The Battle of New York between the New York Rangers and New York Islanders will take place Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York.
This will be the second of the four meetings that are scheduled for these teams during the current 2024-25 National Hockey League season. The Islanders or “Isles” come into Tuesday’s date with their archrivals with a 6-4 record in their last 10 games. The Rangers come in with a 5-5 record in their last 10 games.
The big picture is that these two teams are neck-and-neck in the NHL’s Eastern Conference wild card standings; the Rangers have 60 points and the Isles have 57. The Rangers are just two points behind the Ottawa Senators who occupy the second wild card spot and with a win they can tie their opponents from north of the border.
Special teams have not been friendly to the Islanders this season. Head coach Patrick Roy’s team sport the lowest ranked power play (11.36%) and penalty kill percentage (70%) in the entire league coming into Tuesday’s matchup. Meanwhile, the Rangers power play has slipped over the course of the season from a top five power play in November to the 17th best (21.23%). The one constant that the Rangers have had all year has been their stellar penalty kill which ranks fourth in the NHL coming into Tuesday (82.25%).
An Epic Goaltending Matchup
One asset both teams have is strong goaltending. The Islanders have allowed the 14th fewest goals-against-per-game (2.95) while the Rangers rank 23rd in that category at 3.14 (Pi Day anyone?).
Getting the start for the New York Rangers on one day’s rest will be Igor Shesterkin. The former Vezina winner’s stats this season fall well short of his career highs, but he still has put up a respectable .903 Save-Percentage (SV%) and 2.98 Goals-Against-Average. Meanwhile, the Islanders will likely give number one Ilya Sorokin the nod. The Russian comes into Tuesday sporting a .906 SV % and 2.72 GAA which rank significantly better than his countryman’s. Both goaltenders are tied for fifth in the NHL in shutouts with three each.
Both goaltenders have struggled as of late. ‘Igor’ is 2-3 in his last five starts and has surrendered five goals twice, including when he was pulled against the Buffalo Sabres who are last place in the Eastern Conference. Shesterkin’s best performance in his last five games, came in his most recent tilt when he made 37 saves en route to a 5-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Sorokin is also 2-3 in his last five starts, but has only given up five goals once, during a 6-3 loss to the playoff bound Minnesota Wild. Sorokin’s best performance came against the Vegas Golden Knights on Feb. 4 when he made 33 saves and surrendered just one goal to the Pacific Division leaders.
Who’s got the Hotter Offense
With superstar Mathew Barzal out at least until March, the Islanders have had to scrape together goals and do that they have during their hot late January and February. Captain Anders Lee comes into Tuesday leading his team with 41 points and 23 goals. Bo Horvat is a close second with 19 goals and after those two the Isles have four more players in double figures when it comes to goals: Simon Holmstrom, Kyle Palmieri, Brock Nelson, and Jean-Gabriel Pageau.
On the other hand, the Rangers are led in scoring by their superstar Artemi Panarin who has 59 points. Panarin leads the Rangers with 23 goals. Besides him there are seven other Rangers who have scored at least 10 goals this season: Reilly Smith, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Alexis Lafreniere, Will Cuylle, Vincent Trocheck, and newly acquired J.T. Miller. The Rangers have the stronger offense heading into this one as they have scored 3.00 goals-per-game compared to the 2.73 that the Isles have scored.
A High Stakes Matchup
The Blueshirts have 25 games remaining in their season and stand with 28 wins, 25 losses and three overtime losses. The Isles have 26 games left to play in their season, having won 25, lost 24 and suffered 7 overtime losses. Neither team can afford to drop points at this late point in the regular season and a spot in the wild card may as well be on the line on Tuesday when these two meet.
Injuries for both teams are as follows:
Rangers
- Chris Kreider, upper-body out since Feb. 23
- Adam Edstrom, Lower-Body out since Feb. 1
Islanders
- Mathew Barzal, kneecap, out since Feb. 1 (out for three more weeks)
- Noah Dobson, Lower-Body, out since Jan. 24 (on long-term IR)
- Marcus Hogberg, Upper-Body, out since Jan. 25
- Mike Reilly, heart, out since Nov. 1
- Semyon Varlamov, Lower-Body, out since Dec. 5 (on long-term IR)
