The New York Islanders have kicked off the season with a couple of new locker-room prizes, and both are the kind of touch that gives a team a little extra personality.
Gone is last year’s Iron Man mask. In its place, the player of the game now gets a custom Islanders canoe paddle. There’s also a new honor for the team’s hardest worker: an orange hard hat with ear muffs.
Yes, ear muffs.
The Islanders announced the pair of postgame traditions on Saturday, calling them the “hard working helmet and oar” for 2026-27.
The paddle ties back to a metaphor Pete DeBoer has used with the team. Captain Bo Horvat said the idea is that the award should go to the player who helped make the boat go faster.
After Saturday’s 6-0 home-opening win over the New Jersey Devils, the first two recipients were easy choices.
Ilya Sorokin got the paddle after stopping all 37 shots he saw for his 30th career shutout.
Casey Cizikas took the hard hat, thanks to a goal and assist that included a short-handed breakaway to finish off the rout.
It was a fitting start for both awards. Sorokin was locked in from the first puck drop, and Cizikas delivered the kind of effort the Islanders want their hardest-worker prize to spotlight.
Small details like these may not show up in the standings, but they do matter inside a room. They give teams another way to recognize the work that helps wins happen.
And after a night like that, the Islanders had no shortage of reasons to pass both prizes around.
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