The New York Islanders and New York Rangers have been involved in four of the last five conference finals. Both teams have made the playoffs in the previous two seasons. They have two of the top 10 goalies in the league, a handful of high-end players, high-profile coaches and general managers.
Heading into Tuesday’s games, the New York metro teams are heading nowhere fast.
Maybe that’s not a huge surprise for the Islanders, who have been treading water ever since those shortened-season final four trips in 2020 and 2021. Lou Lamoriello has made some changes, trading for Bo Horvat and hiring Patrick Roy, but the “same old Isles” song is still being sung around the league about a team that continues to blow games late and has the worst special teams in the league.
The Rangers’ fall into draft lottery territory has been swift and painful. Twenty-seven days ago, the Rangers were 4-3 winners in Vancouver to move to 12-4-1. Since then they’ve won three of 13, forced their captain into accepting a trade and invited other teams to make offers on most of the rest of the roster.
After The Letter in the winter of 2018 and a four-year journey through the rebuild wilderness, Rangers fans have been pulled, Godfather III-style, back into the “let’s blow it up and start over” debates that raged ahead of the 2018-2021 makeover.
Weren’t these cap-ceiling teams supposed to be better than this? Are we headed back to the dark, pre-lockout days of 1997-2004, when the teams combined for three playoff appearances and zero series wins?
Since they’re tied in the standings heading into Tuesday’s games, let’s compare these two miserable situations and try to answer the question Isles and Rangers fans didn’t think they’d be fighting over:
Who has it worse?
Front office
Islanders: Lamoriello turned 82 in October, and the harshest Islanders critics see a team that has doubled down on a flawed roster instead of a team able to recognize it’s time to make some hard decisions. Lamoriello helped turn things around when he arrived in the spring of 2018; his biggest move was hiring Barry Trotz, who guided with a steady hand during the three-year run of success.
Without Trotz, though, it’s been bad. The Isles fought their way into the playoffs the past two seasons but quickly departed thanks to the Carolina Hurricanes. With too many long-term deals for over-30, lifelong Islanders, the team has continued to bumble without much flexibility — or seemingly pressure — to change.
One plus for Lamoriello: His code of silence keeps things from getting out, much less out of hand, the way they have with the Rangers.
Rangers: Drury carries the blame for the current roster, in terms of its construction and, to at least some degree, the vibes in the dressing room. Sending word to 31 other managers that he’d be open to moving Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba — two respected veterans — did not have the desired effect. The Rangers were 12-6-1 at the time, and now they are 15-14-1. Fans can call the players thin-skinned as much as they want, but as general manager, Drury needed to have a better sense of how they would react. The team wasn’t as good as its record looked to start the year, but it also isn’t this bad. This is an underperforming group.
Drury got Trouba to accept a trade by threatening to put him on waivers if he didn’t. Over the summer he waived Barclay Goodrow to get him to the San Jose Sharks, a team on his no-trade list. These moves effectively cleared cap space. But much like the “open for business” note, they weren’t done with much tact. That doesn’t go unnoticed.
Perhaps the biggest indictment of Drury is how little he has added to the team he inherited. Of the 22 players who have appeared in at least 10 games this season, only six were drafted or acquired by Drury: Vincent Trocheck, Sam Carrick, Reilly Smith, Jimmy Vesey, Victor Mancini and Jonathan Quick. The John Davidson-Jeff Gorton tandem brought in most of the team’s key contributors. And some of the players who are on unmovable contracts, including Mika Zibanejad, signed their extensions under Drury.
Verdict: We’ll call it a tie here. Both teams need better leadership from the top.
Coaching
Islanders: Roy was an unexpected hire on Jan. 20, and he has been a breath of fresh air. He’s Patrick Roy — he says some wild stuff, and he has the belief to back it up. He took over a team with terrible special teams, difficulty scoring goals and trouble holding leads; after 69 games behind the bench, the Islanders are pretty much the same team Roy inherited.
Roy has been able to inspire the Islanders at times, but he has also bristled at the limits of the roster. It’s still early enough in his tenure that things could turn around, but it’s already starting to look like Roy’s team hasn’t changed enough with him behind the bench.
Rangers: Peter Laviolette had about as good a first year with New York as could have been expected. It’s fair to have quibbles with some of his decisions in the Eastern Conference final against Florida, but the Panthers were a better team than the Rangers. Laviolette got the most out of the 2023-24 group, which finished with a franchise-record 55 wins and the Presidents’ Trophy.
Traditionally, Laviolette’s teams have had early success and then gotten worse in the ensuing years. This season’s struggles likely have more to do with the roster than anything else, but for whatever reason, many of the Rangers’ veterans have taken a step back in 2024-25. At least some of that falls on the coach.
Verdict: The Isles probably have it worse. Laviolette is barely 30 games removed from a Presidents’ Trophy, and Roy’s NHL coaching track record isn’t strong.
The roster
Islanders: The first wave of too-long deals Lamoriello gave out is starting to wind down, but the problem for this franchise is that pending UFAs Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri, plus Anders Lee, who has a year left, have been three of its best players this season. They could be attractive trade chips if Lamoriello had an appetite to start shuffling the core.
The next wave of long-term signings is a mixed bag: Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat are the top skill forwards, but Ryan Pulock, Adam Pelech and Scott Mayfield are aging rapidly and have multiple years on their deals. So do Anthony Duclair and Semyon Varlamov. All five have missed significant time in the last year-plus, which doesn’t allow the thought of a trade or help the current team.
Among the few under-25 players, Noah Dobson has been uneven but still is a decent enough top-pair player. Alex Romanov is a gamer and improving. Simon Holmstrom is gaining consistency but might top out as a third-line wing.
Ilya Sorokin is the backbone of the operation in net, but he’s been a .908 goalie since the start of last season. That’s good enough for some teams but not this one, which needs high-end goaltending to offset the lack of skill outside the crease.
Rangers: New York has players with high-end talent. Artemi Panarin finished fifth in Hart Trophy voting last season, Adam Fox has a Norris Trophy, and Igor Shesterkin has won the Vezina. But, as with the Islanders, much of the Rangers’ core is aging. Panarin and Kreider are 33. Zibanejad and Trocheck are 31. Three of those four players — Kreider, Zibanejad and Trocheck — are having down years.
Drury signed Shesterkin to an eight-year extension this month, so he will be the goalie for the long term. That’s good news for the Rangers: He’s been consistently excellent, especially in the playoffs.
Fox, K’Andre Miller and Braden Schneider are all 26 or younger and, in theory, should be a strong core of defensemen, but Miller’s game has dipped since his 43-point season in 2022-23. Fox still is an elite defenseman, but he has taken a slight step back this year, too. Will Cuylle and Filip Chytil are the team’s most promising young forwards, and Adam Edström looks like he could be a bottom-six player for years to come. Alexis Lafrenière will be around long-term, too, after signing a seven-year extension. Kaapo Kakko’s future is less certain. He’s had a decent year but was a healthy scratch versus the St. Louis Blues.
The Rangers don’t lack talent. They should be a playoff team. But they’ve put together an abominable stretch, one in which Laviolette has called out players’ effort and players have acknowledged the team is struggling mentally. It makes reaching the postseason — let alone making a run — far from a guarantee.
Verdict: The Rangers still have the vast edge in skill, but at least the Islanders know how to battle. Somehow, this one’s a wash.
The numbers
Islanders: Some laughable numbers are attached to this team: Last in the league with a 12.2 percent power play. Last in the league with a 64.7 percent penalty kill — that PK is the worst one since the league began keeping special teams numbers in 1977. Ten tying or go-ahead goals allowed in the final 10 minutes of regulation — and it has played 32 games. Seven games lost in overtime or a shootout.
And yet, thanks to the mediocrity around the Eastern Conference and the Rangers’ free fall, the Isles aren’t out of it.
Rangers: Unlike the Islanders, the Rangers still have an elite penalty kill. They rank second in the league with an 86.8 percent kill rate. Their power play, though, has taken a massive dip. It ranks 15th in the league at 21.8 percent. For a team that relies heavily on special teams, that’s a major issue.
The Rangers’ numbers during the current 3-10-0 stretch are abysmal. The team ranks last in the league in goals allowed per game since Nov. 20 and is 29th in goals scored per game. The Rangers’ goal differential on the year sits at plus-1. It briefly went into the negatives against the Blues — the first time this season that’s happened — but two third-period goals brought it back over zero.
The biggest indictment of this team is that it led the league last year with 28 come-from-behind wins, 14 in the third period. Through 30 games, the Rangers have come back to win three times, zero in the third. They’re 1-9-0 when trailing after one period. There’s no pushback at all.
Verdict: The Islanders are pretty hapless, but the Rangers have stopped competing in games. That’s worse.
The way out
Islanders: It will require some strong moves, starting with owner Scott Malkin. Does he think Lamoriello can work his way out of the roster mess he created? If not, it’s time to get to work planning for the next phase, with a new GM who will have to be surgical with how to get this team younger and faster.
That will be hard to do in-season. Lamoriello controls all aspects of hockey operations, so unless Malkin has an outsider ready to jump onto a moving speedboat, this is a summer proposition.
In the meantime, the Islanders need to pick a lane. Malkin can tell Lamoriello to start selling what’s available ahead of the deadline, which means longtime core pieces Nelson, Palmieri, Lee and Jean-Gabriel Pageau could move out. In the offseason, you see if there are any takers on Pelech or Pulock. Build around Dobson, Romanov, Isaiah George and whatever else the Isles can find on the market since internal options are slim.
It will take determination, and Malkin will have to have the stomach for a step back before the Islanders can move forward.
Rangers: For the Rangers to salvage this season, the solution is simple: The core players must perform at a higher level. Drury also needs to address immediate roster needs. The group of defensemen is thin right now with Trouba traded and Miller hurt.
Long-term, New York will have to rely on Shesterkin staying at a high level and Fox being a No. 1 defenseman for years to come. It will also need a bounce back from Zibanejad, who is signed through 2029-30 and has a contract that will be nearly impossible to move. The continued development of young players like Cuylle and Lafrenière will continue to be vital. The big question is whether Drury can land a big-name free agent or at least clean up his spotty track record with UFA signings.
Verdict: Drury has set a course, however dangerous, that change is coming. Lamoriello hasn’t. That feels worse for the Islanders.
Overall vibe
Looking at these teams, the Islanders somehow appear to be in better shape. Lamoriello might not have his fastball from decades ago, but things are relatively calm and the Isles could rise above the glut of so-so teams with a decent run of health. But there’s a ceiling to their skill, and that has to change; if ownership doesn’t have the stomach for such big moves in the front office, this malaise could last a long, long time.
The Rangers are moving fast and breaking stuff. It bodes extremely poorly for right now. But they will change, and they will do it quickly. That means it might not be a four-year process like it was from 2017 to 2021.
The glasses look half-empty in the city and on the Island, though. It’s a shocking place for two New York teams to be.
(Top photo of Vincent Trocheck and Ilya Sorokin: Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Images and Brad Penner / Imagn Images)
