The New York Islanders are about to find out a lot about themselves.
Their first trip outside the Eastern Time Zone this season begins Sunday in Dallas, and it comes with more than one layer of intrigue. The opener against the Stars will be the first time the Islanders face Mikko Rantanen since his dirty hit ended Alexander Romanov's season last year. It also gives Islanders head coach Peter DeBoer his first matchup against the team that let him go after the 2025 Western Conference Finals, when the Edmonton Oilers eliminated Dallas in five games.
But beyond the personal angle, this road swing is a real measuring-stick stretch for New York.
Dallas is viewed as a consensus top-five Stanley Cup favorite, a stacked team that sits among the NHL’s elite. Later in the trip, the Islanders will also see Quinn Hughes and the Minnesota Wild, another team in the Cup-favorite conversation. In between those games, they’ll make a stop in Nashville, giving this road trip a little bit of everything.
The Islanders arrive at 5-3-2 through 10 games, and the trend line has been encouraging under DeBoer. Their play has gotten better as the season has gone on, and the results have started to catch up. That’s showing up in the playoff projections too, with New York and the Washington Capitals essentially tied on Moneypuck.com for the third spot in the Metropolitan Division.
Still, the outside conversation has kept the Islanders in a tier below the true contenders. The question is why.
They’ve already got the biggest boxes checked. There’s a superstar goalie in place.
There’s a generational defenseman. Yes, another scoring forward would help, but the Islanders have still managed to improve their position without Mathew Barzal in the lineup at all this season.
That’s what makes this trip so revealing. New York will also be without Matias Maccelli and Cal Ritchie, leaving them down three regular forwards for these games. If the Islanders can put together a strong road showing anyway, it would send a pretty loud message.
In Other News...
Islanders Are Surviving One Problem Better Than Anyone Expected
The Islanders latest overtime loss to the Kings did little to change the bigger picture around them, because the early-season storyline still centers on how quickly they have settled into Peter DeBoers new system. New York is 5-3-2 and sitting in a playoff spot in the Metro Division, a decent place to be after a stretch that has included key absences and plenty of lineup juggling. Mathew Barzal and Alexander Romanov have both been out, and the team has had to keep building chemistry on the fly while trying to stay afloat on both ends of the ice.
Peter DeBoer has been encouraged by how fast the group has adapted, especially given the injury list and the disruption that comes with teaching a new structure in-season. The challenge now is whether the Islanders can keep holding their place in the standings while waiting for more bodies to return, because the margin for error gets thinner when the offense and defense are both short-handed. For now, the early response to the system has bought them time, even if the long-term test is still ahead. [Read more 🡒]
Bo Horvat's Start Has Islanders Fans Wondering How High This Can Go
Bo Horvat has wasted no time setting the tone for the Islanders this season, and his start is exactly the kind of early production that gets attention around the league. Through the opening stretch, the captain has been driving offense at a point-per-game clip, a reminder that his ceiling has never really been in question when he finds a rhythm.
The bigger question is how much more there is to come if the current system keeps unlocking chances for him. Horvat has already shown he can pile up points at a high level, including a career-best 70-point season in 2022-23, and the conversation around him only gets more interesting if the lineup eventually gets healthier and the pieces around him fall into place. [Read more 🡒]