NASHVILLE, Tenn. — John Tavares had another hat trick and the Islanders finally found some power-play success. The captain scored a natural hat trick in the third period, leading the Islanders to a 6-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Saturday night. It was Tavares’ second hat trick in three games and the eighth of […]
Read MoreMONTREAL — Before Henrik Lundqvist sat and watched another game from the bench, the Rangers franchise netminder had one of the easiest-to-understand explanations in describing his own personal game, and a small glimpse into why the Rangers franchise goaltender has struggled at the start of this season. “My game is all about decisions,” Lundqvist said […]
Read MoreThere is considerable chatter circulating within the industry that Tuesday night’s match at the Garden against Vegas could determine the fate of coach Alain Vigneault, whose Rangers slipped to 3-7-2 with Saturday night’s 5-4 defeat in Montreal that featured another distressing, no-show first period. That is probably overstating it and more a case of deductive […]
Read MoreWhether intentional or not, what Ryan McDonagh said was an indirect endorsement of his coach, Alain Vigneault — which is hard to come by now that these Rangers are 3-7-2 after another horrid first period resulted in a 5-4 loss to the Canadiens on Saturday night in Montreal. “There’s good energy in here when we […]
Read MoreThe Islanders moved Broadway to Barclays Center on Monday night and put on their own three-act show. In the first 20 minutes, their troubling early-season trend crept back when they allowed a short-handed goal. In the next 20, they did the scoring themselves on the man-advantage and tallied a pair of power-play goals. And in […]
Read MoreHenrik Lundqvist has been asked to win much more important games during his Broadway run that commenced a dozen years ago, but never has the assignment been quite as meaningful in October as it will be Tuesday when the Golden Knights make their Garden debut. “You take a deep breath and try to gather as […]
Read MoreThe Rangers dispatched president Glen Sather, assistant general manager Jim Schoenfeld and pro scout Gilles Leger to Ottawa on Monday to check out the Canadiens-Senators match. Alex Galchenyuk, Montreal’s 23-year-old natural center with top-six potential who was on the fourth line against the Senators just as he was against the Rangers on Saturday, could have […]
Read MoreJaroslav Halak started between the pipes for the second game in a row Monday, marking just the second time this year an Islanders goalie has made consecutive starts. Despite giving up a pair of first-period goals — a short-hander on a bad line change and a power-play strike — the netminder rewarded coach Doug Weight […]
Read MoreOn the cusp of the season-opening puck drop, which is to say before things broke very bad for the Rangers, Alain Vigneault was touting Brendan Smith as one of the guys the coach expected to assume a vocal leadership role in the wake of the summer departures of Bluebloods Dan Girardi and Derek Stepan. “Smitty […]
Read MoreJon Ledecky has figured out the NHL equation for a successful franchise, and he has figured out how to get the answer within his grasp. Now the Islanders co-owner and the rest of the organization are just waiting to see if it’s finally theirs to have. The equation starts easy enough: In order to make […]
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