The laments from the locker room involved defensive breakdowns and their new coach said it succinctly by opening his postgame press conference with a blunt statement.
“I saw a team that played better than us,” interim Islanders coach Patrick Roy said about four hours after smiling pregame when mentioning his first playoff series at Madison Square Garden.
The series in reference was the 1986 Wales Conference finals when a surprising version of the Rangers faced the eventual Stanley Cup champions in Roy’s rookie season with the Canadiens.
The contrasts in emotion took place after the Rangers and Islanders continued their trajectories on a Sunday afternoon where many sports fans were focused on college basketball and things like what teams would get into the NCAA tournament and who would miss out.
In many ways, the NHL playoffs are similar to the tournament just without the one and done elimination. There are more upsets than in the NBA and in recent weeks the Islanders played their way into the conversation about being one of the wild cards who would play teams like the Rangers, who other than a few sluggish weeks in December and January dominated their way to the NHL’s version of a No. 1 seed – first place in the Division.
And both teams looked their respective parts with the Rangers rolling to a 5-2 victory. It was a win highlighting the differences between the longtime rivals, whose last playoff series was a dominating four-game sweep by the Rangers in the opening round en route to ending a 54-year Stanley Cup drought in 1994.
“I saw a team that played better than us today,’’ Roy said with a disappointed tone. “They managed the puck much better than we did. They’re very fast on transition. I thought they had more energy than us for some reason. I thought we had some desperation. We made it a 2-2 game, and all of a sudden, bad tracking and they scored and made it 3-2. After that, I just felt like they shut down the game. They played a great game. They did what they had to do, and that’s why they’re first in our division.”
Since then both franchises hit their peaks and valleys. They struggled for many of the years before the 2004 lockout with the Islanders making three straight playoff appearances while the Rangers endured seven straight non-playoff seasons.
Since the lockout, the Rangers are fairly consistent with their playoff appearances, missing the field only in 2010, 2018, 2019 and 2021. The Islanders struggled into the 2000s and began turning it around once they drafted John Tavares in 2009 and then made three straight trips to the Eastern Conference finals.
A majority of the players from those teams remain as the Islanders age and are run over by the Rangers, who scored their five goals by constantly beating their opponent to loose pucks.
“We know what time of year it is, how important these games are,” Kyle Palmieri said after the Rangers scored the final three goals. “Talking is one thing. You can’t talk your way into the playoffs. I think we, realistically, just have to take a look in the mirror and get the ball rolling in the other direction.
Realistically the potential for a Rangers-Islanders playoff matchup is still in play since there about 15 games with and two more regular season meetings. The points situation is favorable for the Islanders but teams on the bubble can hardly afford to allow their opponents to ease their way to goals, which results in opposing players expressing their confidence in a team on a 16-3-1 roll like the Rangers are in the midst of now.
“Our team is deep right now,” Rangers forward Vincent Trocheck said. “We are getting contributions up and down the lineup. Even when lines aren’t scoring, they are contributing in other ways. Getting the momentum, keeping the puck in the O-zone. If we can continue to do that, I like our chances against anybody.”
Especially against teams still on the bubble which is where the Islanders find themselves like St. John’s and Seton Hall were before missing out on the NCAA tournament a little over three hours after the differing postgame tones from the rivals.