The Skinny on the Season Opener

“The Skinny” on the Opener

By Eric Hornick

The 2026-27 season begins on Wednesday night in Toronto.  What will the first 84-game season since 1993-94 be like?  It all begins to unfold with the earliest regular season game in Islander history – on Wednesday, September 30th. 

UP FIRST

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30th — ISLANDERS AT TORONTO 7:30pm

[MSGSN (pre-game at 7:00], WRHU 88.7 FM, WRCN 103.9FM, Isles + UBS Arena App]

The Islanders begin their 54th season by heading to Toronto to face the new look Maple Leafs. It is the first of two trips to Toronto in the first 2 ½ weeks of the season. The Isles went 3-0-0 against the Leafs last season (1-0-0 in Toronto) and are 8-2-0 in their last ten games against the Leafs. 

Opening Night Skinny Notes

The Isles are 3-6-1 on Opening Night over the last ten years, and they are only 6-13-4 in their last 23 Openers. Overall, the Isles are 14-27-12 on Opening Night (11-21-8 on the road and 3-6-4 at home). Only four teams (all Original Six teams) have opened their season on the road more often than the Isles.

This is the first time that the Isles have faced the Leafs in their opener; it will be the second game for Toronto, who host Montreal on Tuesday. The Isles did open the shortened 2013 road season in Toronto (with a 7-4 win) but that was the third game of the season.

The Isles 14-27-12 (.377) Opening Night record is the second worst among current teams who have played more than five openers (Seattle is 1-3-1). Anaheim has the worst record on opening night of any other team: 11-21-0 (.344). This will be Pete DeBoer’s first Opening Night as the Isles’ head coach; he is 10-7-0 in his career in openers.

The Isles have been involved in five shutouts on Opening Night. Chico Resch blanked the Flyers in 1976, and Semyon Varlamov had a clean sheet against the Rangers in January 2021, while the Kings (Stephane Fiset in 1996), Panthers (Jose Theodore in 2011), and Blue Jackets (Sergei Bobrovsky in 2017) turned the trick on the Isles.

The Islander club record for the fastest goal on Opening Night is 1:01, set by Dave Scatchard on October 10, 2002, in Buffalo. The NHL record for the fastest Opening Night goal is 0:10, set by Kent Nilsson of Minnesota (10/11/86 @ Quebec).

No Islander has ever had an opening night hat trick; twelve Isles scored twice in an Opener, with Anders Lee (January 2021) being the last player to have done so.

Schedule Skinny:

Schedule Format

The 84-game schedule allows for two extra division games, so the Isles will face each Metro foe four times. The Isles will play each of the eight teams in the Atlantic Division three times and will play a home and home series with each Western Conference foe. Buffalo, Detroit, Ottawa, and Montreal are the four Atlantic Division teams that will visit UBS Arena twice; the Isles will play twice in Boston, Florida, Toronto, and Tampa Bay.

Back-to-Backs

After playing sixteen sets of back-to-backs (tied for the most in the NHL) last season, the Isles will play only 13 sets this season.  All of them will be played in the final 60 games as the Isles will hit Thanksgiving before their first set.

Every Day’s a Home Game

The Isles will play nine home games on Saturday, eight on Tuesday, and six times on Thursday. They will play five times on Sunday, five times on Friday and on Monday, and four times on Wednesday. 

Schedule by Month

September (1), October (13), November (12), December (14), January (14), February (11), March (13), April (6). The Isles will complete the regular season against Columbus on Saturday, April 10th.

The Isles will reach the midway point of their schedule when they play game 42 on January 5th in Vancouver. There will be 26 games remaining after the Isles host the NHL All-Star break on February 5-6th. 

Schedule Streaks

The 2026-27 schedule is more balanced between home and road games this last season. The Isles have only one four-game homestand (March 1-9) and play more than four straight games on the road only once (five games before the All-Star break and one afterwards).

The Isles will play 21 of the first 42 games at home and will also play 21 of the last 42 games at home, including eight of the final eleven games of the regular season.

Changing Times

Beginning this year, Alberta, Manitoba and British Columbia will use year-round daylight savings time.  Thus, there will be earlier New York starting times for the four Islander games played in those provinces –

• 19-Nov-26 @ Winnipeg   (7:00 NY Time/ 7:00 local)

• 5-Jan-27 @ Vancouver (9:00 NY Time/ 7:00 local)

• 7-Jan-27 @ Calgary      (8:00 NY Time/ 7:00 local)

• 9-Jan-27 @ Edmonton  (3:30 NY Time/ 1:30 local)

Matinee Isles

The Isles will play ten afternoon games this season, including eight at UBS Arena (beginning on Halloween vs. Edmonton). The Isles will play one 5:00 home game (April 10th vs. Columbus), one 7:45 home game (October 13th vs. Vancouver), one 6:30 home game (March 1st vs. Florida) and twelve 7:30 home games, with the other 20 home games scheduled for 7:00pm.

All-Star Break

The Isles will go eight consecutive days without a game around the All-Star break between contests in Buffalo on February 3rd and at Madison Square Garden on February 12th. 

The 2026-27 Islanders:

General Manager Mathieu Darche

After helping the Tampa Bay Lightning to two Stanley Cups, Mathieu Darche was named Islander General Manager and Executive Vice President on May 23, 2025. Darche begins his second season as the Isles General Manager.

Coach Peter DeBoer

Pete De Boer begins his first full season as the Islander head coach after going 1-3-0 last April. De Boer is 663-450-152 in 1265 regular season games, and 97-82 in the playoffs.  He has won a playoff series in each of his last seven trips to the Stanley Cup playoffs and has made a Conference Final six times in his last eight full seasons.  He is coaching in the NHL for the 19th consecutive season.

DeBoer is 21st in games coached (nine behind Todd McLellan and Claude Julien) and is 18th in career wins (two behind Todd McLellan).

DeBoer is 7th in playoff games coached, three behind Darryl Sutter and four behind Pat Quinn. Joel Quenneville (237) is the only active coach with more games.  His 97 wins are fifth all-time, and three behind Dick Irvin.

Active Roster

The Isles have 23 players on their active roster, as submitted to the NHL on Monday:

FORWARDS (13)

Casey Cizikas

Anthony Duclair

Victor Eklund

Emil Heineman

Simon Holmstrom

Bo Horvat

Mattias Maccelli

Kyle MacLean

Jean-Gabriel Pageau

Ondrej Palat

Kyle Palmieri

Cal Ritchie

Brayden Schenn

DEFENSEMEN (8)

Tony DeAngelo

Matt Kessel

Scott Mayfield

Adam Pelech

Ryan Pulock

Alexander Romanov

Matthew Schaefer

Logan Stanley

GOALTENDERS (2)

Ilya Sorokin

Semyon Varlamov

There are eight changes from last season’s opening roster.

 

Victor Eklund, Matt Kessel, Mattias Maccelli, Ondrej Palat, Cal Ritchie, Brayden Schenn, Logan Stanley and Semyon Varlomov (injured all last season) are newcomers on the Isles roster from last October, replacing Jonathan Drouin, Marc Gatcomb, Anders Lee, Max Shabanov, Max Tsyplakov, Adam Boqvist, David Rittich, and Mathew Barzal (injured).

The twenty-three active players represent five nationalities: American (DeAngelo, Kessel, MacLean, Mayfield, and Palmieri), Canadian (ten players), Czech (Palat), Finnish (Maccelli), Swedish (Ekland, Heineman and Holmstrom), and Russian (Romanov, Sorokin, and Varlamov).

Old and Young

Semyon Varlamov (April 27, 1988) is the only Islander born in the 1980s, with Kyle Palmieri (February 1, 1991) being the oldest skater. Matthew Schaefer (9-5-2007) remains the youngest skater and will play his entire second NHL season as a teenager; Victor Eklund is the second youngest and will turn 20 on Saturday. Eight of the 23 players (all skaters) were born in the 2000s.

Of the twenty-three active players, Ilya Sorokin is the 12th oldest (and 12th youngest); Sorokin turned 31 on August 4th.  

Big and Small

Logan Stanley is the tallest (6’7”) and is the heaviest (231 pounds). Only five Islanders are below six feet tall (all are 5’11”); Victor Eklund is the lightest (175 pounds).  

Opening Night

Casey Cizikas is expected to play on Opening Night for the 14th time in his career, tying Bryan Trottier’s club record. Bailey and Denis Potvin for second place in club history (Bryan Trottier played in 14 openers). Cizikas will also become the first Islander skater to appear in 16 different seasons; Bill Smith played in the first 17 seasons of Islander history.

Isles Opening Night Leaders:

Goals:   Bossy 7, Nelson 6, Trottier/Harris 5 (Active: Palmieri 2, Barzal 2)

Assists: Trottier 9, Gillies 7/Nelson 7 (Active: Barzal 4, Cizikas/Palmieri 3)

Points: Trottier 14, Nelson 13, Bossy 11 (Active: Barzal 6, Palmieri 5)

Penalty Minutes: Rich Pilon 39, Ray Schultz 23 (in 1 game!), Duane Sutter 21 (Active: Barzal 10)

Ilya Sorokin is 1-3-0 on opening night (.896, 3.33) while Semyon Varlamov is 1-1-1 (.910, 2.32) in three openers as an Islander. Billy Smith is the only goalie in Islander history with multiple opening night wins (3-4-3 in 10 openers). 

Captain, My Captain

For the first time since 2017, the Islanders have a new Captain, as Bo Horvat replaces Anders Lee.  Horvat also served as Captain of the Canucks from October 9, 2019, until his trade to the Islanders on January 30, 2023.

The Rookie

Victor Eklund, who made his NHL debut in the season finale, is the only rookie on the Isles roster. 

A Look Back

The Isles finished the 2025-26 regular season with a 43-34-5 record, with a 1-7-0 finish costing them a shot at post-season play. That left the Isles in 19th place in the 32-team NHL, and seven points out of a playoff spot.

The Isles went 22-17-2 on UBS ice and 21-17-3 on the road.

Overtime is Our Time

The Isles set an NHL record by going 10-0 in games decided by an overtime goal; they were 4-5 in shootouts. 

The 2021 Vegas Golden Knights (9-0 in 56 game season) are the only other team to score at least nine overtime goals with none allowed.

Special Teams (Last Season)

Power Play 40-242 16.5% (9 shorthanded goals allowed); 30th in NHL

Penalty Kill 41-214 80.8% (9 shorthanded goals scored); 10th in NHL

The special teams combined for 97.3%, which was a 12.5% improvement from the 84.8% combined the previous season. 

Offense from Defense

The Islander defense contributed 40 goals and 126 assists for 166 points last season; the 40 goals were the most for the Isles’ defense since 2022-23, when they scored 41 goals.

East and West

Last season, the Isles went 26-20-4 against the East (14-10-2 vs. Metropolitan and 12-10-2 vs. Atlantic) and 17-14-1 against the West (7-8-1 vs. Central and 10-6-0 vs. Pacific).

First Things First

The Isles were 29-12-3 when scoring first and were 14-22-2 when allowing the opening goal.  

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles were 33-9-3 when they scored at least three goals (including shootout winners) last season and are 10-25-2 when they did not. 

One-Goal Games

The Isles were 27-11-5 in games decided by a single goal including 12-11 in regulation; the 27 one-goal wins are a new club record. They are 10-0 in games decided in overtime and are 4-5 in shootouts. The Isles are 5-3 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1-goal game into a 2-goal game.

Back-to-Backs     

The Isles went 5-11-0 in the front end and 9-6-1 in the back end last season. 

The Ironmen

Adam Pelech, Matthew Schaefer, and Emil Heineman played in every Islander game last season. Including 307 games in St. Louis, Brayden Schenn has played 326 consecutive games.

Matthew Schaefer and History

Almost every club record for a teenager is within reach this season for Matthew Schaefer.  Schaefer brings career totals of 23-36-59 (4 game-winning goals) into this season; Bryan Trottier went 32-63-95 (5 game-winning goals) in his teenage season of 1975-76.  Schaefer has 221 shots on goal, 64 shy of Tim Connolly’s club record for a teen.

Schaefer will still be a Teenager for the next 84 Isles games.

Schaefer played at least 29 minutes four times last season:

Most Ice Time by an Islander Teenager, Game

1. Matthew Schaefer 31:59 3/24/2026 vs CHI (NHL record for a teenager)

2. Matthew Schaefer 29:40 3/31/2026 at BUF

3. Matthew Schaefer 29:24 3/13/2026 vs LA

4. Matthew Schaefer 29:01 3/7/2026 at SJ (OT)

Schaefer ended the season by playing at least 20:00 in 70 straight games; it is the longest streak in NHL history by a teenager in a single season since ice-time became official and the longest by an Islander since Mark Streit set the record (since 1997-98) by doing so in 141 consecutive games from 2009-2011.

All-time Islander Leader Boards:

Games Played (skaters)

1. Bryan Trottier 1,123 *** 2. Denis Potvin 1,060 *** 3. Josh Bailey 1,057 ***

4. Casey Cizikas 978…

15. Brent Sutter 694 *** 16. Adam Pelech 642 *** 17. Derek King 638 *** 18. Ryan Pulock 636 *** 19. Billy Harris 623 *** 20. Stefan Persson 622 *** 21. Scott Mayfield 615 *** 22. Mathew Barzal 611

Goals    

1. Mike Bossy 573 *** 2. Bryan Trottier 500 *** 3. Denis Potvin 310 ***

17. Patrick Flatley 160 *** 18. Mathew Barzal 153…

22. Jason Blake 127 *** 23. Casey Cizikas 124…

33. Anthony Beavillier 102 *** 34. Anders Kallur 101 *** 35. Trent Hunter and Bo Horvat 99

Assists

1. Bryan Trottier 853 *** 2. Denis Potvin 742 *** 3. Mike Bossy 553 ***

4. Josh Bailey 396 *** 5. Mathew Barzal 381…

23. Pierre Turgeon 193 *** 24. Ryan Pulock 185… 

32. Ziggy Palffy 163 *** 33. Casey Cizikas 156 *** 34. David Volek 154 *** 35. Mariusz Czerkawski 150 *** 36. Adam Pelech 147

Points

1. Bryan Trottier 1,353 *** 2. Mike Bossy 1,126 *** 3. Denis Potvin 1,052…

10. Anders Lee 549 *** 11. John Tonelli 544 *** 12. Bob Bourne 542 ***

13. Mathew Barzal 533…

27. Ed Westfall 286 *** 28. Casey Cizikas 280 …

32. Nick Leddy 243 *** 33. Ryan Pulock 241

+/-

1. Bryan Trottier +467 ***2. Denis Potvin +456 *** 3. Mike Bossy +380…

15. Bob Lorimer +105 *** 16. Adam Pelech +83 *** 17. Tomas Jonsson +76 *** 18. Garry Howatt +75 *** 19. Pat Price +70 *** 20. JP Parise +67 **** 21 Ryan Pulock +66 *** 22. Jude Drouin +58 

Defense Games

1. Denis Potvin 1,060 *** 2 Adam Pelech 642 *** 3. Ryan Pulock 636 ***

4. Stefan Persson 622 *** 5. Scott Mayfield 615

Defense Goals

1. Denis Potvin 310 *** 2. Tomas Jonsson 84 *** 3. Kenny Jonsson 57 ***

4. Ryan Pulock 56…

12. Adrian Aucoin 33 *** 13. Bryan Berard 31 *** 14. Scott Mayfield and Adam Pelech 30  

Defense Assists

1. Denis Potvin 742*** 2. Stefan Persson 317 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 249 ***

4. Nick Leddy 198 *** 5. Ryan Pulock 185 … 

9. Jeff Norton 166 *** 10. Adam Pelech 147… 

13. Dave Lewis 117 *** 14. Roman Hamrlik and Scott Mayfield 110

Defense Points

1. Denis Potvin 1,052 *** 2. Stefan Persson 369 *** 3. Tomas Jonsson 333 ***

4. Nick Leddy 243 *** 5. Ryan Pulock 241…

10. Mark Streit 179 *** 11. Adam Pelech 177…

14. Dave Lewis 141 *** 15. Scott Mayfield 140

Goalie Games

1. Billy Smith 674 *** 2. Rick DiPietro 318 *** 3. Ilya Sorokin 308… 

8. Jaroslav Halak 177*** 9. Glenn Healy 176 *** 10. Semyon Varlamov 173

Wins

1. Billy Smith 304 *** 2. Glenn Resch 157 *** 3. Ilya Sorokin 154 …

7. Jaroslav Halak 88 *** 8. Roland Melanson 77 *** 9. Semyon Varlamov 76

Shutouts 

1. Ilya Sorokin 29 *** 2. Glenn Resch 25 *** 3. Billy Smith 22 ***

4. Rick DiPietro and Semyon Varlamov 16

Isles on the Air

MSG Networks will carry 74 of the Isles’ 84 games this season (TNT will carry three games, ESPN will carry two games, while ESPN+/Hulu will exclusively stream five games). All MSG broadcasts will also stream on DAZN.

Brendan Burke will call most Islander games for the 11th straight season. Newly crowned Emmy Award Winner Thomas Hickey (5th season) returns as the lead analyst on Islander broadcasts, while Cal Clutterbuck (3rd season) and Butch Goring (!7th season) also return. Shannon Hogan hosts Isles telecasts for her 13th season.

Alan Fuehring will call play-by-play on radio and will continue to fill in for Brendan Burke as well. Analysts include Josh Bailey, Eric Carins and Butch Goring. All games will air on WRHU (88.7FM) and on WRCN (103.9FM), and stream on the Isles + UBS Arena App, as well as the NHL App and on Satellite Radio. 

And Finally…

We begin the 17th consecutive season of The Skinny as I begin my 46th season on Islander telecasts. The Skinny streak stands at 1,178 consecutive games, including playoffs. The 1,200th consecutive edition will follow the game in Detroit on November 21st.

Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since January 21, 1982. Information contained in “The Skinny” has been gathered from various sources. Follow Eric @ehornick on Twitter & on his blog www.nyiskinny.com.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick