, putting to bed that old taunt of “1940!’’.

Overall, the Islanders have won five of eight playoff series between the teams, including the first one, back in 1975. And they dominated the rivalry in the 1980s. But the Rangers won the last two, in 1990 and ’94.

Right now, they’re both in the nine-team battle for the two wild-card playoff spots in the Eastern Conference, and both teams have to focus on themselves, and not each other, as they dig deep to try and make the postseason.

Which is why these two games they’re playing against each other this week feel so much like playoff games. Because if one team were to sweep the games, it would not only be very much aiding its own cause, but it would also be severely damaging the other’s.

And how sweet would that be?

There are also personal, individual grudges and rivalries within the matchups, too, of course. Rangers coach Peter Laviolette got his start behind the bench in the NHL coaching the Islanders for two seasons back in 2001-03. Rangers assistant coach Michael Peca was his captain on that Islanders team. Islanders forward Anthony Duclair was drafted by, and played a season for the Rangers, and Isles defenseman Tony DeAngelo was released by the Rangers in 2021 after a series of transgressions, the last of which was getting into a fight with his teammate, goalie Alexandar Georgiev, after a loss.

There is also the close friendship between the teams’ goaltenders, Ilya Sorokin of the Islanders, and Igor Shesterkin of the Rangers, who have been pals since they played together on national teams with Russia.

For Laviolette, though, the battle for the playoffs supersedes everything else.

“You know, when we're talking inside the room, we're talking about winning a game and we're talking about the two points, and standings, and playoffs, and all of that,’’ he said. “I think that they're talking about the same thing, but I don't know what's going on in their side of their room. So for us, it's business. We need to play a game that can get us two points and win.

“But I do think that … there's history here, and [games are] usually spirited and competitive. Where that goes, I don't know.’’

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.