Ondrej Palat scored the opening goal and added an assist in his debut with the New York Islanders, who defeated their cross-town rival New York Rangers 5-2 on Wednesday night.

In just Carson Soucy's second game with the Islanders, the defenseman scored a key goal against the Rangers, his former team, on Thursday night at MSG.

Carson Soucy scored against the team that traded him 72 hours earlier, Matthew Schaefer got the 14th goal of his stellar rookie year and the New York Islanders defeated the Rangers 2-1 on Thursday night.

When Bobby Orr's name came up after passing him in the record books, Matthew Schaefer flashed a big grin. “Who's that?” he asked jokingly. Schaefer knows very well who Bobby Orr, Denis Potvin and Phil Housley are,

Just one day after being traded away from the New Jersey Devils, this veteran forward scored his first goal for the New York Islanders en route to their win over the New York Rangers.

Pregame analysis and predictions of the Nashville Predators vs. New York Islanders NHL game to be played on January 31, 2026 on ESPN.

The New York Islanders were 35-23-10 (.588 points percentage) and will enter the Stanley Cup Qualifiers as the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference. They will play the No. 10 seed, the Florida Panthers (35-26-8, .565 points percentage), in one of eight best-of-5 series. The qualifiers will start Aug. 1 at a site to be determined.

Curiously enough, the Rangers and Islanders meet again tonight at The Garden following last night's weird encounter at UBS Arena in Elmont.