Islanders, Rangers just couldn't win when they needed to
Marcus Hogberg #50 and Matt Martin #17 of the New York Islanders defend the net during the second period against Matt Rempe #73 of the Rangers at UBS Arena on Thursday, April 10, 2025. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Islanders and Rangers remain mathematically part of the chase for the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot for at least one more day.
The Canadiens lost, 5-2, on Friday in Ottawa — with Franklin Square’s Shane Pinto scoring twice for the Senators — as they failed in their first attempt to clinch the conference’s final playoff position.
Yet the ugly reality remains the same for the New York rivals: Either one point gained by the Canadiens or lost by the Islanders or Rangers seals the final playoff berth for Montreal. So the Canadiens need to lose all three of their remaining games in regulation and either the Islanders or Rangers need to win out for one of them to reach the playoffs..
Otherwise, this will be the first season since 2018 that both teams miss the playoffs.
The Canadiens are in Toronto on Saturday night and finish the season at home against out-of-contention Chicago on Monday and the playoff-bound Hurricanes on Wednesday.
The Islanders, who have four games to go, begin a weekend road back-to-back on Saturday with a matinee against the Flyers before facing the Devils on Sunday.
The Rangers, with three games remaining, open a two-game road trip against the Hurricanes on Saturday afternoon before facing the reigning Stanley Cup champion Panthers on Monday.
And perhaps this was the way it was always meant to be, given the disappointing seasons the Islanders and Rangers have had that mirrored each other in various ways.
Barring a miracle finish, there’s an excellent chance that both the Islanders and Rangers will finish the season playing for nothing but pride.
And that was something the Islanders’ Kyle Palmieri of Smithtown did not think his team did in Thursday’s night’s 9-2 loss to the Rangers at UBS Arena that left both teams in the same tenuous position: on the brink of elimination from playoff contention.
“We’ll just regroup and we’ve got two more rivals this weekend,” Palmieri said. “Go focus on the next game and come back home on Tuesday [against the Capitals] and give our fans something better than that.”
The ironic part was that the Rangers had earned a reputation for apathetic performances during long stretches of this season. The Islanders, who did not enter the season with the same lofty expectations as the Rangers (last season’s Presidents’ Trophy winners), at least played hard in the majority of their games. But, like the Rangers, they could never win consistently.
“Let’s be honest, we haven’t really helped ourselves over the last couple weeks,” the Rangers’ Mika Zibanejad said. “We’ve been getting some chances, like it was in our hands still. But we haven’t been able to do that.”
“I mean, no matter what the standings, we owe it to ourselves and to the fans, you know?” teammate Will Cuylle said. “Just try to play with pride. It’s an honor to wear the Ranger jersey night in and night out. I think whether it’s the last game of the season . . . or the Stanley Cup Final, you’ve got to approach it all the same way. Play with pride for the logo on the front.”
The Islanders, with everything to play for, have lost two straight in the most disappointing way.
Tuesday night brought a 7-6 overtime loss in Nashville as they could not make a two-goal lead stand in the final three minutes of regulation. Then they bottomed out against the Rangers — who had lost, 8-5, to the Flyers at Madison Square Garden the night before — albeit with No. 1 goalie Ilya Sorokin out with a lower-body injury and Igor Shesterkin needing to make 44 saves.
“It’s definitely not good enough and it’s unacceptable on our part,” Bo Horvat said after the Rangers completed their season sweep by a cumulative goal total of 23-5.
“We can’t dwell on tonight. We’ve got four more games here to push and give it our best shot toward the end. We’re not thrilled to rely on different teams losing. But for us, we have to play a heck of a lot better than we did tonight.”
The Rangers need to show they can care against an opponent other than the Islanders.
It was those regrets and reflections that carried both teams through Friday, knowing they had done absolutely everything to make sure they could not control their own destiny.
With Colin Stephenson
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
